inside the meeting
outside the meeting
Then again, the news in Launceston was RED HOT. A packed meeting in Launceston’s City council
chambers yesterday saw Greens Alderman Jeremy Ball achieve a unanimous vote in favour of a number
of motions put up on behalf of Lilydale residents, concerned at plans to log bush close to their water
supply – the Rocky Creek town water intake is approx 200m below the closest boundary to the coupe. It
is one of two such intakes for the town, the other being on a different creek/catchment not affected by
the proposed development, but still emanating from Mt Arthur.
Monday, Feb 1: 2010
What is going on?
Launceston Alderman
Jeremy Ball.
- 186 Mountain Rd, Lilydale:
“Clearfelling & Plantation
establishment”.
[Please check map near end of article – for actual coupe details]
Now, if you had a nice little town, surrounded by nice hills, and a lovely, lovely mountain, and if two
pretty little creeks, full of icy clear water, flowing down off the side of that big boomer called Mt Arthur,
passed through acres and acres of bush, hectares and all, and arrived at a point, shall we say, ‘The
town’s water intake point, and if that water then was passed on down to the households of the people
who live below, to the mothers and fathers, the sons and daughters, the gardens, the pets etc ...’
Well, how would you feel if someone just up and logged the bush either side metres above where your
town takes its water from? Bye bye bush, hello emptiness, don’t think plantations sigh. Hmm,
plantations? Are they okay? Well, do plantations hold water like the bush can in summer? Do they feed
and shelter our flora and fauna? Or do they lose soil? Or foul the water? Will ‘they’ spray poisons?
What about the animals? Do they use 1080? [The fpp has stated there will be no 1080 used in the establishment of the
plantation]. So you live in Mountain Road and you’re not the most confident of drivers ... there are some
roads you don’t want to have to reverse back down, some bends you don’t fancy being squeezed off –
how do you negotiate your way past a log truck on a mountain laneway? This is not remote wilderness,
it’s Lilydale, established 150 years ago, now a town of several hundred, with a daily influx of more than
500 students from surrounding districts. We all use water.
Margy Dockray was but one of the residents who put their concerns to Council:
Dennis White, Tony Swanson, Gordon Cuff, John Alford, Margie Dockray, Scott Irwin and Lynette Bone.
Jeremy Ball then put the following items to the Council for their consideration: (No 1 - calling for an
independent assessment of the impacts on Lilydale’s water supply - is above)
!
Lynette Bone showing Council where members of her family live↑
↑
This isn’t about
demonising anyone, it’s
about asking Council to
exercise its concern for
water...
Jeremy spoke in support of his motion and said to his fellow Aldermen: “Please let us go in there
and get some science. That’s all we are asking.” He was followed by Rob Soward “I commend
all of you here today for your passion and enthusiasm.”, Rosemary Armitage, Ian Norton, Ray Shipp “I
commend the mover and I support the motion.”
Robin McKendrick:
“You’ve got to understand ... we don’t have any control ...”
Ivan Dean:
“ ?”
It was unfortunate, but I couldn’t hear what Alderman Dean said. He spoke for some time, his vocal
tones indicating amiability and reasonableness. However, I can’t reproduce his address for you readers.
I have heard that Ivan Dean ...
suggested that Council and the community need to turn their focus to the State Government. This issue highlights that the current
system of legislation governing forestry activity is not working. The very real concerns of communities such as Lilydale, and their local
governments, are largely shut out of the process. The current forest practices system of legislation is the main reason communities
such as Lilydale are subjected to division and unnecessary stress. Both Ivan and Jeremy, and several others (including the
Mayor?) suggested this was no longer acceptable and must change. Ivan called on everyone, including Council to take this call for
reform into the political arena in the lead up to the election.
Aldermen McKendrick and Waddle expressed concern for the landowner (a great concern for the residents of Lilydale also) but agreed
that in this case, the water had to be vouchsafed. Annette made the very good suggestion that Ben Lomond Water should purchase
the land, in the event that the proposed logging operation was stopped.
