By Kath Gannaway
GLADYSDALE home-owner Jodie Hobbs is one of a number of Upper Yarra residents calling on the State Government to stop the expansion of the Yellingbo Conservation Area (YCA) at Woori Yallock.
Ms Hobbs told a meeting, including Department of Land, Waterways and Planning (DELWP) Regional Director, Kelly Crossthwaite, that planting proposed under the planned expansion would come within one metre of her home once an approved extension was completed.
Ms Hobbs was among more than 100 people who attended the meeting called by the Yarra Waterways Group on Thursday night, 24 November, as part of an ongoing campaign to pare back the proposed expansion on the basis of increased bushfire risk and concerns weeds and feral animals will go uncontrolled on revegetated riverbanks.
The meeting came just a day after Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio announced a bushfire risk assessment would begin in December for the YCA.
Ms D’Ambrosio said in the release that the assessment would be a community-led process that was putting people first as a “first step in implementing an extended Yellingbo Conservation Area”.
Ms Crossthwaite had the unenviable task of delivering the minister’s messages that the assessment would consider all risk factors and develop specific bushfire management recommendations and strategies to ensure the risk was managed effectively.
Ms Crossthwaite repeated the earlier announcement that the assessment would be led by the local community with support from two independent fire experts, DELWP, Parks Victoria and Melbourne Water.
Local brigades and Yarra Ranges Council will also be involved.
YWG chair, Rick Houlihan, said the group had put together a community investigation report which would be used when a fire management plan was done for the area.
“When we saw the width of a lot of the corridors and the impact they could have on fuel, it made us think more seriously that the fire issue was the big issue here,” he said.
YWG member, Geoff Cochrane spelled out their policy, saying “We want the Upper Yarra, the town section from Woori Yallock upstream to Millgrove and the Little Yarra from launching Place upstream to Gilderoy taken out of the investigation area, which is about 16 per cent of the whole area,” he said.
He said the group was not challenging the Yellingbo concept and were supportive of the work being done to provide habitat for the endangered Helmeted Honeyeater and the Leadbeater’s Possum.
“The inclusion of the Upper Yarra area, is just not sensible,” he said.
A number of speakers put their personal views as local residents on the impact they believe revegetating the Yarra River and tributaries will have on their properties, and on the broader communities where the revegetation is planned.
Ms Crossthwaite said the Bushfire Risk Assessment would be an opportunity to do some good bushfire planning as a community and to come up with a plan for the district which would identify and plan for risks that already exist.
Asked whether the YCA expansion would be dropped if the assessment resolved that the bushfire risk was too great, Ms Crossthwaite said it was not a decision she could make.
“It is loud and clear that you want this area taken out of the whole project,” she said.
“My job is to present to those who make decisions.”
The YWG is set to meet with Minister D’Ambrosio at Woori Yallock on Tuesday, 29 November.
Ms Crossthwaite also announced the first community meeting on bushfire risk would address Don Valley, particularly in relation to the rehabilitation of Haining Farm, on Saturday, 10 December at Don Valley Primary School.
