Greetings to you good people:
I write to express my horror at the destruction of bushland reserves for Peninsula Link....even though I live in the Latrobe Valley (hah! another hot spot as you all know), I am seriously considering moving to Frankston area in coming months.

I have driven around mostly Frankston Heights area, and indeed walked briefly into Robinson Reserve (after checking out a house to rent near Shaxton Circle) on Saturday.

I can only imagine what heartache this issue is causing for you all, and fear greatly that - as is always the case, seemingly, these days - the damn freeway will just be blasted through without any concern. I have had er, 'robust debate' with my Langwarrin friend whom I've known for 30+ years - she considers the Link to be bloody marvellous because it will allegedly raise the value of her house....... grrrrrr.

Anyway, if and when I move to your area, I hope to further explore what still remain of the area's reserves - indeed, they're one of the reasons (apart from more affordable housing) that I'm considering Frankston / Frankston South - at least there will be SOME bits of nature to mute the shock of moving from the country to the city after many years!

All power to your group!
Kind regards
Victoria

Please all immediately go to Westerfield today. We are currently..today..losing our heritage..see link below for details.


http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;6137

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/13/2952635.htm
UN puts price on biodiversity loss
By environment reporter Sarah Clarke
Updated Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:53pm AEST

Lateline aired an interview with Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary for the Convention for Biological Diversity. (Thurs 14 Oct)

What he said about Australia was an embarrassment. When will our politicians act maturely and appropriately and realise that this applies to us..yes we are now accountable on a global scale under the increasing watch of the international community.

Firstly, on the national security issue, we could all get those granny scooters, they go fast enough and itd stop the reliance on fossil fuels. Or you could do some work on your railroads? Umm how would that be.

Secondly, lovely to see in the Age this morning, what looks like a win in East Gippsland. About time, but will have to wait and see if there is substance to this - its pre election time!!

WELL said Michelle who did so much to help try and save this sacred bush from the E C O P A T H S....we need
E M P A T H S running our World...thank goodness the majority of people ARE empathic...maybe just a little distracted by their toys which nature has provided for them and haven't fully woken up yet...money is a FALSE construct made up by M A N...why do you think Jesus was so pissed off and whipped the money lenders and upturned their filthy tables??? and who knocked him off??

So sad and sorry for the loss of our sacred bush to the ECO-PATHS in the last few days...vale Westerfield and vale Russell Grimwade and the Ancestral Spirit of the Land Bunwerung Country...wow..just makes youthink how heartbreaking it must have been for the Indigenous families witnessing the ealrier years of MASS destruction that has occured to their to their sacred Paradise home and their beloved animals.I heard a story recently about how John Batman was touched when he saw the indigenous women with pet sugar gliders under their hair coiled around their necks...mmm that would be good for sore shoulders...anyway
there is still some left, some of Gondwannaland and she needs our help like never before...in many places on the Peninsula the only stands of the remaining forests..genetic pinnacle of MILLIONS of years..is a 10 metre **nature strip*on the sides of the roads.. :( and full of weeds and about to go extinct..then we will be living in a barren ecological armageedon like all the suburbs built on the garden of Eden are now..we have got plenty of work to do..or those nature strips are going to look like the ones in the suburbs soon..one good thing everyone can do is ring the councils and pressure them to take more care of these precious fragments...and lobby the Victorian Farmers Federation and national body to encourage their members to dedicate at least 30%of their land holdings to natural bush..corridors and corners at least..there areplenty of subsidies and tax breaks for them..a lot of them are just too lazy and money focused to realize how iimportant this is...AND vigilant protection of the last old growth trees on these properties.You can quote "what are you doing?Polluting and destroying the Earth OR helping to clean up the mess?. and tell people to google; we are in the sixth mass extinction...... also http://www.newscientist.com
search for- earth faces sixth mass extinction. It talks about habitat loss and species diversity being in critical times...love and light.

This morning, it appeared to be 3 workers standing whilst they were pulling down trees, I went to get an SD card for my camera to document this.

Around 10am, the Leader newpaper people and Ted were here and there were wildlife carers present.

Around 12.30 pm, Abigroup had fallen a tree and wildlife carers were there. They removed an animal and placed it in a bag. I do not know what it was. I would assume from the bag
that it was a possum.

