CORRECTED VERSION
OUTER SUBURBAN/INTERFACE SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT
COMMITTEE
Inquiry into sustainable development of agribusiness in outer suburban Melbourne
Melton — 18 February 2009
Members
Mr N. Elasmar
Ms D. Green
Mr
Guy
Ms M.
R. Buchanan
Ms C. Hartland
Mr D. Hodgett
Mr D. Nardella
Mr G. Seitz
Mr K. Smith
Chair: Mr G. Seitz
Deputy Chair: Mr K. Smith
Staff
Executive Officer: Mr S. Coley
Research Officer: Mr K. Delaney
Witnesses
Mr William Earle, Secretary (affirmed), and
Mr John Rees, President (affirmed),
Exford Residents Association
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The CHAIR — I declare the hearing resumed after our inspection tour. I welcome Bill and
John from the Exford Residents Association. I invite you to provide your full names and mailing
addresses.
Mr EARLE — My name is William Joseph Earle, and I live at 57 Exford Road, Parwan,
which is a broadacre district between the Melton Reservoir and the Bacchus Marsh–Geelong road.
Mr REES — My name is John Thomas Rees, and I live at 43 Strathtulloh Circuit West,
Melton South.
The CHAIR — Your having been sworn in gives you protection under parliamentary privilege
provided by the Constitution Act 1975 and the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003. So you are
free to say whatever you like in here, but if you say it outside, it is a different story — you do not
have the same protection. You have been sworn in so we can use your evidence in our report. It is
always important that we can actually quote individuals who made the statements under oath and
have been sworn in under privilege. If we choose to publish whatever you have said here, you are
still covered by privilege — in other words, no-one can sue you.
We have allowed 15 minutes for you to make a presentation, then we will have questions of you.
Mr EARLE — The reality is that my computer has broken down, but I thought you might be
PowerPoint-presentationed out and computer-generated and document and overheaded out, so I
have gone back to the 60s and have a handwritten statement to hand out here — the yellow paper!
Thank you for coming here and listening to the local community, because there is so much going
on out here. My background is that I was principal of a state secondary college, retired in 1996,
purchased a 385-acre property in Parwan in 1997 and have lived here ever since. Melton shire is a
wonderful place to live. We have a forward-thinking council, a great sense of community and lots
of community consultation.
The first page of my handout outlines the sorts of things our association does. I will not go through
that. You can read that yourselves, if you want, later on. But as you can see we have lots of
community activities going on, and in particular representing the views of, I would say, more than
90 per cent of people that live in the rural parts of the shire.
On the second page we address the question: why are we an effective group? The reason is that we
consult extensively, we get our facts right and we know the land and the environment. One of the
problems we have found is that a lot of people who do not live in this district do not understand it,
because it is a unique area, and I will come back to that later.
We are also energetic, active and passionate about improving things for the people in the rural
parts of the shire and Melton shire generally, and we understand the decision-making processes —
state, federal and municipal — the influence of professional officers on decision making, and
elected councillors, lobby groups and the consultation process.
Why are we here in the shire of Melton? Our property was purchased as a horse or equine
property, and I will come back to that in a minute, but the key reason why we chose this area at the
time — I originally come from Stawell so I know the western plains and the Western Highway —
was location, location, location. We are so close to the city; and the land here was cheaper —
385 acres in other parts of the peri-urban fringe, to use the appropriate term, would be much more
expensive.
I started teaching at Sunshine West High School in 1964, and at that time the western suburbs of
Melbourne were considered to be the unfashionable part of Melbourne. I found them to be far
from it, and Sunshine West High School was a very exciting place to live and work.
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There has been continued change in the socioeconomic makeup of the western part of Melbourne.
The successes in the west here need to be pointed out. West Gate, of course, opened up the rest. If
you have not been to see the Tenterfield district of Caroline Springs, you really should go and
have a look at it, with its boardwalks, enhanced creek line and so forth, and also the Rockbank
tourist precinct. I could tell you a joke about that. There are some very educated people who did
not even know it existed. But it is fantastic stuff, an oasis on these western plains due to recycled
water.
We also have Harness Racing Victoria’s racing complex and entertainment centre which is
nearing completion, thanks very much to Don Nardella and the Shire of Melton, because I know
they played a very big part in getting that up and running. We also have world-class wineries,
world-class rural living at the Strathtulloh estate. I do not know whether or not you have seen that
concept of various acreages.
