national tree day for selby park

Today was National Tree Day, Australia’s biggest community tree planting event, which according to organisers saw the planting of 1 million trees today.

The Selby CFA were out in force (along with thousands of others across the country) planting valuable understorey at Selby Park. I was happy to accept the invitation to come along by Captain Sandra Jenkins of the Selby CFA.
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It was great to be amongst our local CFA volunteers as well as some of Yarra Ranges most ardent and committed environmentalists, Vicky Boyle, Darcy Duggan and Ian Rainbow.

On this occasion 260 plants were planted and many hands made light work of the job. The Selby Park is a gateway to Selby and once these plants take hold and start to thrive it will be a stunning display of indigenous understorey plants for all to enjoy.
"I am holding a Eucalyptus Radiata, also known as Narrow Leaved Peppermint. A good all rounder which can cope with dryness or light snow!

Once mature, in my backyard, this tree will provide local fauna with food and shelter and will double as one of nature's best carbon sequestration systems too.

What a great initiative, what an amazing outcome, we now have 1 million more trees planted today than we had yesterday."

an outstanding contribution

This Saturday marked a very special occasion in recognition of an outstanding contribution by a member of our local community, Ted Heron. It was the Belgrave CFA’s annual award night, but in addition to the usual awards a special presentation was given to Ted Heron, member of the CFA for the past 55 years. I was honoured to be part of the presentations and thanked Ted on behalf of council and the community by awarding him a letter of recognition and thanks.

Ted has made a significant contribution to the community during his time. Not only involved in strike teams across the state and every major incident across the Dandenong Ranges, Ted was the instigator of the Belgrave CFA Art Show, which saw its 25th Anniversary this year. As well as the enormous amount of hours spent as a volunteer Ted also found time to undertake community education programs and coordinate school programs to raise awareness of fire safety.

The CFA Brigades play a key and essential role in the safety of residents, it is a vital job and volunteer CFA members are held in the highest regard by our community.
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"What a great achievement and wonderful contribution you have made to our community. All the best Ted, our community wishes you and your family well."

citizens abound at burrinja

I had the great pleasure of being part of the official proceedings at one of the Shire’s Citizenship Ceremonies held today, this time, at Burrinja in Upwey. Citizenship Ceremonies are a great occasion where there is a real sense of joy and celebration.

It was nice to hold a citizenship ceremony locally, in the past the ceremonies have been in Lilydale. The Burrinja gallery was a very fitting location with participants surrounded by aboriginal art as they took their oath.

Just under 40 residents from across the Shire of Yarra Ranges were joined by family and friends to share the occasion which was marked by a terrific performance by the Upwey South Primary School Choir.

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Frances from Upwey South Primary School lead the choir and was joined by students; Saranne, Simone, Ruby, Amelia, Shannan, Maddison, Ivy, Laura, Sarah, Aimee, Gemma, Ellie, Brittany, Charlotte, Tiarn and Jake.

It was my task to call out the names of people to come forward and undertake their oath and although sometimes challenging, it makes me realise what a culturally diverse and rich society we are and I have no doubt we are the better for it.

Report from the roundtable – 22 July

This is a regular entry I write after each council meeting, this time round I’m going to focus on two items from the meeting, construction of hail netting & public liability insurance costs of our Public Hall Committees.

Hail Nets in Green Wedge
At this week’s meeting council had to consider an application to construct Hail Netting. Hail netting looks a bit like shade cloth and is built on structures to completely cover crops. The location of this application was just near the intersection of the Melba and Maroondah Highways in Coldstream and is a key entry point to the Yarra Valley.

In this particular case the hail netting was black in colour. The land is zoned Green Wedge 4, this means the land should be protected for its agricultural opportunities, to encourage sustainable farming activities and provide for an opportunity for a variety of productive agricultural uses.

We must support our farming community. The use of hail netting means there is less use of chemicals, less water use, less use of bird/bat scaring devices, less hail damage, less contamination and less sun damage. Yarra Ranges is well placed to provide Melbourne with food and this will become more critical when peak oil becomes prominent and we are all concentrating on how many foodmiles our groceries have travelled.