They moved one peice of machinery across to block me viewing and a staff member kept moving to block my view.

I took photos of this.

They are quietly mulching now at around 2.50. They seem low, maybe realizing the destruction they have caused.

I still dont understand why they could not have worked on another part of the Peninsula link until this was over.

The crunching continues.

8.30 am Wednesday, Abigroup is still up rooting trees and I cannot see any wildlife carer present. I am in Mornington getting an SD card to document this.

Amazing the show they can put on when there are others, even if they dont follow the agreed wildcarer plan on day one, on day 2 when there are not eyes to watch them, they ignore it totally.

I'm claiming the MORAL VICTORY today. Despite the goddamn awful noise, despite the destruction, despite the shocking lack of respect, I was proud to be part of the Westerfield community knowing what side of the fence we were on.

GREEN BOOKS Cont.
3. ECOPSYCHOLOGY..Restoring the Earth Healing The Mind
authors Theodore Roszak, Mary E.Gomes & Allen D.Kanner
" A glad welcome to this affirmation by a group of psychologists that the self does not stop at the skin nor even
with the circle of human relationships but is interwoven with the lives of trees and animals and soil; that caring for the
deepest needs of persons and caring for our threatened planet are not in conflict.
4. LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS...saving our children from nature deficit disorder..by Richard Louv
The children and nature movement is fueled by this fundamental idea: the child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of the children and the health of the Earth are inseparable.
HOPE you find something appealing within this little list!
THANKS to MARIE-CLAIRE B. cheers all!

OH WELL DONE Westerfield Picketeers! looking good in your neighborhood!.... HUGE effort there..keep on keeping on!
You WILL WIN and save this *Endangered Earth Sanctuary* for the species diversity we need to survive ourselves..way too much has been taken from us and Nature...the development business =$$'s dreaming.. has to cease...it should be called Business Destruction Industries and Regress not progress..sweet little lies vs intelligent awake people power..thank the unspecified creator of all things for you and Westerfield..ok rave over!..MARIE CLAIRE the Woman who stands of the bulldozers..lol..aka champ..has asked me to post a list of environmental books she has read for those who may be interested in them too..so here goes and i pray the captcha
code works to put this through..i might stop here and do another one...back soon...trudie O.

Everyone is now needed on site from today.

The Bayside Christian College needs to know this.
5971 6700
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

They advertise on their site that they are in a 'Bushland Setting'.

For around three weeks i have had five or six yellow tailed black cockatoos feeding in my pine tree.

I live in McMahons Road just south of John Paul College.

I guess they have been displaced due to freeway construction.

I've lived here for 16 years and have never seen or heard them until now.

A big talking point during this past year has been the presence of the yellow tail black cockatoo's that have come down to Frankston and the Mornington peninsula for food and shelter from the fire ravaged areas. A commonly asked question is "what will happen to these animals with the removal of habitat for the peninsula link freeway?" well today I was faced with an answer a dead yellow tail black cockatoo on the Mornington peninsula freeway infront of Martha Cove. With tomorrow being National threatened species day (7th september) are we going to be willing to allow this species of animal become a threatened species nationally (as they are all ready listed as threatened in South Australia) before anything else is done. Anyone who finds an animal killed on the road near the peninsula link destruction right of way can contact me on 0450675856 so I can keep a record to send to our politicans.

Craig Thomson

WENDY MACHIN, NRMA PRESIDENT: We'd like to see firstly some policy leadership. We'd like to see a key person in each of the major parties take hold of this issue and start planning, start developing a policy for our national transport fuel security. And there are a lot of reasons: national security, the hip pocket, the cost of our fuel, as well as environmental reasons why we've gotta start planning for a future that's not dependent just on oil.

From the link to the 7.30 report..mmm..seems oil reliance is connected with national security issues!

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2978097.htm

I think Joan Kimber's idea is very good, and just another alternative that should be used rather than the expensive, environmentaly destructive, and wasteful current freeway proposal.

David Welsh

I am amazed that road-building still takes precedence over wildlife protection and community opposition. In this day and age of rampant climate change and an unprecedented rate of species extinctions, road building should be ranked far behind public transport and conservation.
Yours Sincerely
Dr Marty Branagan
Peace Studies
University of New England
Armidale
NSW 2350

I was wondering if anyone knows why it would be logistically wrong to upgrade the Westerport Highway instead. Then you are creating a carraige way that could link both the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport without such an impact on native habitat, such as in Langwarrin. The distance between major carriage ways appears to me to be more appropriate and the building of a road between Moorooduc Road and Westernport seems bizarre to say the least. In the long term it would be more cost effective, more viable for communities that are strong and stable and healthy in the local area and less intrusive.

