THE Victorian Planning Authority’s Wonthaggi North East Precinct Structure Plan was released earlier this month, which aims to rezone land for future development including 5000 new homes and 60 hectares of commercial land over the next 30 to 50 years.
With a booming population to regional and rural areas, accommodating that growth is difficult, especially when the boom is happening in prime agricultural parcels, and it’s a topic very near to Berrys Creek farmers, Deb and Fergus O’Connor.
“We’ve become very passionate about farming and saving the farming land,” Fergus said.
“We got involved through Coal & CSG Free Mirboo North when they were fighting Mantle Mining and we wanted to save our underground water.
“We’ve got a fantastic spring that feeds the whole property and the dams over a hectare.”
Coal & CSG Free Mirboo North was formed in 2012.
Members from Mirboo North and surrounding areas came together campaigning against Mantle Mining applying for Exploration Licences for coal seam gas (CSG) and coal; and discovered adjacent tenements for other companies. The pair also joined forces with Farmers for Climate Action.
“It’s a dual concern we have,” Deb explained.
“We’re concerned about protecting the natural environment from the ravages of mining, but there’s also recognising agricultural land should be kept as agricultural land, especially around Warragul and Drouin.”
“In Australia we haven’t got huge amounts of productive agricultural land,” Fergus added.
“We’re on the red ferrosol and we need to protect it.”
Protecting the red ferrosol ensures a sustainable future for Australians.
“We can stock one beast to the acre, the big stations it’s one beast to 100 hectares,” Deb said.
“Should we be doing that? Because you hear environmentalists talk about the degradation to the soil and the way they have to round them up using helicopters – they make it a big, exciting Outback experience.
“Let’s do something other than agriculture on it and similarly, recognise that in Drouin and Warragul we’ve got the best soil in Australia, let’s produce our food from it.”
Equally, Gippsland has the water supply.
“We’ve got the underground water here,” Fergus said.
“We are one of the few areas that the dairy industry is not irrigated – we’ve got the rainfall, the underground water and the soil, we shouldn’t be using it for housing.”
Fergus and Deb’s comments are echoed not just by Farmers for Climate Action, but Technical Lead Long Range Forecasts Bureau of Meteorology’s Andrew Watkins.
“I met Andrew in March 2018 at Farmers for Climate Action, and he said then, ‘South Gippsland was the least affected area in Australia by climate change’.
“South Gippsland could actually feed Australia – that’s how good the farming is here.
“We can grow everything to feed Australia in South Gippsland because we’ve got the water, we’ve got the rainfall and we’ve got the soil.”
Attempting to preserve the agricultural land with an agricultural planning overlay, Fergus and Deb soon discovered there had been coal overlays until recent years that had protected the land from houses – extending into Baw Baw Shire.
“We were still on the Peninsula but had brought this property when we heard about Coal Seam Gas in South Gippsland.”
Jumping online they discovered an exploration license over their property.
“We would have had the moral power, but not the legal power to stop them exploring on our land,” Deb stated.
“And this is what we’re so annoyed about, mining trumps agriculture every single time,” Fergus said.
“Since the new government’s come in, they want farmers to do more work to sequester more carbon and cut their emissions.
“Agriculture in Australia produces 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, these are CSIRO figures. Fugitive emissions from (leaking) gas in Australia is 8 million tonnes, and it’s not the gas that’s burned for purpose.
“Why doesn’t the gas industry have to do what the farming industry is already doing?” Fergus asked.
Fergus has even advised fellow farmers and helped saved them much needed monies after suggesting a soil test.
“(One farmer) came to me six weeks later, and said, ‘I’ve had some soil tests done. I don’t have to put any nitrogen on for six years.’ He came to me two years after that, and said, ‘my cows are looking so much better, and the conception rate has gone through the roof.’”
