"Once it's gone, it's gone": Local groups say platypus population at risk due to Lysterfield landfill proposal

Local community organisations in Lysterfield are hard at work strengthening their case against a proposed landfill site they say would put the oldest platypus found in the wild under threat.

A Melbourne Water monitoring program discovered the 24-year-old male platypus earlier this year in Monbulk Creek. The area is home to a number of platypus, a population that is already under threat from a number of factors including stormwater pollution, littering, flooding events, and habitat and biodiversity loss.

The proposal, focused on 465 Lysterfield Road, would see 400,000 cubic metres of soil delivered by more than 50 trucks per day, over 15 hectares, for the span of three years.

Last October, Yarra Ranges Council refused the permit on the grounds the proposal did not “adequately protect” Monbulk Creek and was not in line with the purpose of the Green Wedge zoning of the site, which aims to protect non-urban areas of metropolitan Melbourne lying outside the urban growth boundary.

Since then, the proponent has taken the case to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

A number of groups are set to make submissions in support of the original council’s decision, including the Knox Environment Society (KES), Friends of Glenfern Valley Bushland Group, the Green Wedge National Trust, Save the Dandenongs League and the Green Wedge Coalition.

Knox Environment president Richard Faragher said despite changes being made to the proposal, KES and other local community groups were still opposed to the valley being used as a cleanfill site.

“We don’t think it’s the site for dumping soil,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

“Anything that puts that area under threat, as far as we’re concerned, is unacceptable.”

“It’s in the green wedge and it’s not really what the green wedge land was put aside for.”

Mr Faragher said the community groups believed the current proposed works would put the existing platypus population on the nearby Monbulk Creek “under threat”.

“Monbulk Creek is the last remaining platypus population in this section of the Dandenong Valley,” he said. “It could put that population at risk and we don’t believe anything they can do is worth that risk.”

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

465 Lysterfield Road is currently home to the Don Bosco Retreat Centre and Salesian Society Inc own the land.

The groups looking to continue opposition to the proposal are now waiting for confirmation from VCAT on a final hearing day, likely to be sometime early next year.

“We’re always hopeful and we’ll always keep fighting,” he said.

Image Credit: Ecology Australia