Helicopter landing site riles locals in this prized coastal area
His group raised concerns about noise, but the tribunal heard expert evidence that the sound produced by the proposed helicopter would be within the legally allowed levels.
Queenscliff resident and former councillor David Kenwood, who opposed the application in tribunal hearings, said it was deeply worrying that the distinctive areas and landscape designation had not been considered.
'The great worry of this is the precedent it sets particularly for this area,' he said. 'It's virtually impossible to stop another helicopter operation.'
The Borough of Queenscliffe has previously reported nearly 200 bird species have been seen in Swan Bay and that its intertidal mudflats are home to about 10,000 migratory birds each summer.
Ramsey's property is located within a rural conservation zone, and it is also covered by a significant landscape overlay and environmental significance overlay. But the tribunal found these were also not relevant to the proposed use in the helicopter landing site application.
The Age made multiple attempts to seek a response from Ramsey, including through his lawyers, but he could not be reached for comment.
Kenwood said the area beside Lakers Cutting was serene and inappropriate for a helicopter.
'It's probably the quietest place in the borough.'
The zoning of the land and its designation as a distinctive area and landscape should have been enough to protect it from uses including helicopter flights, he said.
'You think you've got safeguards, but once you get into VCAT they're not existent.'
The tribunal determined the Bellarine Peninsula Statement of Planning Policy was not incorporated or referred to expressly in the planning scheme.
The statement of planning policy sets out a 50-year vision for the area to protect its 'outstanding landscapes and coastal landforms', living Indigenous cultural heritage and history and important infrastructure.
The policy lists more than a dozen public entities that are responsible for the declared area, including the Borough of Queenscliffe, Parks Victoria and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. However, VCAT is not among them.
Monash University urban planning and design senior lecturer Liz Taylor said the Queenscliffe council had initially refused a permit for the landing site, but later supported the application. Third-party objectors then spoke out against the application at the tribunal hearings.
Taylor said the state government declared the Bellarine Peninsula a distinctive area and landscape several years ago, which meant it was part of Victoria's planning provisions.
However, she said the state government needed to make a planning scheme amendment to formally incorporate the declaration into the Queenscliffe planning scheme.
A Victorian government spokeswoman said work was under way to incorporate the Bellarine Peninsula Statement of Planning Policy through an amendment to relevant planning schemes. However, it said local councils must consider the policy when making relevant decisions within the declared area.
The tribunal granted the permit to Ramsey subject to several conditions, including that flight movements not exceed 16 per calendar month. The helicopter movements can only occur between 7am and 7pm.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Australian
2 hours ago
- The Australian
Save Our Songlines' Raelene Cooper warns UNESCO of government ‘manipulation' Burrup Peninsula Murujuga Aboriginal Corp
The Indigenous campaigner leading the fight against the North West Shelf LNG extension has cited Environment Minister Murray Watt's decision not to publicly release the proposed conditions for the contentious project in her submission to UNESCO. Save Our Songlines founder Raelene Cooper also used her submission to the international body – which will decide in the coming days whether to admit the rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, on Western Australia's northwest coast to the World Heritage List – to accuse the WA and federal governments of manipulating and misrepresenting scientific findings from a crucial research project. Federal and WA officials as well as representatives from Murujuga Aboriginal Corp are travelling to Paris this week in an attempt to overturn a draft recommendation against the World Heritage listing of Murujuga, which is home to more than one million ancient rock carvings. The draft finding recommending deferring the listing until the heavy industry on the surrounding Burrup Peninsula, including some of Australia's largest industrial projects, was curtailed. Ms Cooper and a number of her supporters have also travelled to Paris for the meeting, with Save Our Songlines having prepared a submission for the UNESCO panel to consider. A statement prepared in recent days by Ms Cooper for UNESCO reinforces her support for the World Heritage nomination and the proposed conditions in the draft decision handed to the body by the International Council on Monuments and Sites earlier this year. That draft decision recommended referring the World Heritage application back to Australia to allow it to 'prevent any further industrial development adjacent to, and within, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape' and 'develop an appropriate decommissioning and rehabilitation plan for existing industrial activities'. At the time of the draft decision, Senator Watt criticised what he said were the 'factual inaccuracies' that had influenced the findings. Just days later, he gave conditional approval to Woodside's plans to extend the operating life of the North West Shelf out to 2070. Ms Cooper told UNESCO that the senator's decision was an example of the Australian government taking action that was contrary to the recommendations presented to UNESCO, with the decision to keep the proposed conditions from the public exacerbating the issue. 'Save our Songlines is currently unable to provide detailed comment on the adequacy of any conditions that may be attached to this approval, because the minister has refused to release the proposed conditions, and they are subject to ongoing negotiation with the proponent (Woodside Energy),' Ms Cooper wrote. 'However, Save our Songlines believes any ongoing operations of the NWS facility are likely to result in unacceptable ongoing impacts to the heritage values of Murujuga, and are contrary to the ICOMOS recommendations for decommissioning and rehabilitation of industrial development at Murujuga.' While the attempts by the state and federal governments and MAC to salvage the listing will likely centre on presenting the recent findings of a rock art monitoring program, Ms Cooper told UNESCO she questioned the validity of that research. 