I have another bit of praise for the Melton Shire Council for the way it is encouraging all of the
housing estates to develop an environmental focus with wetlands, open areas, walkways, running
tracks and all sorts of things. The unique urban rural living that is going on here, including the
Eynesbury town, which you will probably know about, and the villages of Toolern Vale and
Diggers Rest, are all on the doorstep of the CBD — for example, it takes me 35 minutes by car to
go from my place in Exford Road to the corner of Spencer and Flinders streets in non-peak hours.
I could live here and work in the CBD and travel in by train each day, because I have been told by
John that 45 minutes by train from Bacchus Marsh, which is the nearest station to me, is probably
a pretty slow trip.
Accessibility equals greater demand, increased land values and land banking. I have given you
some facts based upon our own property because I know those facts. Our property’s council
valuation in 1997 was approximately $300 000 — that was the rateable value of the property. Two
to three years ago it went to $850 000. The 2008 valuation was $1.3 million — that is for
385 acres. The problem is that if you wanted to make a living from agriculture on 385 acres in this
district you would probably starve because of the rainfall and the difficulty of the terrain. It is very
difficult, and I will come back to that later.
Briefly, let me explain something about the land; I cannot resist it being an old geography teacher.
There are volcanic plains and scattered woodlands of grey box — probably the most amazing
plant on the earth. It survives drought and it makes wonderful firewood. Much of the land in this
district is rocky. In fact talking to many people in this district over the last two weeks prior to
producing this paper, the sorts of comments that were made — and it is not just me talking and
giving my opinions; I am here to give the views of the community — were that the only thing this
land is good for is housing. That is the view of an overwhelming number of people in this district.
Of course, you have to realise that historically the rural parts of the shire were settled by people
from non-English-speaking backgrounds who did not have a lot of money and who worked and
lived in the western suburbs, and wanted a few acres of land because in some cultures that was
traditionally very desirable. They purchased land on the western plains within the Melton shire.
They did not have a lot of money to improve it. Now they cannot hang onto it unless they have an
outside income. We could not stay where we are unless we had an outside income because the
land will not produce a living, apart from in a couple of examples which you will see in a few
moments.
I refer to native and introduced grasslands. Farmers say that native grass regenerates despite
herbicides and planned burning; experts disagree. They say that once it is destroyed it is gone
forever. Everybody in this district challenges that notion. Native grass in particular, but native
vegetation generally, is very much an issue of conflict within the district. With habitats, the
experts say that once rocks and fallen logs are removed that that habitat is destroyed. People who
live on the land say that is nonsense; it can be re-established, and in fact does re-establish itself.
Native grasses are a huge issue in the district due to a lack of education.
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The vice-principal at our school came out one day to park his caravan. I said, ‘Don’t park it there;
that is native grass and I cannot remove it’. He said, ‘What?’, and he is a geographer as well. He
could not understand why in some cases grasses may well be being put before people and
livelihood. Why are they important for the future? Is it part of an important legacy to leave for the
future? People would say it is a controversial issue. Some people say, ‘Is the government going to
build a stadium around some native grass and see how many people they get through the gate?’.
That is a sort of running joke in the district.
How are they crucial to biodiversity? You and I know, if you know anything about biodiversity,
that they are part of a chain. But there has been little or no education of the community about
native grass. Instead, draconian laws have been enacted, like the federal laws that came in last year
quoting fines of up to $250 000 and a jail term if you remove native grass without a permit.
The next is also an example that gets the rural community in this district — and I suspect those
throughout Victoria — very angry; it is the net gain concept that the DSE has in place. Are they
out of control? Look at the example of John’s sister. A person wanted to buy her block. He said, ‘I
want to put the house there. I need those three trees to be gone. If you can remove them, I will buy
the block’, and that was what happened. About $8000 later DSE said, ‘You cannot plant them.
You give us the money, we will plant them where we think they should go’. It was
non-negotiable, but clearly draconian.
Rural land in the shire of Melton is not highly productive. There is low rainfall and many
depressed rural landscapes. I have already explained that you cannot make a living from our
property. We tried to with equine. We had old Embrace Me, the American stallion who was the
sire of Double Identity who won the Miracle Mile and the Victoria Cup. Our largest income from
him, and from selling his progeny and service fees in one year, was approximately $20 000. That
was without taking out the expenses. We had a stud, agistment and breeding. Currently, we have
just agistment and harness racing.
