100-year plan for critical nature space

TORQUAY environmentalists are developing a long-term strategy that would guide a century of initiatives to return Spring Creek to a thriving hub of biodiversity.

Surf Coast Energy Group (SCEG) and like-minded agencies are developing a 100-year vision for the Torquay valley that would improve the area’s appeal for tourism, social and alternative transport purposes.

The plan includes development of the Spring Creek Valley Ridgeline Trail around the “old Great Ocean Road” that will link Bellbrae, Jan Juc and Torquay.

SCEG founder Graeme Stockton said the vision would also aim to expedite revegetation work through a proactive approach to replanting and habitat renewal, with a view towards restore the area’s biodiversity value.

“We have an important biolink between the foothills of the Otway Ranges and the Otway Plain,” he said.

And that means that [Spring Creek] has the opportunity to support a whole range of species, during parts of their life cycle and annually, like for breeding and for winter.

“We can do some really significant work to support nature.”

SCEG expects the 100-year plan to work alongside and beyond initiatives already under way in the area.

A Bellarine yellowgum woodland revegetaion is showing signs of progress as trees mature, while a program to restore habitat for around 300 hollows-dependent native animal species is also gathering steam.

The group has received Surf Coast Shire grant funding and is in discussions about further opportunities for remediation works.

“There’s a lot of individual strategies involved, but the overall strategy is around ensuring the ongoing health of the area from a biodiversity standpoint,” Mr Stockton said.

“It also opens up the opportunity for a broader discussion about what prosperity looks like.”

Another initiative involves partnerships with landholders in the area, which allows SCEG to improve the biodiversity outcomes at those properties, which has flow-on effects for its surrounds.

“We’re working closely with land partners that we have in Spring Creek to revegetate their land, because it’s a community effort,” Mr Stockton said.

“We have the capacity to do environmental weed work, revegetation and grant applications.

“So there might be land owners out there that would otherwise be interested in providing better stewardship for their land, but they feel like they don’t have the information, the knowledge, the capacity or the labour force.

“Our focus in Spring Creek is returning that woodland ecology that used to be there prior to European colonisation and we can assist people with that.”

The plan is contingent on a Supreme Court ruling on a challenge from housing developers to the Victorian government’s Distinctive Area and Landscape planning policy.

The state last year created a permanent town boundary at Duffields Road that prevented residential growth in the creek precinct.

SCEG says it is confident the Supreme Court’s decision, expected early next year, would favour the Victorian government and community campaigners that fought against planned development.