'Save our Songlines is further concerned that the Australian commonwealth government and West Australian state governments have engaged in manipulation and misrepresentation of scientific research in making the claim that pollution from LNG processing does not put the heritage values at risk,' she wrote. 'Save our Songlines believes this is the latest episode in an ongoing effort by the state party to enable industrial developments which are causing, and will continue to cause, profound and ongoing threats to Murujuga.' Ms Cooper is a former chair of MAC but quit the organisation's board after she established Save Our Songlines. Current MAC chair Peter Hicks has been highly critical of attempts to disrupt the listing process, warning that environmental groups had hijacked the process for their own agendas. Mr Hicks will be joined at UNESCO by WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn and the lead scientist from the rock art monitoring program, Ben Mullins. Mr Swinbourn said he was travelling to Paris to stand alongside Murujuga's traditional owners as they seek to have the area's outstanding cultural and historical values recognised. 'The scientific evidence shows that industry and cultural heritage can coexist when properly managed, and that current industrial activity is not damaging the rock art. 'Ongoing monitoring, undertaken in partnership between the WA government and MAC, will continue safeguarding this irreplaceable cultural heritage,' he said. 'World Heritage listing will further help protect the ancient rock art and cultural landscapes of Murujuga for generations to come. 'This is about ensuring the unique stories and significance of Murujuga are recognised and celebrated by the international community.' Paul Garvey Senior Reporter Paul Garvey is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades' experience in newsrooms around Australia and the world. He is currently the senior reporter in The Australian's WA bureau, covering politics, courts, billionaires and everything in between. He has previously written for The Wall Street Journal in New York, The Australian Financial Review in Melbourne, and for The Australian from Hong Kong before returning to his native Perth. He was the WA Journalist of the Year in 2024 and is a two-time winner of The Beck Prize for political journalism. Nation Zempilas noted Peter Dutton's emphatic defeat in explaining why the WA parliamentary party would not be adopting the positions Indigenous An academic who said 'Blak activists' were turning Melbourne University into 'an ideological re-education camp' has been mocked for using anti-discrimination laws in a bid to save his job.
West Australian
6 hours ago
- West Australian
Kate Emery: Australia must never let reheating of old culture wars tear us apart
A familiar tune has been playing in my head for days. That is not thanks to Triple J's controversial weekend list of the best 100 Australian songs, which not only put Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl ahead of The Church's Under the Milky Way, but made my kids late for school while I forced them to admit The Nosebleed Section was a better tune than anything from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack after all, Mum. That déjà vu feeling has nothing to do with seeing music fans argue the merits of INXS v ACDC, and everything to do with the fact that welcome to country is back in the public discourse. Again. This is partly down to the Liberal Party's State council, which voted on Saturday to remove official status for welcome to country ceremonies and partly down to Opposition Senate Leader Michaelia Cash, who said she thinks the ceremonies make people 'feel good' while doing nothing to improve life for Indigenous people. Senator Cash's comments weren't the silliest thing I saw all weekend — that would be ranking Savage Garden's I Want You above Nick Cave's Red Right Hand — but they were right up there. The idea that having a positive display of Indigenous culture is an obstacle to improving Indigenous welfare is like suggesting we all boycott eating hummus until the Middle Eastern crisis is solved. Two things can be true. One: that anyone who has attended a conference where every speaker performs an acknowledgement of country may have thought about rolling their eyes — especially if the tenth 'I'd like to also acknowledge' stands between them and afternoon tea. Two: that anyone who has experienced a truly great welcome to country knows it is anything but tokenistic. The problem is that too many Australians misunderstand what welcome to country is. It's not the same as an acknowledgement of country, which can be done by anyone. A welcome to country must be done by an Indigenous person and is just what it sounds like: an act of hospitality. It's not welcome to the c ountry because because these ceremonies aren't about welcoming us to Australia. As a proud Australian — proud of our music, the fact we're the only nation capable of using the c-word as a term of affection and that we boast the oldest continuous living culture in the world — why would I have a problem with that? The other big misunderstanding about welcome to country is that it was 'invented' by Ernie Dingo. Yeah, nah. Welcome to country is a modern take on what Indigenous groups have been doing since the days when, over in Europe where my ancestors are from, the Neanderthals still thought they were in it for the long haul. When one group passed into territory inhabited by another, the two would come together to request safe passage. Welcome to the patch of country we've been looking after, let us give you some tips for getting along here. The only thing that's 'new' about welcome to country is that it's been given a national platform and incorporated into so many big events, from the opening of Parliament to footy games. I've seen some cracking welcome to country ceremonies over the years, from those that made me laugh to those that tug on what passes for a journalist's heartstrings. The latter happened recently when I received a very special welcome to country in the Pilbara. Without going into specifics — this particular elder was publicity shy — he told us about his connection to the land, and warned us against the spiritual repercussions of taking any artefacts we found. It wasn't about making us feel like trespassers, just an affecting way to be reminded about the history of the land. At a time when the Liberal Party is struggling for relevance, at both the Federal and State level, it is tedious to see so many party members breathing on the coals of this particular culture war. An Opposition that puts its energy into tearing down Indigenous culture instead of holding the Government to account and coming up with policies to present itself as a credible alternative, is one that's doomed to fail. And for those of us who believe that good oppositions make good governments, it's almost as maddening as seeing Thunderstruck not make the top 10 of Australian bangers.
