PLEASE HELP OUR COMMUNITY SAVE THE WESTERN PORT GREEN WEDGE.

The Western Port Green Wedge Protection Group (WPGWPG) is a dedicated group of Casey and Cardinia residents, together with Green Wedge supporters from across Victoria, who are passionate about preserving the unique and essential non-urban land that lies beyond Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary.

What are Melbourne’s Green Wedges?

In the 1960s, the Hamer Government recognised this outstanding countryside as a vital part of Melbourne’s rural and metropolitan environment. These green spaces with their unique landscapes, natural bushland, fertile agricultural land, incredible biodiversity, and significant environmental, conservation and cultural heritage, were considered so valuable that they needed to be preserved and protected. As a result, Melbourne’s Green Wedge zones were created.

The Western Port Green Wedge is particularly unique. It contains areas of internationally recognised ecological importance, diverse flora and fauna, rich biodiversity, valuable wildlife habitat, and outstanding landscape values. Its fertile soils support extensive agricultural and horticultural industries, making it a crucial part of Melbourne’s food bowl and a supplier to interstate and overseas markets. It also holds significant historical, recreational and community health value, widely enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.

The WPGWPG is committed to protecting the Western Port Green Wedge and working toward the protection of all of Melbourne’s Green Wedges. We work alongside our Peninsula and Whittlesea sister groups, and in conjunction with numerous local neighbourhood Green Wedge groups.

Why do we need your help?

Melbourne’s twelve Green Wedges have long been among Victoria’s greatest assets and a key contributor to Melbourne’s reputation as one of the world’s most liveable cities. Yet today, they are being rapidly and tragically diminished by urbanisation, over-development and inappropriate land use.

Destruction and fragmentation of Melbourne’s Green Wedges - including the Western Port Green Wedge - is occurring at an alarming rate. The future of these irreplaceable landscapes now hangs in the balance.

We need to work together as a community. We need to act now. We need your help. Once lost, our precious Green Wedges can never be replaced.

What do we do?

In response to significant community concern, the WPGWPG is investigating, and where warranted, actively opposing , a number of inappropriate proposals in the City of Casey and the Shire of Cardinia Green Wedge zones. These include urban-style uses, illegal landfill sites, commercial and industrial uses without a permit and much more.

To assess these applications and activities, the WPGWPG:

• works closely with community members and local councils;

• lobbies for legislative change at local, state and federal levels to strengthen Green Wedge protections;

• opposes unsuitable developments and land uses through council and VCAT processes;

• supports Green Wedge protection initiatives; and

• assists like-minded community groups as they navigate the often-complex pathways to achieving better planning outcomes.

Recently, we successfully contested an application for an inappropriate development on Brown’s Road, Cranbourne South. The proposal, originally approved by council, was rejected at VCAT as an unsuitable urban-style development within a Green Wedge context. Whilst this was a significant win for Green Wedge land, our community is now facing extensive legal costs incurred during this case.

Unfortunately, this is only one example of a growing trend of inappropriate development across the Western Port Green Wedge. Our community is now facing a $250 million, 44-hectare place of worship proposal, also planned for Green Wedge land in Cranbourne South.

Historically, places of worship were not permitted in Green Wedge zones but were located within urban areas, where infrastructure already existed and where they were readily accessible to the communities they served.

Developments such as these often include large buildings and extensive car-parking facilities and can accommodate thousands of people on a daily basis. This level of development and activity impacts both the site itself and the surrounding rural landscape by clearing native vegetation, reducing and fragmenting wildlife habitat, displacing wildlife, decreasing biodiversity, altering watercourses, and consuming land previously reserved for agriculture and other rural enterprises that can only be accommodated beyond the Urban Growth Boundary.

In 2013, protective legislation was diluted to allow a number of discretionary uses of Green Wedge land, opening the door to an influx of urban-style developments. Many of these proposals are rejected at a Council or VCAT level only because of coordinated and sustained community opposition - a time-consuming and costly process.

Why is your donation so important?

In representing our community, we first strive to address these issues through constructive discussions with applicants, councils and government departments. However, satisfactory outcomes are not always possible at this level, leaving VCAT proceedings as the only remaining avenue. Pursuing these matters incurs substantial legal and expert witness costs that simply cannot be met by our volunteers. Without community donations, we simply cannot continue this work.

We are therefore reaching out to the wider community – those of you who value not just the Western Port Green Wedge, but all of Melbourne’s Green Wedges.

Your support means we can continue this important work.

We are preparing to challenge further proposals at VCAT and ask you to stand with our community as we continue our vital work of protecting and preserving these green spaces for their agricultural role, environmental significance, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, and their historical, recreational, community health and landscape values.

Please donate to our cause as we work to keep Melbourne’s Green Wedges green - for the wellbeing of our communities, our environment and for future generations.

Please support the protection of the Western Port Green Wedge by:

• Donating to this GoFundMe campaign - every contribution helps and is deeply appreciated

• Sharing this Go Fund Me Campaign – please help us spread the word!

• Joining the Western Port Green Wedge Protection Group Facebook page, where we share updates and foster community discussion

• Signing the Change.org Green Wedge Petition - it’s quick, free, and your signature helps amplify our call for permanent protection

• Visiting the WPGWPG website to learn more about Melbourne’s Green Wedges, our campaigns, and other ways you can assist

With gratitude,

The Western Port Green Wedge Protection Group