Council clears landslip

FAIRHAVEN residents are calling on the Surf Coast Shire to revegetate an embankment that has incurred several landslips beside the Great Ocean Road.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) stripped the site of trees and plants as a firebreak more than 12-months ago, and several slumps at the area west of Painkalac Creek on the Great Ocean Road had until last week closed the main footpath that connects Airey’s Inlet and Fairhaven.

Locals say they’ve spent two-months contacting authorities including council and DELWP about the issue because pedestrians and mobility scooter users had to travel on the road beside cars and feared another slip may occur.

Council’s general manager of placemaking and environment Chris Pike thanked “the community for their patience,” after the area was cleared of debris last week.

“I know this work has taken time as we had to ensure the safety of the site,” he said.

“The footpath has now reopened for community use and in time for the Great Victorian Bike Ride (GVBR), which passes through Fairhaven today,” he said on Friday (December 2).

Fairhaven resident David Abbey was sceptical of the timing.

“They allow an obviously dangerous situation to remain unresolved to ‘ensure the safety of the site’? They did nothing to mitigate the danger to local pedestrians, bike riders and a nonagenarian!”

“They only took action because of mounting public pressure and, pandering to the GVBR crowd.”

DELWP and council say the area was denuded of vegetation because it’s a strategic fuel break, and contributing factors for its slumping include “extreme recent rainfall.”

“The vegetation management undertaken as part of the fuel break program, left all the roots systems in place including the larger weedy tree roots and shrubs, mulching to ground level only,” a DELWP spokesperson said.

“This was a deliberate act to retain soil binding matter across this embankment.”

Resident Nick Jane said authorities were warned the structural integrity of the embankment could be affected by the removal of vegetation.

“I am no gardener, but I can see that clearing land to the ground will have an impact on erosion,” he said.

“Hopefully we can have some replanting works along this embankment in the near future.”

The Airey’s Inlet & District Association (AIDA) agree, it’s President Charlotte Allen saying she’s worried about how the site will be remedied.

“I think it would be most unfortunate that as a result of the fire break being put in that we end up with a large retaining wall rather than a green bank,” she said.

“We understand they might need to put up some form of artificial structure, but we want it to be green and with deep rooted and fire-resistant species that will stabilise the banks.