These are difficult times for farmers, with climate change, less rainfall, increased oil prices and a plethora of other issues, we must support our farming communities as much as possible.

I was happy to vote in favour of hail netting and I’m pleased to say the application was approved by council.

Insurance costs fall for our public halls
Back in June I became very concerned when I was contacted by two local Public Hall Committees to say they could no longer manage their respective halls because of the enormous cost impost of public liability insurance. The burden of insurance costs led one committee to resign, the other desperate to try and find a resolution to the $1,800 problem.

This led me to move a motion to call for a report to look more closely at the issue (Council meeting 10/06/08).

The report came back to council this week and I was greatly pleased to move the motion that Council:
1. Cover Public Liability Insurance for Committees of Management for Public Halls owned by the Shire, contingent on the following non negotiable conditions:
a. The Committee of Management be an Incorporated Association.
b. The Committee of Management enter into a Licence Agreement with Council.
2. Assist with preparation and lodgement of documentation for the incorporation of the unincorporated Committees of Management as appropriate.
3. Endorse the Recreation Unit to undertake negotiations with relevant community organisations located close to Public Halls to assume management and responsibility for the Hall, in the event that the Hall Committee is either unable to meet the conditions outlined in Recommendation 1 or is considering folding.
4. Review the Public Halls and Community Centres Policy and Handbook as a matter of priority.

Even better news was that our insurer was able to include public liability insurance coverage of the public hall committees at no additional cost to council (and ratepayers). This is a terrific step forward in assisting those people who give freely of their time to run our halls. Public Hall Committees have enough on their plate running and managing the halls, anything we can do to help ease the administrative burden is a great step forward and lets them get on with what they want to do – manage the halls!

So to those committees in Lyster Ward who meet the criteria, your public liability costs will be met by the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Belgrave Heights Progress Hall
Belgrave South Community Hall
Menzies Creek Hall
Narre Warren East Hall
St Martin’s Church and Hall

Other halls in the area are managed by the Shire, hopefully this move will encourage others to take up the opportunity to manage their community hall and start to rebuild the connection between local communities and their local halls.

community grants award night

It was a great pleasure to attend the Community Grants Awards Night held tonight in Mooroolbark. It was wonderful to see the diversity of projects across the shire receive much needed funding through the Shire’s Community Grants program.

I was pleased that a number of local projects received funding and was thrilled to be charged with the job of handing over cheques to:
Dandenong Ranges Emergency Relief Service for a project to build partnerships with churches, local traders & service clubs. DRERS offers a valuable service to the most needy in the hills community by providing emergency relief for those experiencing hardship or crisis;

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Survival day 2008. Despite a very hot and oppressive day, the community came out in force to celebrate indigenous culture and heritage.

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Belgrave Survival Day Committee for Belgrave Survival Day 2009, Survival Day is an acknowledgement and celebration of the survival of Indigenous culture with family picnic, music, dancers, speakers, information stalls and children's entertainment;
Blue Dandenongs Film Festival Committee for the Blue Dandenongs Young Filmmakers Festival 2009 - a vibrant celebration of film culture, showcasing the best short films by emerging filmmakers in a quality festival environment at our very own Cameo Outdoor Cinema;
Open Studios Committee for Open Studios Dandenong Ranges – to promote an Open Weekend and Exhibition of working artist’s studios in the Dandenong Ranges;

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This year's lantern festival was well supported by the community, the grant will help this festival become even more successful.

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Belgrave Community Arts Partnership for the Solstice Festival of Light (Belgrave Lantern Festival), a warming winter solstice festival that engages the community in showcasing the creative talents of local residents.

Others in my ward who received grants but weren’t able to attend on the night include:
Eucalypt Creative Living Centre/Tecoma Uniting Church for Ever Flowing – a project for people of all abilities co-create and perform music and poetry and
Southern Sherbrooke Historical Society for Sherbrooke: The Thirty Years War - Recording oral histories relating to the Shire of Sherbrooke.

