Tag Archives: Cranbourne

Ecologist Hans Brunner’s response to the DEWLP Southern Brown Bandicoot Implementation Plan

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To:
James Todd | Director Knowledge and Decision Systems | Biodiversity Division
Environment & Climate Change | Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning
Level 2, 8 Nicholson St, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002

Dear James,

In spite of the massive input that has already been done for the Southern Brown Bandicoot implementation plan, I still have some serious doubt about a best possible outcome at this stage. It appears that my many evaluations of the proposed corridors presented to DELWP have been totally ignored.

It seems that the long, too narrow, costly and unproven corridors are going to remain as the core solution regardless of everything else.

My I ask then why the corridor from the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (RBGC) to the Pines is still seriously considered while there are no plans to protect SBB’s in the Pines,( if they can actually get there), the same way as they are at the RBGC? This, and the other three corridors are all open ended and do not lead into other and well protected colonies.

As to the Population Viability Assessment (PVA), much discussion went on about it. My question is, has there been a PVA applied to the proposed corridor solution and if so, I would like to obtain a detailed copy of it. As far as I am concerned, a proper PVA would have to dismally fail the present concept.

Since there is already $ 20m wasted on underpasses in the Pines , I would not like to see another $20 to 30 million wasted on these corridors while there is no money left for the proper protection of SBB;s in a number of reserves surrounded by a predator proof fence. This is my solution.

And finally, it appears to me that when environmental issues are dealt with in the same department as there is planning, there could well be a conflict of interest to occur.

I am happy to discuss my points with any one, possibly over the phone.

Yours concerned.

Hans Brunner.

Hansxx

We appreciate Hans Brunner’s effort (image above) to negotiate a solution to the threats to the Southern Brown Bandicoot in Victoria, Cranbourne area.  Such is the political and economic power of the housing industry, habitat will be lost and the threatening process is one that can’t easily be mitigated.

The forecast human population of Cranbourne, 2016, was 297,000 and by 2041, 492,497, a whopping 68.5% increase in this period!  Hardly leave much habitat for SBB!  They are to be sacrificed so that property developers, and real estate investors, can continue rolling out urban sprawl – and big profits.

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It’s our national duty to protect endangered species

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It’s our national duty to protect native endangered species, not sacrifice them to urban sprawl.

hunt

Dear Minister Hunt,

I am writing to you in regards to the Southern Brown Bandicoots (SBB) in Cranbourne area, as per the ABC news on Sunday night, 28th February.

This devastation is happening in YOUR electorate, and it’s shameful that there is no voice from you as Environment Minister?

These SBB are already threatened, and there are so many native species in our growing threatened species list!   Why wasn’t the fox-proof fence built, that was already funded?  Why will the animals have to go, for HOUSING!  We have enough houses in our city, and why do we need MORE destructive urban sprawl?  People are not a threatened species, and an economy relying on building houses is shallow and destructive!

The small brown marsupial is listed as nationally endangered.  There is no point in saying their numbers are sufficient elsewhere!

Australia is a land famous for our rich biodiversity, but it seems our decision-makers, including you,  are intent on destroying as much as possible of it – and in this case simply to appease property developers!

It was decided that there was no benefit to be gained from the wildlife corridors, but this is NOT about monetary gain.  The Victorian Government’s own bandicoot strategy said the corridors were not “cost effective”.   It’s incompatible with urban sprawl.  We have a legal obligation to protect our natural heritage, and “cost” is irrelevant as there is already funds available.  They have intrinsic value, and are part of our natural heritage.  Where’s the “cost effective” policy for urban sprawl?

These delightful little suburban battlers were once common in our southern suburbs, and now just a few remain in the Pines Flora and Fauna Sanctuary at Cranbourne.  A patch of bush in the back blocks of Frankston on Melbourne’s urban edge is just 10 kilometres from the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens.

Peninsula Link spent $20 million of taxpayers’ money on an underpass, and handed over $1.6 million to Parks Victoria for the fence.  But Parks Victoria never built the fence.  Where’s the money for the SBB now?  Bandicoots don’t need corridors, but their habitat protected.

We have the EPBC and our Wildlife Act, and are set up to PROTECT our native species, so why isn’t this Act being implemented and enforced?  It seems that the major contributors to our environmental threats are somehow and conveniently exempt  from prosecution, and from limits to their actions.  How are property developers exempt from laws protecting wildlife?

We are locked in to a Colonial, cancerous type of economy, of new settlers, housing expansion, vegetation clearing, or “taming the bush”, and unbending never-ending “growth” at whatever cost. This type of encroachment onto native species habitats is a Third World problem, not one of a so-called leading, developed economy like that of Australia!
The Buck Stops with YOU!  You are the Environment Minister, so you can stop this habitat vandalism, and sending one more native species down the extinction trial.  Extinction is FOREVER, and would you like to be known by future generations for the demise if the SSB, and only be seen in reserves or stuffed in Museums?  Is this to be your legacy to future generations?  Killing off the last of the SBB?

We wait for your response,

Vivienne Ortega, secretary

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