If you want to live in the rural parts of the shire, you have to have outside income because
expenses are high. The cost of herbicide has gone berserk — for instance, a 20 litre tub of
Roundup PowerMax, apparently because of a combination of the Olympic Games and supply
from China, has gone from $280 a tub to over $500 a tub. There are cheaper versions, but you
have to use them more strongly; you have to put on more. These are some of the problems in the
district.
There are only three commercial broadacre farmers in the shire — Graeme Miles, Glen Ford and
Geoff Harrison. Geoff has farms outside the shire. Bill Green, who is a major identity in the
district, and who also farms some land here, has highly productive farms in other areas with higher
rainfall.
Grazing is two sheep an area; there is a very low carrying capacity. Cattle are not viable because
they drink so much water, and if you had to cart water to cattle you would be doing it all day. On
grain farming, on our farm 70 acres was cropped to barley by Graeme Miles. In 2007 the crop
failed. In 2006 our one-third share was $2000. We need to remember it costs him approximately
$10 000 to put in the crop with diesel, fuel, fertiliser and seed. Seed costs are unbelievable. A bag
of seed — about that big — costs about $500. It is subterranean clover and pasture seed.
The CHAIR — It is very hard for Hansard if you say, ‘About that big’. Could you give us
some measurements of the bag, or its weight?
Mr EARLE — It is a 20-kilo bag of grass seed and subterranean clover which we tried to
under sow the crop with. That cost us between $500 and $600, and none of it came up. I am not
sure what the cost is for oats and barley for sowing.
The problem is that in this district many people use share cropping with farmers to control weeds.
Our 70-acre paddock, which is a combination of rocky outcrops and ploughed land, has a carpet of
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tussock on it each year because the tussock seed stays in the soil for about five years. It comes up
over five years; if it is not replenished, it will last for five years.
If you do not sow regularly cultivated land, it will come up in a carpet of serrated tussock and
other weeds, but tussock in particular. The big weed of difficulty at the moment that is coming up
is Galenia, which we have been told — I do not know whether it is true — was being used by
VicRoads to stabilise roadsides and cuttings. It is called the carpet weed because it literally gives
you a carpet of weed and nothing else can grow. It is very prevalent around Bacchus Marsh.
A major supply of irrigation is needed, and it is not going to happen. Where is it going to come
from? Recycled water? I do not think so, not unless there is some sort of link with the Werribee
outlet. Most rural land in the shire is lifestyle; as I have said there, not very much money is left for
improvements. As a result of the historical settlement of the rural parts of the shire there has not
been a lot of improvement to the properties. One of the councillors in 1994 said, ‘I would like to
drive around Melton shire and be able to say “That’s a lovely property; that’s a lovely property” ‘.
Part of the problem is, of course, the lack of rainfall, so it is fairly quickly denuded of grass. Our
place is a rural slum, and there are many others.
The next page is on boutique farming — I am sorry, it did not quite get on the copy — and I have
put a question mark beside ‘boutique’. I refer to the wineries and vineyards. The Rockbank tourist
precinct is fabulous; I hope you have been to see it. It is an oasis. It shows what is possible with
irrigation in this district. Is it a successful commercial operation? I do not know; you would have
to ask Tony Rammuno and the people from Galli. Their restaurants certainly seem to do well;
their food is superb. Olives? Forget it without irrigation. The one commercial olive farm on Greigs
Road struggles. You only have to talk to George to find that out. With wineries and cellar doors
and restaurants there is a bit of diversity.
I have given you the equine example of our property. Our water supply is tanks and bore water in
this district. We located here because it is the heart of harness racing, and I think that will be added
to when the new state-of-the-art harness racing Tabcorp Park commences. I think it will attract a
lot of other trainers — other equine, pleasure, equestrian and thoroughbred — into this district.
Equine activity is very important in the rural parts of this shire.
To all people on the land the environment is important. If they destroy it, they will not be able to
do anything and they will have something pretty ugly to look out on. It is really a tragedy that the
organised environmental movement in this district has alienated every landowner. We understand
the politics of it, that the major parties would like to keep the political green movement on side.
But unfortunately as a result of that their influence — and I am talking about community views
here — is far too great, particularly when you see some of the draconian laws being introduced by
government. Do they consult with us? No; the local environmental movement. Do they
understand the issues facing landowners? No.
