Anglesea Futures Community
Conversations
Community Conversation Number 3
Anglesea Memorial Hall
26 November 2015
A series of Anglesea Futures Community Conversations have been designed for the State
Government, through the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and the
Surf Coast Shire Council to listen to the community to better understand community expectations,
needs and ideas on the future of Anglesea following the closure of Alcoa coal mine and power
station.
The closure of the coal mine and power station provides a unique opportunity to think about and
discuss what the future looks like for both the land affected and the Anglesea region.
There are a number of active community forums that exist within Anglesea. These conversations by
no means seek to replace or supersede those.
This series of Community Conversations are focused on the future of Anglesea after Alcoa.
The purpose of the Anglesea Futures Community Conversations is to:
 Listen and learn from the community, to understand their vision and hopes for the former
Alcoa lease area and freehold land, and to hear concerns and aspirations
 Gain feedback from the community on their needs and ideas on ways of working together
on the future of the region.
The results of these Conversations will help plan future community engagement and inform the
decisions important to Anglesea.
Report on Community Conversations – Event 3
The objectives of this forum were to provide the community with:
 An update on the Anglesea Futures initiative
 An overview of the river quality project and its design
 An opportunity to share local knowledge and experience of the river and feedback and
questions of the project
The conversation was facilitated by Russell Fisher who provided a welcome to participants, an
explanation of how the evening was to be run and an update on the Anglesea Futures Community
Conversations events 1 and 2.
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Approximately 20 people attended the third community conversation on Anglesea’s future at the
Anglesea Community Hall, Thursday 26 November 2015.
What has happened so far
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and the Surf Coast Shire has
hosted two community conversations on Anglesea Futures (19 August and 26 September 2015).
Feedback from the two conversations has been gathered from a web based survey and from forms
filled in at the completion of the conversations. A number of questions were posed and responses
have been provided in the series of fact sheets that are now available on the Anglesea Futures web
page.
What we have heard so far
Survey Respondents
 88% of the respondents lived in Anglesea.
 The average years that the respondents have lived or visited Anglesea was 26 years.
Main conversation themes
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Participants value highly the natural environment in and around Anglesea.
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The majority of participants don’t want Anglesea to become over developed valuing it as a
place “where the bush meets the sea”.
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The final outcome needs to ensure that the Anglesea heath and surrounding bushland is also
protected.
What information does the community want?
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Information on the decision making process including how and when decisions will be made
and by whom.
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The costs involved with implementing the decisions and who will cover these costs.
Community consultation
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Participants expressed support for the community conversations to continue.
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That the meetings need to be advertised widely including through local papers and on social
media and with appropriate lead times.
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Concern was expressed about how to ensure that all segments of the community are
consulted, such as the 20-30 year old bracket, and that the community conversations will
need to be broader than the current format and utilise on-line engagement.
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Strong support for the development of a web page on Anglesea Futures Community
Conversations.
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When should the community conversations be held?
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There was no consensus on the best day to hold the conversations (either week days or
weekends).
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There was a preference for the meetings to be held in the afternoon or evening.
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A common question is what is the role of Alcoa during these conversations?
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Anglesea Futures has broad scope and is considering the future vision for the Anglesea
Region over the long term, not just the area owned and currently leased by Alcoa.
Alcoa’s obligation is to ensure it complies with the requirement set by the Work Plan for the
mine site and under the Environment Protection Act for the power station site. And rightly
Alcoa is focussing its community consultation and engagement to meet these obligations.
Alcoa will also use the results from the Anglesea Futures Community Conversation Series
where appropriate to help develop its remediation and rehabilitation plans for the mine and
power stations sites.
Presentation by Gareth Smith, CEO, Corangamite Catchment Management Authority
The Future of the Anglesea River
The Anglesea River estuary is one of many special and unique estuaries in the Corangamite region.
Estuaries are dynamic, resilient systems that are continually evolving over time and the Anglesea
River estuary is no exception.
Looking back in time, there have been a number of significant events that have helped to define the
Anglesea estuary.
We have the Wathaurong people who have had a relationship with the River for 1,000s of years;
Surveyor Charles Grimes was the first European settler to map the Anglesea River in 1803. Although
then it was named Swampy Creek.
Swampy Creek became the Anglesea River in 1884 and Anglesea was gazetted as a town by the Shire
of Barrabool the following year.
Until 1890 blocks of land were sold as part of the Gladstone Estate on the western side on the hill
and access to the estate involved crossing the river mouth as there was no bridge.
In 1889-91 the first bridge was built to cross the Anglesea River and this brought about new growth
for the area with tourism being the focus.
The next big change for Anglesea River was in 1963 with the introduction Alcoa’s open cut coal mine
and power station.
Further significant events have taken place since, such as the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. This
fire saw the re-shaping of the estuary creating Coogoorah Park channel system to extinguish
smoldering peat.
In 2015, Alcoa shuts the mine and power station. So we have seen change in the Anglesea River
before and we will see change for the Anglesea River into the future.
