By Molly Magennis
A building developer has taken Hobsons Bay council to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), after they rejected a planning permit to build on an endangered section of grassland in Altona.
The Ajax Road Grassland is located on the Werribee and Altona rail lines, north of Truganina Swamp. The site is 78 hectares, and remains one of the largest remaining undeveloped industrial pieces of land in Hobsons Bay.
The grasslands are home to several endangered plant species, such as Spiny Rice-flowers, Kangaroo Grass and Arching Flax-Lily.
Last year, Axxcel Management Services put forth a planning permit to Hobsons Bay council to subdivide the land into two lots and remove the native vegetation to the north of the Altona Railway Reserve.
The council rejected the permit, however the developer decided to appeal the decision at VCAT, with the first hearing held on March 29.
The Grassy Plains Network (GPN), a group dedicated to protect Melbourne’s endangered grasslands, worked with Hobsons Bay council to reject the initial application, and were involved in the hearings.
GPN facilitator Adrian Marshall visited the Ajax Road site on March 4 as the final part of the VCAT hearing. Through the Victorian National Parks Association, almost $20,000 was raised to help cover the cost of GPN’s legal representation.
Mr Marshall said while the hearing went as well as it could have, the decision could go either way.
“I reckon it’s probably 50-50, there’s quite a complicated set of arguments,” he said.
The grassland’s connection to sites like the Western Treatment Plant, the Cheetham Wetlands and Truganina Swamp are what makes it so crucial to Hobsons Bay, Mr Marshall said.
“[Truganina Swamp is] a super important bit of habitat for birds and frogs and that sort of thing, and Ajax Road Grassland is immediately next to that,” he said.
“So all of these things joined together to make this really big connected, functioning bit of ecosystem.
“[Ajax Road is] very special and its size makes it more special because there probably isn’t something that big in Melbourne.”
VCAT is expected to make a decision in the next six weeks.