One of the problems is that we find that often urban decision-makers are having a major influence
on framing law which affects rural landowners — for instance, we take a great deal of umbrage
from the sorts of things that Michael Buxton from RMIT says. The green wedge legislation, which
I will come to later on, was brought in without any consultation as a result of the green wedge
coalition lobbying government. That had a major effect on landowners. We do not get any
compensation, unlike in some parts of the United States where, when those laws were brought in,
there was compensation paid to landowners. The green wedge policy is one of great controversy
and creates a great deal of anger in the community because it has been brought in to enhance
urban life at the expense of rural land rights.
In fact some people say, ‘I’m sick of providing a vista for Sunday drivers from the city’. That is
how extreme the anger is. That is why we greatly appreciate this opportunity of telling you what
the community is thinking very strongly in this district, in particular the rural parts of the shire.
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As a result, within the rural parts of the shire you continually hear criticism of the influence of the
environmental departments within councils. You only have to read the newspapers over the last
two weeks, after the tragedy on the other side of Melbourne, to see that there is increasing anger.
Some people would call it the blame game; I think for those people who are in rural parts of the
shire and have seen some of the regulations that have been brought in, it could be called justified
anger. They have enormous power, supported by draconian laws. Often these people come from a
background of having a great interest in the environment; they do their environmental science
degree and they are very, very strong on sometimes extreme environmental issues.
We have seen recently the effect of policy versus consequences — for instance, I refer to a
reduction of fuel in preparation for the summer bushfire season in this district. Roadsides were
previously extensively slashed by council; now there is a narrow slash along the immediate edge
of the tarmac — still, a large amount of fuel that can be set off so easily.
Let me give you an example. A friend of mine was using a grinder to cut up some steel for some
cattle yards in the summer. Although he had been warned a number of times about doing that, he
said, ‘No, it will be right, it will be right’. I went up there again to try to stop it from happening.
He continued on, and looked back 5 minutes later and the grass was on fire. That is how quickly
tinder-dry grass can ignite, and at the moment the roadsides in this district, because of the
environmental policy of the Melton shire, are full of fuel. The Moorabool shire’s policy is even
worse. They did not cut them until a few weeks ago. If you could explain that to me, I would
really appreciate it.
The other one is that at the moment there is a policy, as part of attempting to promote biodiversity
and native vegetation, in particular native grass, where I could apply to set aside an area of the
property and in return get a government grant to fence that area and get government money to
manage it. The rule for that is there must be no grazing, slashing or burning — whatever — of the
native grass between October until the end of December. I refer to the last line there. That is the
policy that is in place at the moment. Now that paddock, unfortunately, is fairly close to the house,
so we could not get involved in that program because we could not afford to have that fuel so
close to the house.
The environmental movement in this shire has committed people, but they have limited horizons.
More than 90 per cent of the land — probably more than 99 per cent of the land — is privately
owned, and yet there is no positive partnership with landowners. They in fact confront
landowners, they do not support landowners. No dialogue exists with them, and there is no
recognition of landowners being land managers and environmentalists.
They receive considerable government funding for projects of questionable worth. I will give you
two examples: trees planted along Toolern Creek — no follow up, no watering and a significant
percentage of them died; and trees planted along the Werribee River on the edge of Eynesbury.
They were told when they planted them — with government money — that they needed to protect
them with fencing because there were sheep in that paddock. It was not done — all eaten. Trees
were planted on another bluff of Toolern Creek without any advice from landowners or farmers,
and as a result they have been planted in a way that they are now interspersed extensively with
serrated tussock. They cannot be boom sprayed because they have been so badly planted. They
have to be spot sprayed. If you know the expense of spot spraying — it is a very expensive
exercise.
We all need to look at a better model. I have in fact approached one of the leaders of the local
environmental group and asked them if they would like to call in, have a coffee and talk about
some issues in the district, but they did not take up that invite. It is very sad, because if they had,
for example, a floating team of people and they contacted landowners and said, ‘Look, we want to
come in; see that escarpment, we want to come in and help you; if you provide the trees, we will
plant them’, there would be much more extensive improvement of the environment within the
shire.
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What do people in the rural parts of the shire want? They want accurate documentation. The
current MSS of the Melton shire brings laughter when it is read by people in the rural parts in the
shire, because it is full of absolute inaccuracies. It talks about the highly productive farming land
and the successful economic activity of farming in the Melton shire. When you say that to
anybody in the rural parts of the shire they say, ‘Show it to me; where is it?’. It is not there. We
want accurate documentation.
Currently, because of the change to the urban growth boundary, the MSS is being reviewed and is
coming up towards community input. There was community input last time when it was made up.