What is motivating this bizarre bypass???

I would like to invite Mr Rod Codger to come at any time that suits him to stand with us on the picket line to prevent the wholesale destruction of pristine bushland by the Abigroup bulldozers. ( Perhaps he could stand on the busy roadside so as to minimise our footprint on Westerfield .) See you there Rod.

Rob, please keep things in perspective. Yes some of the vegetation has been trampled by people on the picket line. But the percentage of the ground cover that has been damaged is very small. And if those people weren't there the whole place would have been bulldozed three weeks ago. If we can keep the machines out the vegetation will bounce back very quickly. The bush-rats etc. will cope with a few dogs hanging around with their owners holding the line against Abigroup. We need to band together. Save your anger for the developers and the government.

Having seen the Westerfield property for myself I am totally at a loss that the powers-that-be appear not to even consider alternatives to bulldozing this most precious of remnant bushland reserves. It is a living museum.
I consider it government-sponsored vandalism to destroy areas like this for the sake of a wretched and completely unnecessary freeway. We will forever be the poorer for its destruction.
Messrs Brumby, Pallas et al you are very, very wrong to build this freeway.

'Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn
Indicative that suns go down;
The notice to the startled grass
That darkness is about to pass,' Emily Dickinson

Nature nutures our spirit and is vital to our humanity. We need to preserve our dwindling green places. Congratulations on the community campaign it is inspiring.

I despair at what is taking place on the Mornington Peninsula and around Melbourne. When will the politicians and decision makers realize that the loss of our fauna and flora has such a detrimental impact on our well being? Roads, concrete, cars, buildings - development at any cost will be the absolute downfall of any standard of living. I bet any of the politicians making these decisions wouldn't allow freeways through their neighbourhoods. I wish I was there to protest alongside the committed individuals who are pursuing the cause. Shame on those who voted against the freeway but are content to sit by and let everyone else fight the fight. We so desperately need the trees, the birds, the bugs, the animals and some quiet! Not roaring traffic. Good luck. Louise Page, Vancouver, Canada.

hey savethepines CHAMPIONS! You are doing a marvelous job WELL DONE! WE NEED to focus HEAVILY on the O.H.&S. ASPECT OF THE NEED TO PUT A TUNNEL UNDER WESTERFIELD SITE NOW.as the WELL RESEARCHED & CONCLUSIVE DATA FOR RISK FOR SCHOOLS NEAR FREEWAYS IS THE CLINCHER!! this just cannot happen on that fact alone..so the school is a blessing in disguise..WE MUST
ADVOCATE FOR THE CHILDREN AND STAFF FULL ON NOW IF THEY AREN'T GOING TO..SCHOOLS + freeways = CANCER, CARDIAC, ASTHMA
ETC. GOOGLE; HEALTH RISKS OF SCHOOLS NEAR FREEWAYS!
what WERE THEY THINKING!

Thanks to you all for highlighting so well this scandalous destruction of habitat.Right around Victoria we are rapidly loosing these few remaining patches of endangered biodivesity.

Sustainable development means that the cost of protecting these endangered habitats must be built in to the cost of the development. Clearly this is not happening and when it is our own government ignoring the legislation it is even more shocking.

We have seen the Eastlink Authority "spin machine" move into action and ignore the process that could have protected Nunawading's endangered "Valley Heathy Forest" (see http://WWW.BLEEP.ORG.AU)

We can make a stand right now or kiss goodbye the bushland that is at the very heart of making Australia such a special place in the world.

Lets hope that future generations can look back and say that you were the ones that turned this destructive tide and made us all understand that it is vital to protect these small patches of bushland.

Strength to you all, stand tall.

Best Wishes....John and all at Blackburn Lake Environmental Education Park

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) http://WWW.BLEEP.ORG.AU

i just sent this email to peter garret

To Mr Peter Garret,

As you would well know Westerfields woodlands located in Langwarrin was scheduled for clearing last Monday.

