Mallee

 Updates

 Newsfiles

Campaigns -

Native Forest Network/Sunraysia

No Mallee Toxic Dump - Mildura

VFF- Food Bowl Alliance

The Alliance for Appropriate Management of Hazardous Waste

 Background

The big threats to the Forests of the Mallee

This local Campaign was brought to the streets of Melbourne and to Parliament Steps on the 13th of October 2004. (See picture above right ).

The Campaign is strongly supported by Mildura City Council.(Click here - for the link to the Council Website)

Mildura Rural City Council has allowed$100,000 in this year’s budget (2004-5) for the campaign against the toxic waste dump.

At a meeting at Redcliffs where motion was passed to oppose the dump, residents and farmers expressed anger at the secrecy surrounding the site selection, fears for the region’s "Clean Green" image for export and domestic produce, and skepticism about the Government’s motives for wanting to send the waste 500 kilometres from its source.

Concern was also expressed for the internationally acclaimed Hattah Lakes, and at the loss of prime habitat for the endangered Mallee Fowl.

A delegation of Victoria's peak environment groups visited the proposed Hattah/Nowingi site for hazardous waste facility in north-west Victoria, yesterday.

The site proposed by Major Projects Victoria (MPV), includes unique flora and fauna, including old growth mallee scrub, the endangered Malleefowl, and the Emu wren.

The visit took place only days after the State Government released an environment report on the proposed site.

The report assigned the site the highest class of environmental value.

In the report, the consultants employed by MPV, Biosis, acknowledged that the proposed site is of "very high conservation significance".

This is the highest rating they can give such an area and it means that the development cannot go ahead without direct approval from the Minister for the Environment and Water, John Thwaites.

According to the law such Ministerial approval is "not permitted unless exceptional circumstances apply".

"There are no circumstances that can justify the destruction of such critical habitat for so many endangered species and there is no legal way that this project can proceed at Hattah," Marcus Godinho, Executive Director of Environment Victoria, said.

Full article