There were sections that went into it which the community disagreed with greatly. That document
has to be brought up to speed, and it has to have accuracy as a hallmark of what it says. What the
community would like to see is a visionary best practice.
I am sorry if these are a little bit moth-eaten, because they were used last night at the largest
community meeting the Exford residents have had. There were three councillors at that meeting.
This was run past that meeting with the comment ‘If you disagree with anything or want to put
anything in, tell me and I will change it before tomorrow’. There was no change suggested, but
‘best practice’ apparently was a term often used by the commissioner. Sophie Ramsay pointed that
out to me. We will choose best practice.
We want a visionary and good practice plan for the future of the rural parts of the shire, involving
many in consultation, and not the Parsons Brinckerhoff experience that we had a few years ago
when the rural community met in large numbers; the Exford Primary School assembly area was
packed with people. They wrote down everything we said and classified it and so forth and took it
away and ignored it, so much so that the council refused to accept their report, I believe. I am not
sure whether that is accurate, but I was told that they refused to accept their report.
We want a plan creating some new land use — whether or not irrigation water is available for that,
I do not know — some new commercial activities and more attractive and improved rural
landscapes. What people in the rural parts of the community want is consultation before decision
making for the rural areas, because this is a unique area. Let me give you some examples. If it is
36.4 in Melbourne, it is 40.4 on the western plains of Parwan — 4 to 5 degrees hotter. In winter it
can be absolutely pouring in Melbourne, yet absolutely magnificent out here — a cool, sunny day.
If you really want an experience, get up at 5 o’clock and drive out to these western plains or come
out late in the day. The muted colours of the plains are just fantastic to look at. And we want some
better decisions about the rural parts of the shire.
One of the feelings that is very strong in the rural parts of the shire is that the current policy of the
shire — and most people also link the shire with the current government — is that it is happy to
see the rural parts of the shire just ‘rot away’, using the term it uses. We do not want that to
happen. We would like a positive working relationship with the organised environmental
movement to achieve more effective environmental outcomes for the shire. We would like to see a
review of the green wedge legislation for this district; in fact for all of the Melton shire.
We understand the city has to have lungs, and the city may well need to have green areas set aside,
but when you look at the superb farming land that has been subdivided on the south-eastern side
of Melbourne — it is known as the ‘nightmare zone’, because that is what it is like to go down the
south-eastern freeway and get to those places; why there is not a speed camera on every overhead
bridge on the south-eastern freeway is beyond me; I would love to see that — all of this land out
here so close to the city is still rural and not producing anything. That is hard to explain to people.
What we would also like to see — which is point no. 6 on the folded section — is elected
councillors being the decision-makers and representing their constituents. We would hope the
municipal association would provide some sort of handout or training for all councillors about
how they make their decisions in council meetings. But there is a real concern in the community at
the moment that the professional officers run the council and the councillors rubber-stamp. We
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had a discussion last night with Sophie, Gary Stock and Kathy Majdlik about this issue. They
enlightened us about a whole range of things which we did not know about, which was really
valuable.
I would have thought that what councillors’ constituents wanted, the sorts of things that they
promised when they were elected and what is in the best interests of the shire, are just as important
as any professional officer’s recommendation. The reality is that professional officers have their
own agendas. The difference between them and councillors is that they do not have accountability,
apart from being under the CEO and the general manager, who perhaps can call them to account. I
heard a comment last night which was supposedly made by a professional officer and which was
absolutely disgraceful because it involved lives of our people in Parwan.
We want a recognition that, due to the proximity of this district to the CBD, the demand for land
and the biodiversity and climatic issues within the shire, this area is a central place and as such it
requires a special treatment plan if it is going to reach its potential. It may well need a significant
injection of money if it is going to reach its potential. The difficulty is — and this is something
else I think you need to know — there is a real danger that a lot of people will say, ‘Look I have
had enough; I am going to sell up and go’. Do you know who will buy the land? The land bankers
from Asian countries. They have already bought up a significant percentage of the land in this
district. What happens then is they just sit on it. They put a tenant in the house, if there is a house
on the property, and nothing is done to control weeds and nothing is done to improve the property.
As a result they drag other properties down with them. The property behind us was sold twice in
the last 12 months and purchased the second time by Asian interests. They have a young woman
living in there amongst the junk and rubbish in very inadequate accommodation.