My neighbor and I are actively involved in conservation activities, including the resurrection of his 8.5 acre property. My neighbors land has small pockets of pest plants including tress such as sallow wattle and herbs such as asparagus fern that we are slowly removing and returning the areas affected to their natural state.

Through this I can report that it is very hard, if not almost impossible to maintain pristine woodlands in the suburban fringes due to many problems caused by residential development such as large cleared areas for housing that invite weeds and feral animals and roads that not only kill native animals but also deter them from their habitat due to noise levels.

This proves the fact that we must hang onto sites such as Westerfield because they will be impossible to obtain again and provide small havens for all the fauna displaced by suburban development.
It has been seen that while clearing the other sections of the proposed freeway many 1,000’s of animals have been crushed, buried alive or cut in ½ due to very poor management plans and ruthless clearing operations. My neighbor talks of times in the 70’s and 80’s when he saw many 100’s of sugar gliders on a nightly basis however in the past 10 years there is not one instance that any have been seen. A large number of sugar gliders are housed in Westerfields and will end up dead either directly by bulldozed or indirectly by a loss of food, shelter and breeding places.

Thought personally taking a walk thought the proposed section of Westerfields I was blown away by the amount of space that was unaffected by pest plants such as sallow wattle. There is no other space I have seen on the peninsular or the state for that matter that has not been heavily impacted by pest plants and introduced species such as foxes.

The governments bungled emissions trading scheme that helped see the prime minister stood down will not have a immediate nor noticeable impact on the Mornington peninsular but preserving Westerlands will make sure that there is environmental diversity retained and ensure that if there comes a time we need a true example of what the natural area should look like to model conservation efforts off we will have one.

In your reply could you please explain why more was not done to push alternative routs for the project and why the community was ignored when there alternatives were officaly voiced?

While reading this letter please take into account that I am of 16 years of age and feel passionate about preserving my future suburb and my future world.

Kind Regards,
............

I look out of my primary classroom at the orange flags marking out where the freeway will cut through the Westerfield property in Robinson's Road Frankston. It appears to be that they are only about ten-twenty metres from the school fence line and my classroom is five metres from it on the other side. How can it be that it is allowed to be built so close to where we work, plant vegetables, play and breathe?! I dread the time when noisy bullbozers will begin their rampant trail of destruction through the bush. Our Grade 1 and 2 children are about to begin a unit of work on small animals, and it appears that they will experience first hand a living demonstration of their habit destruction from the vantage point of their classroom windows! Last year they enjoyed two tawny frog-mouths happily sleeping the day away in a tree right above where they play. This year they will witness first hand the annilation of part of their habitat. There seems to me to be a sad irony in this. It is certainly difficult to teach our future generation the importance of being good stewards of our environment whilst trying to explain how what is happening outside their door is allowed to take place.

I think this Bypass is outrrageous! What's gone wrong wheen all levels of government: Loacl, State, and Federal;are so shortsighted, incompetent, and careless. This goes also for the Opposition parties and whith a few honourable execptions, the media too. It is painfully obvious that all of them look on the whole Mornington Peninsula as simply an opportunity to create a vast new suburbia to act as an overflow for the South-East suburbs and create another concrete jungle, at vast profit to developers and their mates!

I agree with Dee-Ann Kelly that such comparisons are critical but such studies should include in their analysis:

1. The additional costs of policing our roads by police and others which is extremely high;

2. The impact upon those without cars in an increasingly car dependent transport system.

Can anyone help on how to protect and register native trees on private property near Seaford Wetlands before they are cut down due to house renovations and we lose these beautiful trees. Frankston Council say they will prosecute if the trees are removed!!!! this is not conservation.We want the trees protected before they are removed.

Excellent website, well done.

Could you please send me information on how I can help to prevent this horror happening. Who can I write to, petition? Thanks.

I object most strongly to the veiled inference at the meeting in the Pines that 'nothing very much' had been done by residents in this area to oppose the building of the freeway.

Many residents have been fighting this development ever since the EES process was first started. However, it became clear from the first EES community consultation meeting arranged by SEITA that Option 1 was a 'done deal'; that it was going to be built irrespective of objections and viable alternatives.

We have had a supposedly transparent and open enquiry wherein three officers having nothing to do with the collection of data and the assembling of material for the EES have publicised information which was not only incorrect but which was used to obtain Council and public support for the project.