One of the grant recipients remarked how encouraging it was that so many community development projects received funding. It is a great way to get your all important project off the ground, I encourage more groups to apply for funding in next year’s round.

There are three types of grants available for one off community grants being the Community Development program, the Cultural Development program and the Capital Development program. For more info visit:
http://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=740

keep the cat in

I am often travelling in and around the Shire at night time and am amazed at the number of domestic cats I see out roaming about at night. Cats that are allowed to wander at night are often responsible for killing wildlife or can end up being injured in fights or by passing traffic.

I am not sure whether cat owners are aware of the cat curfew in Yarra Ranges. The shire’s cat curfew requires all cat owners to keep their pet inside or in an escape proof enclosure between the hours of 8pm and 6am, or 9pm and 6am during daylight savings time.


Help our native animals, don't let your cat wander at night.

It was introduced to help protect native wildlife including possums and birds from being attacked or killed by cats. If you're a cat owner please make sure you do the right thing and keep your cats inside or in an enclosure overnight.

Keeping cats inside or enclosed overnight will also help to protect your pet from being attacked by other cats or dogs or being injured and will save you costly Vet bills to fix your beloved moggy.

As well as protecting native wildlife, the cat curfew also helps to prevent unwanted breeding among non-sterilised cats.

If you'd like to know more about the cat curfew contact Local Laws on 1300 368 333 or visit the Shire’s website www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au and search under the Local Laws section.

report from the round table – 8 July

This edition of report from the round table is a summary of some of the items up for consideration at the council meeting. (Report from the round table is news and views of the fortnightly council meetings from my perspective)

A varied night at council this week, to start proceedings there was a planning scheme amendment (East Ridge) in Chirnside Park. Councillors felt it was important that the Chirnside Park Major Activity Centre amendment proceed ahead of the amendment for the East Ridge. I couldn’t agree more and voted with my colleagues for this.

Next up was the proposed new Lilydale Police Station. The Minister for Planning has allowed the new station to be constructed without a planning permit, however the plans do need to be approved by council before works can proceed. There was a lot of discussion about public/visitor parking for the station with the police submitting amended plans at the eleventh hour. I was very concerned that the traffic and parking report contained data from 1998, not very current. A number of councillors were concerned about the lack of appropriate parking for visitors and in the end the plans were rejected by the majority of councillors. I want to see a new police station built but it must not cause traffic or parking chaos due to shortage of parking spaces.

A view worth protecting, the magnificent Dandenong Ranges, a jewel in Melbourne's crown, the lungs of Melbourne and home.

Following this was a resubdivision of two lots in Hughes Street, Upwey. The site is very prominent on the front flank of the Dandenong Ranges. It is an important visual landscape not only for locals but for all Melburnians. I was happy to second a motion to keep the height of any building 3.5 metres from the natural ground level. We need to protect this area, it’s very sensitive and we do not want to encourage clutter on such an important landscape.

Then came a difficult application, intersection improvement works on Berwick & Wellington Rds. The application sought to remove 28 trees as well as low lying vegetation. As a compromise I sought not only offset planting within the Shire of Yarra Ranges but amenity planting as near as possible to where the trees will be removed along Berwick Road. It is always difficult to balance retention of vegetation with safety improvements of the road network.

The magnificent Baluk Willam Nature Conservation Reserve, environmentally significant, containing over one third of Victoria's native orchids.






There were a few other items, I won’t mention them here except for the Special Charge Scheme to seal Courtney’s Road in Belgrave South. The road goes through the Baluk Willam Nature Conservation Reserve, significant within Victoria as it is home to hundreds of native orchids. The Friends of Baluk Willam Nature Conservation Reserve had raised a number of issues they were concerned about. I assured them that both the Friends Group and Parks Victoria will be presented with further plans to ensure they are satisfied with any of the works prior to them being undertaken.

