Celebrating win for Spring Creek

COMMUNITY leaders gathered to celebrate the successful fight to protect Spring Creek valley last weekend, a month after the state government confirmed its new Statement of Planning Policy would forbid development of the area.

Thumbs and fists were held aloft in recognition of the years of campaigning that eventually compelled Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne to conclude that Torquay’s western boundary will be Duffields Road.

“We’re absolutely over the moon that we’ve won the battle,” Greater Torquay Alliance spokesperson Darren Noyes-Brown said, adding there was still caution over further attempts to encroach on the land.

“We’re a bit disappointed that the Standing Advisory Committee still advised to develop the valley, but we’re absolutely delighted that Dan Andrews went against that decision.”

Appointed by Mr Wynne, the Distinctive Areas and Landscapes (DAL) Standing Advisory Committee provided advice to the government during its development of a new Surf Coast planning policy.

“This is the third time that the community has been rolled by Planning Panels Victoria, against the wishes of the council,” Mr Noyes-Brown said.

“The Planning Minister has had his mind changed during this process; he saved the day, really, having earlier advised greater housing density in the Spring Creek valley.

“The community needs to be vigilant on what goes on here … the Statement of Planning Policy still has to be written into the planning scheme and the standing advisory committee didn’t recommend a zoning west of Duffields so that process still has to happen.”

A key step in protecting the future of the area will be recording its ecology and biodiversity, said Pete Crowcroft from Friends of the Eastern Otways.

He is spearheading a citizen science campaign whereby people can take photos of animals and plants in the valley and record it in real time on the shared science data platform known as iNaturalist, a collaboration with the Atlas of Live Australian and CSIRO.

“We know that there are significant species there like the Bellarine yellow gum, but we haven’t surveyed it enough, especially the moths, insects, invertebrates … I predict hundreds of species of moths that we didn’t know existed there,” he said.

“It will give us a more complete picture and story of the area … to broaden our perspectives on the life we share these spaces with and value its intrinsic value for the space instead of what it just provides for humans.”

The Surf Coast Environment Group’s Graeme Stockton – a key figure in the campaign to protect Spring Creek – sent in a video message to the event after he was unable to attend in person.