We would like any plan for this area to be innovative and visionary and include consultation with
the local community. I do not know what the answer is. Some really creative thinking is required
to establish a model that could be an example to other urban areas throughout Australia and the
world. This area is urban, the Melton town, and it has some fantastic features within it. There is
village living in Toolern Vale, Rockbank, Diggers Rest, Exford and Parwan. There are
townships — or one, at Eynesbury. There is rural living at Strathtulloh estate. There is rural
acreage — 10, 20, 30, 60, 100, 385 — and there are broadacres, thousands of acres, and
Eynesbury of course is the classic example. The agricultural company running Eynesbury could
not make a living, and that is why it applied to the previous government to subdivide and set up a
separate township with environmental controls and a lot of other environmental features, because
from thousands of acres in this district it could not make a living.
The second document that I have given you is a white one. It is typical of the sorts of documents
that our association writes on behalf of the community. That was prior to the election, and people
wanted a list of the sorts of issues within the rural parts of the shire to talk to prospective
councillors about.
In concluding, I want to thank Don Nardella for the work that he does in this community. He
helped out our community when our power went out two weeks ago. Of course, the power
companies are another issue. Power is a huge problem in this district. The grid is old; it is in a very
bad state of repair. Five years ago the power went out all day; you could not do anything because
you had no power.
We wrote to Powercor on behalf of the community, including areas of Bacchus Marsh, accusing
them of not having enough maintenance staff and not maintaining the grid to a satisfactory
standard. They got back to us; the power companies have some of the best spin doctors of all time,
so do not be fooled by them, they are brilliant people. The front-line women and men who man
the phones, honestly, deserve a Croix de Guerre because they are just superb.
But the reality is that Powercor does not have enough maintenance staff, the grid is old and falling
apart, and it does not maintain it. The power was out all day. Powercor denied everything. When
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we met with its representatives they said, ‘No, that’s not the case. We do this, this and this’. Then
of course we had Windy Wednesday and the parliamentary inquiry, I think it was, found that all of
the accusations we had made were true.
The power went out for a whole day. On a rural property you cannot water horses, you cannot do
anything: you cannot shower, you cannot flush the toilet, and you cannot cook. You cannot do a
thing. I think I folded clothes all day that day. It is a disgrace that the power companies are
allowed to get away with that, and in the rural areas people suffer greatly when the power is out. If
I am in the city I can go to the local shopping centre or I can go to see a movie, but out here there
is not much you can do.
And Don was fantastic. I would also like to publicly thank him for the part that he played in the
Harness Racing Victoria’s entertainment and big whizz-bang centre that is almost finished here,
because I think he did a fantastic job. Thank you for listening.
Mr NARDELLA — Thank you, Bill.
Mr EARLE — Was that too long, Don?
Mr NARDELLA — No, it was too gratuitous!
The CHAIR — Would you like to add anything, Mr Rees?
Mr REES — As Bill was saying in part of the submission there, we have only three broadacre
farmers. One of the broadacre farmers has stated, and has offered proof, that he farms over
2000 acres in the Exford area and he is scratching to make a living to support his family and his
parents. The land here is virtually farmed out. It has been used and used and used; there has been
take, take and take and not much has been given back to it. It just cannot keep producing. We
figure there could be a better use for the land than just farming use.
Mr EARLE — There would be a problem if there was a significant withdrawal of people from
the land. Say, for instance, if we sold, because our property is located on a major intersection and
it is so close to the CBD — it is 5 minutes from Bacchus Marsh — it would be bought by land
bankers, and it would probably be overseas money. Just think of the consequence of that, if, say,
50 per cent of people within the rural parts of the shire said, ‘Look, I have had enough’. One of
our members continues to say that if something is not done, it will end up a desert. I would not
necessarily go that far, but the reality is that it is going to become a ghetto if something is not done
to improve the lot of people living on land in the rural parts of the shire. I do not know what the
answer is, but I am sure you will come up with one.
Mr REES — I actually live on the Strathtulloh estate. It was a farm. It could not be
successfully farmed. The landowner was astute enough to get a permit to subdivide it, and he
subdivided it into blocks ranging from 3.5 acres up to 30 acres. There are a couple of larger blocks
there, but I am not sure what size they are, and he would say, ‘Look, it is a rural environment’. I
would not even try to guess how many blocks there are.
Mr EARLE — There are about 130 blocks.