The Shire has prepared an Environmental Management Plan for the project to ensure that the works do not impact on the sensitive environment and I am very mindful of the significance of the area. The Shire will also make sure contractors working on the project are abundantly aware of this significance too.

You never know what you might be dealing with next at council, I am always mindful of making decisions for the long term benefit of all.

tecoma treasure vase

I had the very great pleasure of attending the Treasure Vase Ceremony this weekend to consecrate the temple grounds at the Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute in Tecoma.
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"I welcome the temple here in Tecoma, it makes our community spiritually richer to have you here"
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The Treasure Vase Ceremony is designed to create a suitable location for cultivating our minds, generating merit and blessing for the participants, propagate peace & harmony and also to benefit the local and wider community.
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Khentrul Rinpoche consecrates the temple site, with treasure vases in the foreground.

It is a very rare ceremony and I was humbled to be an invited guest, particularly on the auspicious occasion of the birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama.
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The vases are presented as part of the colourful procession.
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Khentrul Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Rime Institute, said he was proud to be an Australian citizen and live in a country where there is freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He spoke of how we have lost touch with the environment and the ceremony is a way of healing the environment. He went on to say the ceremony gave thanks for the treasures of life - our community, environment and happiness.
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Lots of chanting, chiming and drumming filled the temple gardens.

The community shared food, prayers and blessings and there was much entertainment and socialising as well.

There is much we can learn from the Buddhist teachings and on the day Khentrul Rinpoche spoke of unconditional love and universal compassion. To have the Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute in Tecoma makes our community spiritually richer.
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Khentrul Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Rime Institute and me after the ceremony.

They have created a beautiful space in a beautiful setting, I wish them well in the future.

climate emergency rally

Saturday, the 5th July, I joined with 5000 other Victorians, most dressed in red, to participate in the Climate Emergency Rally and Giant Human Sign.

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We started in the City Square and marched to the Alexandra Gardens to take part in forming a massive 140 metre human Climate Emergency sign.

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Senator Bob Brown spoke at the rally about the government’s inaction and stressed the importance of Australia taking action to address climate change now.

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"Climate change is a disaster which is on our doorstep. We, in this wealthy lucky nation, must take a lead for the rest of the world to follow."
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Mention of the desalination plant, brown coal power stations, freeways & tunnels all received a resounding jeer from rally goers.

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Jasmine from the Sherbrooke Community School was there with a petition to reverse the means test on the Solar Panel rebate scheme, which I was happy to sign.

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It was great to see some of the Yarra Ranges community at the rally.
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These people from Wonthaggi had a clear message for the DSE.

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I am committed to addressing climate change at a local level, it was great news to hear that the Shire of Yarra Ranges is a finalist in the Local Government section of the Banksia Awards. The awards aim to raise the profile of the current environmental issues facing Australia and recognise those whose initiatives are an encouragement and an example for others to follow. If you'd like to know more visit http://www.banksiafdn.com/index.php?page=351#Local.

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The rally was timely, the Garnaut report released on Friday cements the views of participants, we must do something now, we cannot afford inaction any longer.

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For the full media release click here

public transport summit - a plan for the east

On Friday 4th July, I spoke at the Eastern Transport Coalition’s (ETC) Public Transport Summit. I was making the case for why we need a duplication of the Lilydale and Belgrave rail lines. The case for rail to Rowville and Doncaster also featured at the summit. (vist http://www.etc.org.au/ for copies of the presentations)

The summit was well attended with over 200 people including community members, public transport advocates, Greg Barber (MLC for Northern Metropolitan), Ted Bailleau (Leader of the Opposition), politicians, Mayors and Councillors from across the eastern region.

Speakers included Professor Peter Newman from Curtin University who spoke about the significant role public transport has to play in addressing greenhouse gas emissions as well as peak oil. Professor Graham Currie from Monash University spoke about getting the planning right around public transport with some great examples from around the world as well as Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. Telling in Professor Currie’s talk was that there were no examples of recent, well thought out public transport planning in Melbourne.

