By Mitchell Clarke
Furious at the lack of answers at an ‘open house’ information session regarding the proposed Bunyip North Quarry, concerned residents are set to meet and discuss the next steps in their fight against Hanson Materials.
Community members gathered at Bunyip Hall on Sunday 22 September for the information session where proponent Hanson announced they would seek community input and discuss the project.
But Mount Cannibal and District Preservation Group secretary David Bywater claims the consultants had been briefed to not disclose significant details about the project, leaving residents without an understanding of the impacts on townships like Bunyip, Garfield and Tonimbuk.
Attendee Jane McLaughlin said the meeting was “a waste of time”.
“We wanted to get answers to our questions and instead the consultants all said that they were seeking information from the community and were not in a position to provide it,” she said.
Lindsay McNaught attended to ask about the changes to the scope of the project, which were announced in Hanson’s recently distributed project update.
While the pit footprint has been reduced by 49 percent from 134 hectares to almost 70, the amount of rock to be extracted has increased by 20 percent.
“We wanted to know how this would affect the number and size of trucks that would be used to transport the stone through Tonimbuk and Bunyip onto the highway and then onto Melbourne, but the consultants would not tell us this information,” he said.
“Our community didn’t support the proposed quarry as it was originally scoped and now, with these significant and expansive changes being announced even during the Environment Effects Statement (EES) assessment process, we are even more strongly against it.”
It was first thought the proposed quarry at Sanders Road in Bunyip North would extract an estimated 130 million tonnes of granite over 80 to 120 years but that figure has since been reduced to 69 years.
In a bid to highlight a lack of clarity and significant change in the quarry site, a public meeting will be held by the Mount Cannibal and District Preservation Group at the Bunyip Hall on Wednesday 9 October from 7pm.
“We invite all residents and concerned citizens to attend this urgent meeting to engage with the group and advance the plans and strategies to defend our pristine, clean and safe environment from this huge industrial development,” Mr Bywater said.