Mr REES — As I say, it is a rural environment. It is about 7 minutes out of Melton. It is a lot
quicker to get to Melbourne even, like Bill was saying. That is the lifestyle I chose to live. I could
not imagine living in suburbia, where I have a fence either side of the outside walls of a house.
There are a lot of people who come out to visit who say, ‘Gee, I would love to have this — can’t
afford it’, yet if there was more land available, possibly they could, but it is very limited.
Mr EARLE — I will tell you one of the questions that has been asked at Eynesbury estate by
people who have gone there to look at purchasing in the area. I do not know whether you have
been in there, but it is just a fabulous spot. It is probably a restrictive settlement in terms of the
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sorts of houses you can build there and things you can do, but the young woman who was taking
inquiries there said 50 per cent of the inquiries were, ‘Have you got any larger acreages, like 5, 10
or 20 acres?’, and of course she was not able to say that they did.
Sophie Ramsey said at our meeting last night, ‘Everybody I talk to, all they want to do is
subdivide’, and I said, ‘Sophie, that should be telling you something’. I am not advocating
wholesale subdivision, but I am advocating, and we as a group and people from the rural parts of
the shire are advocating, that people be involved in some sort of viable plan for the rural parts of
the shire, rather than letting it become a dusty rural ghetto owned by people from overseas,
because that is what will happen.
The CHAIR — Thank you for that.
Mr HODGETT — Bill, in your list of wants on the second-last page, and I appreciate we do
not have all the answers, you talk about new commercial activities. Do you have ideas of what
might be new commercial activities?
Mr EARLE — I do not know enough about those things. I was at a presentation where Tony
Rammuno talked about the fact that prior to winning the prize for the world’s best shiraz he was
asked by his accountant if he could put $150 000 in within the next month or so and that he had
said yes. But he said, ‘I was not quite sure where I was going to get it from’, and then they won
that prize. Of course I told all my teacher friends six months before, at that lunch in Carlton, and
they did not believe me. I can tell you I left some interesting messages on their answering
machines after that went into the paper!
Equine is obviously one commercial activity. HRV is looking at setting up a training centre. I am
in a difficult situation here because people cannot afford to buy properties in this district. An
established property that I know of, north of Melton, on the western edge of Melton, is a harness
racing complex, with a house, large stable, in-ground horse swimming pool, many yards, and a
training track. They are asking $1.8 million for that. It is on the edge also of the urban growth
boundary. It is currently being advertised for $1.1 million. That to me would be an absolute
bargain.
Because a lot of people who want to train harness racehorses cannot afford their own property,
HRV was considering setting up a training centre at the Bacchus Marsh harness racing track, on
the old racecourse reserve. I know Don is involved in guiding people along the way with that.
That would be one way in which they could cater for increased equine activity in the district.
Equine activity does all sorts of things. It pours money into the feed stores. It pours money into
those farmers. Neville Smith said to me one day, ‘There is a lot of farming going on around the
place’. Yes, but they are mainly 20 to 25-acre properties, where people have sown their own grain
to have a few bales of hay or to have some grain themselves; and larger blocks for the same
reason. I have given you our example in terms of barley, which is probably the toughest grain, and
that is why it is grown in this district. It is just very difficult, unless you get really good rainfall.
So equine is one. They pour money into feed merchants, they pour money into vets, they pour
money into the saddlery and horse supply shops and hay producers. In a sense harness racing is
probably close to saturation point, but there are also a lot of people who want to have ponies.
There are not many thoroughbreds in this district.
Given my reading I would think we still import most of our olive oil, but olives take so long to
bear fruit and you cannot have olives without irrigation; that is a problem. I do not know what the
answer is.
Mr HODGETT — Hydroponics?
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Mr EARLE — It could be. We are so close to the markets here. Anything like that could
succeed, but once again the sociology of the area makes it very difficult. For instance, if you came
to me and said, ‘Bill, there is enormous money in hydroponics. You are close to the markets. Here
are all the people who can supply the equipment. It will cost you $50 000 to $100 000 to set up’, I
could not do it because I do not have the money behind me. I would say that more than 80 per cent
of the people in the rural parts of the shire would be in exactly the same boat as us. That is why so
many properties are run down; we do not have the money to fix them. We poured $60 000 into
improving our fencing, but believe me, you would not be able to see where it went. Fencing is
$6 a metre.
The CHAIR — In the early days a lot of this land was subdivided into 30-acre, 40-acre and
100-acre blocks — smaller allotments. Was it because the original farmers could not make a go of
it and said it was not worthwhile, and then sold it off to hobby farmers? It happened in Melton
with the small allotments without a forward-looking plan. Would you care to elaborate on that?