Rob Hudson MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Public Transport spoke as well as Peter Daly from the RACV. I shared a session with Cr Alex Makin from Maroondah who spoke passionately about the need for an updated, new approach at Ringwood railway station.

There is no doubt what our community needs is a fast, frequent and well connected public transport system. That’s not what we have now. Supporting information from the recent Eddington East West Link Needs Assessment show single track sections reduce capacity on a corridor and affect scheduling flexibility. The Lilydale line experienced the highest number of cancellations in the last year, 770 in total, was this due to the single track?

A recent survey conducted by the ETC (blog entry 29 April 2008) shows that only 26% of commuters at the Belgrave station believe the train service meets their needs.
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In peak trains can carry up to 60,000 passengers an hour, one freeway lane of traffic can carry 2000 people an hour. Timetabling of services for Belgrave and Lilydale show the limitations of having single tracks. It is easy to understand that a train delayed in a single track section will have an impact on trains waiting from the opposite direction. Delays can only be accommodated so far in our timetable so it is inevitable that the ripple effect of a delayed train will lead to cancellations. Single tracks limit the provision of services.

Car parking at all stations along these lines is insufficient to meet demand. At the summit Rob Hudson announced additional parking for Lilydale, well quite frankly additional car parking at Lilydale alone just doesn’t cut it. All the car parking at stations are overcrowded and all along the line commuters are parking wherever they can, often in spaces for community use, shoppers and traders, in local streets, legally and illegally. Better connecting bus services are an answer too, if this was a reality people could leave their cars in the driveway.

The fact is rail transport is many times more efficient than car travel. We need to think to the future, we need to get serious about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, we need to get serious about peak oil.

I hear our community when they say we need better public transport NOW.

climate emergency rally - 5th July

Climate Emergency Rally: Melbourne
Saturday 5th July, 1 pm to 4 pm

City Square (cnr Swanston and Collins Streets)
Then march to Alexandra Gardens

The rally aims to send a wake-up call to state and federal governments that they are heading in the wrong direction. Governments are not doing enough to address global warming, we need to let them know we want them to do much, much more, NOW.

Make sure your voice is heard. I'll be there, come up and say hello.

Come to the rally wearing red, to participate in the giant 140-metre human "climate emergency" sign.

more haste on waste

Today I spoke at the Inquiry into the Management of Australia's Waste Streams held by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and Arts. The Inquiry is seeking feedback on a number of issues including the introduction of Container Deposit Legislation (CDL).

The Shire of Yarra Ranges was invited to submit at the hearing following on from our written submission to the senate committee. I have pursued the issue of CDL for some time which I’m pleased to say resulted in council supporting CDL at a meeting earlier this year.
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During the 30 minute submission I outlined the basis for council supporting the introduction of CDL. I also highlighted to the Senators the importance of a mandatory approach to a broad based container/packaging recovery scheme. I went on to talk about Vision 2020, the community and council's shared vision for Yarra Ranges and how the move to a zero waste society was one of the aspirations of the Yarra Ranges community. The Senators were very interested and asked many questions to gain a local government perspective.

Senators showed a great interest in data Yarra Ranges presented on waste to landfill, particularly latest data showing 15% of recyclable material still ends up as landfill. Of this 58% is plastics, glass, steel and aluminium, the rest being newspaper and paper based products. We clearly have more work to do to achieve 100% return rate on recyclables.

Introduction of national container deposit legislation is well overdue, experience in South Australia is clear, their recycling rates for PET bottles, glass and cans far exceed the national rates. I will continue to advocate for CDL, a National Packaging Covenant that’s mandatory and Extended Producer Responsibility, all of which would run in parallel with current council kerbside recycling services.

I have no doubt a legislated, mandatory broad based packaging and recovery scheme would reduce unsightly and dangerous litter in our environment. At the same time increasing recycling will save both energy and raw materials used in the production of packaging. There are many positive benefits to the community, the environment, government and industry.