The work that GHD is undertaking reflects what came out of the first stage of the Anglesea Future
community conversations. We are listening and considering advice provided by community
members at the community conversation sessions. The report that will be completed by GHD will
provide the technical understanding needed by the community to help inform future management
and decisions for the Anglesea River estuary. The focus of the study is data collection – what sort of
data do we need from the estuary system to make better decisions about its future management.
Please keep this in mind.
Think about what you believe the most important component to the Anglesea River is to you. You
have the local knowledge, you know the history, think about what your value most about the
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estuary and think outside the box, what options could be investigated as part of this technical report
that have not already be considered?
Once you have provided your input, GHD will be in a better position to develop a report with a
framework that covers the technical issues that can be reasonably addressed and matter to us all.
Presentation by David May, GHD
Anglesea River Flow Impact Assessment
See Appendix 2 for presentation.
Summary of Table Discussions
Appendix 1 provides the raw data of participant comments and feedback.
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The Anglesea River has Aboriginal cultural values and European heritage values.
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The Anglesea River and estuary is a tourism attraction and is used for a variety of boating
and water sports.
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Participants were concerned about the health and future management of the Anglesea
River.
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What will happen to the river if the water is turned off?
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Coastal processes and climate change will need to be considered in future options to
manage the river.
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What are the options for future management of the river and estuary?
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What is the process to considered in future options to manage the river and who will make
the final decision.
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The community wants to be informed and have a voice in the final decision on the future
use of the area.
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Managing community expectations will be important.
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Appendix 2. Raw data (participant feedback)
Table Discussions and Feedback
Table 1
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Noted that a rowing regatta has taken place on the estuary every new year’s day since 1911
Only twice has this been missed, that was during WWII
It has been muddy some years and the channel used to be smaller and more defined
A book has been published with a photo of the regatta taken every year since 1911
There was mention of large boats coming into the estuary but no recorded photos.
There used to be a diving board at the estuary and there was always somewhere to swim
It was believed to be 5 metres deep upstream of the bridge
It was suggested that stormwater runoff from Parker and Harvey Street have led to some of
the build-up of sediment out from the information centre. This was especially during the
time of when these were gravel roads
The channel at the mouth has always been narrow for the past 65 years- you could always
jump across the entrance.
The sand dunes have also changed a lot as there used to be 2 sand dunes and you could
drive onto the dunes,
Note issues with advertising
Need to know:
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Rowing regatta history since 1911 (only a 2-year gap during the war years)
Ocean access for ‘very large boats’
65-year history as a child – always water, mudflats with deep channel
formalisation of the wall caused debate
Use to be 2 lots of sand dunes on the main beach. First surf club washed away
Practical experience with river mouth opening
Like to know:
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How much sea water came in (photo of every year?
How much sand is moving along coast; has it changed?
What will it be like in 50 years – what can we do aesthetically?
Step through same process as ‘acid response’
Table 2
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Can you treat it – the acid?
What about climate change? The report must consider this!
BW’s groundwater – can this be pumped in? Would be expensive!
How will the consequences be weighted?
There is a view that hot groundwater is discharging into the river
Since the 1800’s, Anglesea has been about tourism (even the Wathaurung?)
Values – aesthetic, ecological, could be basis for recreational
Needs to refer to the book ‘Anglesea sport & Rec Club’
Options OK – but community need input into weighting values
Council’s stormwater might need to be cleaner!
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Table 3
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Are we assuming something should be done?
There could be unexpected impacts of minimising change
Do nothing could be an option
Managing expectations of the community will be important (short term and long term)
Consider climate change impacts
In the past Alcoa have stopped pumping – did we learn anything from this?
Who will decide? What is the process?
Once the results are available there will be more community interest
Is this the only study? Will there be others to inform the final outcome?
Table 4
What we know:
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History of thermal mud pools in the mine area
Pre-Alcoa – good river flows, swimming (summer), ‘black sand’, water stratification
Questions/concerns
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What influence has climatic/seasonal weather conditions had – drought, wet periods?
What about climate change mapping – sea level rise?
River no longer opens regularly – doesn’t get cleaned out – impact on health
Can we have information on rainfall history
What influence does/will the dam/mine/lake have on future rainfall/river flow and the
canals?
Can we have the sand flow information (Pt Roadknight to Pt Addis) – what impact does it
have on the river mouth opening (historical perspective)
Talk to old fishermen, John Laird and ‘Bobcat’ Bob Jennings
Table 5
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Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. How accurate do you believe your modelling will
be – 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%? Please circle your accuracy guarantee…
What will be the rezoning of the freehold land?
Who will make the decision?
What will be the rezoning process?
Concerned with the impacts if the water is turned off or inconsistent on tourism in general,
property prices and local business
How much influence does the community have in any decision?
Is the water going to be kept flowing @ the same rate as today?
How sustainable is the current river mouth dredging?
If the water is turned off or inconsistent, hire boat business will go broke and estuary will
become a boggy marsh
Concern that there won’t be any alternative water supply
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Appendix 2. Presentation by David May, GHD
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