Mr EARLE — Let us be clear: Caroline Springs was the catalyst for the success of the
western part of Melbourne; I have absolutely no doubt about that. It was the worst land in
Victoria. Delfin deserves congratulations for the innovative design and development that took
place, but obviously Melton shire was involved with it as well, and they deserve congratulations
for what happened there.
As an outsider there is probably a lot more information that I do not know about, but because it
was such a successful development it lead to success elsewhere. Even earlier on when I was
teaching at Sunshine West people were moving to Melton because it was not far away and
whether or not the land was subdivided, because you could not keep large-scale grain farms so
close to the city. Because it was close to the city it was a catch-22 situation; there was demand for
acreage — I do not know. I think probably both things applied, and therefore there were a lot of
30-acre blocks. We looked everywhere for a 30-acre block but we could not afford it because the
more acreage you have out here the cheaper it is — because you have to look after it.
The CHAIR — As a young boy I remember the silos in Sunshine — —
Mr EARLE — That’s right.
The CHAIR — Seed spilled onto the roadsides and the farmers did the deliveries themselves.
A lot of cereal cropping was going on coming up to Caroline Springs and throughout the whole
area. Has climate change gradually crept up and wiped it out, or is it because broadacre farming
was made available and found to be cheaper? We had cereal cropping throughout the whole
region as late as the 1970s.
Mr EARLE — I have been told by Charlie Vella, who comes and helps us with the horses,
that when he first came out here — I think in the early 1980s — that the rainfall was very
different. I saw photographs at Max Hodges’ 70th birthday last weekend of water running up to
the bridge at the Melton reservoir, and water everywhere, and feed higher than the fences in the
paddocks. I have not seen any of that in the last 12 years.
Mr REES— I moved to a 10-acre block in the area in 1975. For the first few years I was
cutting over 400 bales of grass hay off 9 of the 10 acres. When we had rain in the winter you could
stand out in the paddock and the water slowly running over the paddock would run over the top of
your boots. That is the sort of rainfall we had.
Mr EARLE — I think he is lying. I have never seen water like that.
Mr REES — Towards the end of the 1980s we thought, ‘Hang on, I did not catch half as much
water in the dam as I normally do. We will have to think about pumping water out of the weir’.
We started doing that, and it just got drier — —
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Mr EARLE — And drier.
Mr REES — And drier. Back in the 1970s when the farmers split up their farms into blocks of
30, 40 or 50 acres I think there was an opportunity to make some good money by selling that land.
They created a market by setting up these hobby farms where people could build a house,
commute into Melbourne to work — wherever they chose to work — and come home every night
because it was only a short distance. You could not do that on the eastern side of Melbourne
because you would spend three-quarters of your life travelling.
Mr EARLE — That is still the situation. I read the Herald Sun and the Age every day and take
a great deal of delight in reading the letters and the editorials. I find it really amazing that people
say, ‘Melbourne has got to stop growing’. Hello! Are you going to build fences around it? The
naiveté of some people is just incredible, and of course you can see people’s agendas coming
through the letters.
If I was given the job of planning Melbourne I would say, ‘I am not going to have any more
development in the south-east or in the east, because there is a natural barrier there in the
Dandenongs. The north and the west are obviously the areas where Melbourne has to grow’. I
have said this to people when they have asked me. I will not be alive to see it; I will probably have
carked it by then, but I think there will be more Eynesburys in the future.
Not everybody agrees with that, but to me it is a better way than an unending urban sprawl —
having a number of townships with easy accessibility to major centres with land in between. I
know that there are all sorts of problems with buffers and rights to farm and all that sort of stuff,
but the reality is that if Melbourne continues to grow it will grow to Bacchus Marsh, then there is
a natural boundary and it will not go past Bacchus Marsh because it will not go up the Pentland
Hills. I do not know what you do then. Do you go underground or up or what?
The CHAIR — Thanks for that.
Mr NARDELLA — I appreciate all your kind words.
Mr EARLE — They are well earnt, Don.
The CHAIR — Thank you for your presentation. You will receive a copy of the transcript to
make sure we have covered everything you have said to us.
Mr EARLE — I am sorry that I spoke so quickly. I thought we had limited time. Thank you
for coming out here and listening to us. It is greatly appreciated.
The CHAIR — You are welcome.
Witnesses withdrew.
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