Spring Creek campaigner outlines valley vision

AFTER well over a decade fighting to keep the Spring Creek valley development free, a key figure behind the campaign’s success believes the journey is just beginning.

Standing at the fenceline of Bellbrae farmland on the valley’s southern edge, Surf Coast Energy Group’s (SCEG) Graeme Stockton outlines a vision of the future that includes revegetating remnant areas of the rare Bellarine yellow gum, messmate and even the return of emus and koalas that once lived there.

“People could think of it this way, all we want is a green break,” he said of the decision by the Andrews Government to draw Torquay’s town boundary at Duffields Road, effectively preserving an undeveloped buffer all the way to Bellbrae.

“But I think that we should think about Spring Creek as an opportunity to bring home ecological, social and economic benefits to all of Torquay.

“Bearing in mind that the Spring Creek valley runs parallel to the Great Ocean Road and that people come to Torquay because of its landscape, natural features and surf, and here we have this perfect hidden valley right in our midst that supports an endangered community not found anywhere else.

“The first thing really to understand for the community is that the ball is firmly in our court now.”

As Mr Stockton points out, the guest list for the recent campaign victory party at Ashmore Arts seems to illustrate that the region’s policy-makers are united.

“We already have the support of all levels of government, we saw that at the event with Liz Pattison (Surf Coast Shire councillor) talking about zoning … we’re expecting the land will be rezoned rural conservation. We also had Libby Coker (Corangamite federal member) and Darren Cheeseman (South Barwon MP).

“We’re at an exciting point in time and we have all the aces, we need to play them.

“The first thing to understand is that developers, particularly landowners, realise they have a stranded asset. Because the boundary has well and truly been drawn at Duffields Road.

“It’s partly convincing landholders to get on board and realising that there’s economic opportunity in this for them, but also for our community to understand how much our efforts now can be an investment for future generations.

“In terms of what’s next for Spring Creek, we could be very ambitious if we want to… part of that equation could be community purchase of land; we already have 100 acres.

“If we want to be ambitious and want Spring Creek to reach its full potential … we should consider this as the starting point more than the end point.”