My list of Aldermen who spoke on the matter is: Jeremy Ball, Rob Soward, Rosemary Armitage, Ian
Norton, Ray Shipp, Ivan Dean, Frank Nott, Annette Waddle, Robyn McKendrick, Tony Peck and Albert Van
Zetten. Along with the majority of the public who were actually outside the chamber, trying to listen as
best they could, I could only pick up occasional words. We couldn’t even see which Aldermen were
present. There were 67 members of the public gathered outside the Chamber, and a Council employee
estimated over 30 within the Chamber... ‘somewhere over 100’. When Albert Van Zetten, the Mayor
spoke, we could not hear if he was speaking to the motion, or just taking a chairing role.
Jeremy Ball exercised his ‘right of reply’ and spoke a second time:
He is a polished speaker. We
could actually hear him – perhaps he wanted us to be able to hear. I heard him say this at one stage:
“We are attempting to work with a system that excludes ... the people ... the community” A pity we
couldn’t all fit inside, them’s the breaks, would have been good if they’d got a small PA so that we could
hear. Oh, the result? Council were unanimous in support of Jeremy’s motion. Yes, that includes ...
And so the meeting broke up,
the public going about their weary way, and Aldermen
having a short break before moving on to the next item of business. Jeremy Ball, I think it was after the
meeting said that it would now be for Council to put public pressure onto the State Government over the
issue, even as a resident told me that signs to do with the commencement of the logging, had actually
been erected this very day. Someone else described the win as “round 1 of a 15 rounder ”
Oops! The back of the meeting – here, outside the chamber, beyond the cluster of
people outside the door, at the back of those sitting on chairs kindly brought by Council employees, were
mums and kids. They found a spare room to have a bit of a play in, later on. It’s their town, their water
too, their neighbourhood, their road, their visual amenity, their environment...
Rocky Creek Water Catchment, Lilydale
“The red area is the proposed coupe, which is 102ha. A total of 82ha will be harvested with 61ha (150acres!)
clearfell/plantation. The clearfell/plantation is within the red area” – M.Dockray.
[PS nothing is ever simple, it seems, and I have to mention that Jeremy read to the meeting (before the vote) an
amendment/addition which seemed to read: ... “...The Council engages in a strategic lobbying effort and through the forest
practices authority as well as the Forest Practices Officer Mr...” full text not available to this writer. Margy Dockray (Sec.
Lilydale Protection Group - LPG) advises that “All the motion seeks is a stay of logging until the community funded independent
geo/hydrology report has been done. Council will lobby the FPA and the landowner to achieve access to the site for the science to be
done. A letter from the Forest Practices Authority to council also stated that the FPA could change the fpp if new and significant
evidence was presented. However, an email from the landowner to council was read out, stating that he refused the request for
Council representatives to access the site.”] Mike W. (LPG?) points out that “the landowner did more than refuse access to
Council representatives, it refused access by Brian Finlayson accompanied by a council representative”.
LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
COUNCIL AGENDA [excerpts]
11.1 186 Mountain Road, Lilydale – Clear felling and Plantation Establishment...(Cont’d)[...]
*Over 65% of the parcel is under Launceston City Council’s (LCC) Water Catchment Protection Zone.
The land includes a long section of Rocky Creek and its tributaries and the asociated water
catchments which feeds the intake for Lilydale’s town water supply. The land abuts the parcel
owned by LCC. which includes the water intake, and appears to contain a significant part of the
Rocky Creek catchment, critical for water quality management.
Scenic Amenity and Landscape Character
Over 75% of the parcels is under LCC’s scenic Protection Zoning suggesting that tree cover on the
land is likely to be visible from parts of the Lilydale-Karoola-Lalla area.
Section A3.2 of the Forest Practices Code 2000 states that
‘consultation with local government will occur prior to certification of RPPs involving: *areas with landscape protection provisions in planning schemes;
*operations which potentially affect water quality in a listed town water supply catchment
*operations within 2km upstream of a town water supply intake;
*cnstruction of new access or major upgrading of existing access for timber harvesting onto local
government roads.’
It should be noted that the Rocky Creek intake (028) is listed in Appendix 2 of the code. [...]