By David Ettershank
A small pocket of rare grassland in Melbourne’s west — home to the endangered Striped Legless Lizard — is being buried by an avalanche of illegally dumped rubbish, and state government agencies seem to be ignoring the problem.
I am joining the Grassy Plains Network in imploring the Environmental Protection Agency to clear commercial-scale dumping that is smothering the Burns Road Grassland (also known as Merton Street Grassland) in Altona, a 37-hectare pocket of rare native grasses and flowers.
Victoria’s grasslands should be as renowned and beautiful as the wildflowers that lure tourists to Western Australia. Instead, these rare volcanic grasslands are quickly becoming a neglected wasteland.
I have called for protection and better care of the remnants of Victoria’s grasslands many times in the Victorian Parliament. Ecological experts consider them Australia’s most endangered ecosystem.
Burns Road Grassland is the largest remaining patch of grassland on private land in Hobsons Bay, and it’s being buried alive by rubbish — around 100 cubic metres of trash has been dumped there.
Looking at historic aerial images, it looks like serious dumping started between February and May 2015. Only 0.5 per cent of Victoria’s rare volcanic grasslands are left, so it’s heartbreaking to see them choked by rubbish.
Concrete, cardboard, artificial stone from kitchen bench-making, cardboard packaging, cable stripped of its copper, mattresses, and more are being dumped on the site where rare grasses and flowers grow, including the Spiny Rice Flower, Billy Buttons, Kangaroo Grass Wallaby Grass, Woolly Buttons, Spear Grass, Creeping Saltbush, and Blushing Bindweed.
This land is home to the little Striped Legless Lizard, listed nationally in 2015 as threatened with extinction. Few of the habitats it calls home are left, and it’s only found in the lowland tussock grasslands of the southeast. Burns Road is the only place in Hobsons Bay that supports a remnant population.
I understand Hobsons Bay Council owns and is responsible for the local roads, which make up 12 per cent of the site, while the state government owns a good chunk of the site. It seems neither are removing the rubbish.
Hobsons Bay Council just doesn’t have the resources to clear up this volume of rubbish, and the Environmental Protection Authority hasn’t responded to the community’s appeals for a clean-up. The Grassy Plains Network again asked the EPA in mid-April what they were planning to do, and there has been no answer.
The Victorian Government announced in 2009 that it would set up the Western Grassland Reserve to protect 15,000 hectares of Victoria’s largest, contiguous sections of remaining grassland. Sixteen years later, and despite that promise, only a quarter of the land has been attained — 26 per cent.
Our precious grasslands are being destroyed by weeds, poor management, and illegal dumping. If we don’t act to protect them, they will be lost to future generations of Victorians forever.
Sponsored by David Ettershank, Member for Western Metropolitan Region in the Victorian Parliament. For more information, visit davidettershank.com.au or contact his office on (03) 9317 5900.