These officers publicised information released to them in private meetings in such a way as to create the impression that the information was 'official'. I speak of a) the publicised release of data by Ms Schyschow (who was at the time Manager of Infrastructure with Mornington Shire Council) that public support for the Bypass was 9-1 in favour, b) the release by a Maunsell representative to a community meeting in March, 2008, that traffic data supported Option 1, and c) the declaration by Councillor Hampton that the freeway would yield emission savings of 240,000kg of CO2 PER DAY.

SEITA were contacted about the public release of these pieces of information and they denied all knowledge stating that the release of the information had nothing to do with them or their organisation. Yet, SEITA did not condemn the release of this information, nor did they publicly declare that it did not emanate from them.

The officers who released this information refused to declare where they obtained this information and appeals to the Ombudsman regarding lack of transparency, openness and accountability yielded the reply, that, because of the Panel Hearing the Ombudsman's Office had been informed by State Government that it could not investigate the process.

The fiasco surrounding transparency, public accountability and openness has been a travesty of public scrutiny. None of the officers who released highly questionable and unsupported claims have been reprimanded for interfering in the EES. None of them have been made to account for, or give details of where the source of their controversial claims originated. This information was used and released in such a way as to create the impression of public support, statistical support and environmental benefit.

In fact the information was released without a shred of evidence to back up the claims. No statistics were produced by SEITA to show public support was 90%. The traffic data did not conclusively show that Option 1 was the best alternative and the greenhouse gas emission savings were ridiculed at the Panel Hearing. In other words those responsible for ensuring the EES followed strict guidelines of openness, accountability and scrutiny willfully allowed three independent officials to release misleading, controversial, unsupported and therefore incontestable information into the public realm specifically designed to elicit strong support and public acceptance of this project.

In order to understand the background to this Bypass episode it is necessary to become aware of how the building of this freeway is tied in with a much greater regional development plan originally publicised in 2003; see the Regional Economic Strategy for Melbourne's South East 2003-2030. This document outlines the development of the Frankston Mitcham corridor including the development of the Port of Hastings, the provision of a marina at Frankston, the construction and expansion of industrial estates and the creation and development of transport links to these new commercial hubs.

The Frankston Bypass is merely one tiny aspect of a controversial massive redevelopment plan that has been fractured in order to obtain public approval. This development has not been put to democratic vote. It is a controversial economic vision concocted by the State Government and split up into local 'issues' in the hope of winning approval and support which it might not have been gained if put forward as policy during an election.

The public have been duped from the start regarding this economic vision. It was developed at a time when petrol was flowing freely, global warming was being denied and our economy was booming due to the global need for minerals. The Brumby Government is continuing with this development in the misguided hope that these boom conditions will again return.

Finally, it has been very illuminating to witness the scant disregard to the professed ideals of public openness and accountability. The EES has not been transparent. When officials who have nothing to do with the proponent and have nothing to do with the collection and publication of EES material are allowed to misrepresent facts without scrutiny and accountability, long before the EES is published, then something is very wrong with our institutions professing openness and transparency.

In my opinion no information, except by SEITA, should have been released prior to the publication of the EES. Even then, the release of this information is only 'tentative' because it has not been subjected to the rigours of a Panel Hearing - this is the stage when experts can be called to question the 'expert' testimony and findings of the proponent.

The Panel Hearing into the Bypass revealed that Frankston's traffic problem would NOT be solved by the Bypass. This aspect, that the Bypass would solve traffic problems at the Cranbourne Road intersection, was a key feature of SEITA's propaganda in the early days of the EES and is still featured in arguments for the building of the freeway.

I have become very cynical after witnessing this debacle of an 'open and transparent' public enquiry. Rather, I see this development as being another example of the willingness of State Government to brutally over-ride the social and environmental facilities of a lesser economically privileged sector of the community for the grandiose wishes of a government hell-bent on economic development regardless of environmental and community disruption and devastation.

It is obvious from the statements issued by the State Premier that irrespective of the EES and the Panel Hearing this major economic development is going to proceed. It is also now rumoured that the results and findings of the Panel Hearing will not be made public. In view of this debacle and sham of a public enquiry citizens are now left to ponder on the enormous costs incurred by SEITA and the State Government in holding a meaningless public relations exercise.