The Age
8 hours ago
- The Age
Hanson tests Coalition resolve on net zero
'We are the Reform of [Australia] because everything that Nigel Farage stands for, I've been talking about for years, for nearly 30 years.' Hanson's anti-immigration party, which has courted controversy for decades for its stances on minority groups, added two senators at the May election, doubling its number of seats. Joyce's campaign has gained support from backbenchers Garth Hamilton, Tony Pasin, Alex Antic, a slew of Nationals, and the expanded right-wing Senate bloc of One Nation and United Australia Party's Ralph Babet. Frontbencher Andrew Hastie has also been fighting internally to overturn the net zero pledge, with the policy currently under review within the Coalition. Liberals have also spoken out about Indigenous welcome ceremonies after Ley indicated support for the practice. And in another sign of internal angst, former frontbencher Sarah Henderson argued in last week's private party room meeting that the Coalition should adopt as formal policy a push by Antic to enshrine in law the existence of only two genders. Henderson declined to comment. Taken together, the thrusts underline the depth of feeling among right-wing Coalition MPs as Ley aims to correct course from the perceived failings of the Dutton era. Institute of Public Affairs deputy head Daniel Wild said in Australia, as in the UK, there was a growing gap between the wishes of right-wing voters and the offerings of centre-right parties on cultural issues, immigration and green energy. 'What you're now seeing is a new bloc, whether it's people from One Nation or Barnaby Joyce, and others, giving voice to those concerns in a way that they haven't before,' Wild said. 'I don't think Liberals are going to die out, but I think the risk of irrelevancy is increasing.' Hume, one of only two Liberals to vote against Hanson's motion, pushed back against the One Nation leader, saying voters 'made it clear at the ballot box that they expect serious, credible action on climate change'. 'How can we keep the seats we have and win back the seats we've lost, without hearing that message?' she said. The UN's chief climate diplomat has urged Australia to continue its push towards net zero, warning that failure to stabilise the climate would cut living standards $7000 per person per year by 2050. 'Climate disasters are already costing Australian home owners $4 billion a year – and that figure is only going one way,' said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Outspoken conservative backbencher Hamilton warned of the risks of a Labor-lite agenda. 'We need to be wary of what's happened to our sister party in the UK,' he said, cautioning that Australia's preferential and compulsory system provided some protection from a third-party takeover. Loading Hamilton said public debate on the Coalition's direction should not be silenced, arguing Dutton did not lose because Australians rejected conservative values, but rather because of the Coalition's deficient policy agenda. Hanson said she was open to picking off Coalition MPs who felt uncomfortable with Ley's more centrist approach that has seen her spruik the case for quotas for preselecting women, dump the idea of building nuclear plants, and install Paul Scarr – who on Monday highlighted the positives of migration – into the immigration portfolio. The Nationals and Liberal Party briefly split after the election. During that period, Liberal MPs discussed privately the prospect of creating a new city-based party to espouse small-l liberal values unencumbered by conservative regional MPs. Scott Morrison canvassed the idea among his close colleagues after the 2022 election, according to several sources involved in those talks who did not want to be identified. Political historian Paul Strangio, an emeritus professor at Monash University, said Ley's message of modernising the party risked her being received 'as a kind of apostate'. 'Diagnosing what needs to be done doesn't mean Ley can magic away a quarter of a century of a conservative populist creep by the Liberals dating back to the Howard era that in essence has involved the party fighting a rearguard action against the evolving direction of Australian society,' he said. 'The resistance she will inevitably encounter is already evident in the incipient revolt within the Coalition against a net zero carbon emissions target. 'A major question looms over whether Ley has the requisite network of allies, intellectual and rhetorical force, strategic nous and fortitude to perform the diabolically difficult task of reversing 25 years of rightwards Liberal drift.'
