Sugar gliders lose homes and their highway in and out of Monty
Sent to Cr. Alison Champion, Sherbourne Ward on 8 March 2021
Ten years ago the newly formed Monty Biodiversity Group put up their first sugar glider boxes. They had heard there might be gliders in their suburb though none had been seen in the last 10 years.
Imagine the group’s excitement when they sighted their first glider in one of the reserves shortly after the boxes were installed.
Since then the group has installed 161 boxes in Montmorency with 93 of these located in residents gardens. Seventy gliders had been sighted in Montmorency at last count.
In Montmorency the gliders main thoroughfare are the tall mature trees and vegetation bordering the railway line which in turn connect with the Plenty river and Diamond creek corridors.
The railway corridor is recognised as an important wildlife corridor by the Banyule City Council and the Victorian State Government. However in the groups first meeting with LXRP on 4.3.21 they learnt that this status was immaterial and that the corridor’s destruction would commence Friday 12.3.21.
Although the corridor will be replaced with other habitat plantings and promises to be an innovative design, the very limited exposure the groups had to it, suggests that it looks unsuitable for the gliders. For gliders to travel, the tree canopy they use must be no more than 40 metres apart. Tall trees are also preferred by Sugar Gliders to avoid their predators, particularly cats, foxes and dogs. For nesting box installation, it is recommended to be at least 3 metres high from the ground as a minimum. Where total removal of existing vegetation is planned, no landscaping will suffice for many years to come. This revegetation will not happen until the rest of the works are completed in a year or two.
Ideally the LXRP team would have asked the group and others 6 months ago to codesign a re-establishment plan for the existing glider boxes and their inhabitants. As it is now they have less than a week to plan and re home these gliders.
Its heartbreaking said a local resident. “Where else have you built a rail duplication or station rebuild in a hilly leafy suburb of Melbourne? Or in a recognised wildlife corridor for that matter? Apparently, this will be the first in such an area. LXRP have expressed a desire to work with community. They started with a meeting on vegetation plans one week prior to the clearings.
The opportunity to preserve this corridor appreciated and loved by locals and many others is at the 11th hour. Meanwhile the gliders continue to travel down the corridor unaware that their time is running out.
Jane Oldfield - Convenor of the Montmorency Biodiversity Group
Pam Rowley - Friends of the Montmorency Bushlands
and on behalf of the Montmorency Community Group
Pick my Project - A community grants initiative with $30 million available to fund local projects
Imagine the group’s excitement when they sighted their first glider in one of the reserves shortly after the boxes were installed.
Since then the group has installed 161 boxes in Montmorency with 93 of these located in residents gardens. Seventy gliders had been sighted in Montmorency at last count.
In Montmorency the gliders main thoroughfare are the tall mature trees and vegetation bordering the railway line which in turn connect with the Plenty river and Diamond creek corridors.
The railway corridor is recognised as an important wildlife corridor by the Banyule City Council and the Victorian State Government. However in the groups first meeting with LXRP on 4.3.21 they learnt that this status was immaterial and that the corridor’s destruction would commence Friday 12.3.21.
Although the corridor will be replaced with other habitat plantings and promises to be an innovative design, the very limited exposure the groups had to it, suggests that it looks unsuitable for the gliders. For gliders to travel, the tree canopy they use must be no more than 40 metres apart. Tall trees are also preferred by Sugar Gliders to avoid their predators, particularly cats, foxes and dogs. For nesting box installation, it is recommended to be at least 3 metres high from the ground as a minimum. Where total removal of existing vegetation is planned, no landscaping will suffice for many years to come. This revegetation will not happen until the rest of the works are completed in a year or two.
Ideally the LXRP team would have asked the group and others 6 months ago to codesign a re-establishment plan for the existing glider boxes and their inhabitants. As it is now they have less than a week to plan and re home these gliders.
Its heartbreaking said a local resident. “Where else have you built a rail duplication or station rebuild in a hilly leafy suburb of Melbourne? Or in a recognised wildlife corridor for that matter? Apparently, this will be the first in such an area. LXRP have expressed a desire to work with community. They started with a meeting on vegetation plans one week prior to the clearings.
The opportunity to preserve this corridor appreciated and loved by locals and many others is at the 11th hour. Meanwhile the gliders continue to travel down the corridor unaware that their time is running out.
Jane Oldfield - Convenor of the Montmorency Biodiversity Group
Pam Rowley - Friends of the Montmorency Bushlands
and on behalf of the Montmorency Community Group
Pick my Project - A community grants initiative with $30 million available to fund local projects
Letter Regarding Railway duplication
Sent to Cr. Alison Champion, Sherbourne Ward on 8 March 2021
Dear MP’s and fellow citizens
Re- planned railway duplication works, Montmorency to Greensborough
We are facing total destruction of the distinctive local character of our suburb. The appalling lack of communication or real community consultation is what would have been expected in the dark ages.
All we want is the best railway duplication solution for this hilly leafy suburb where the train line runs through a recognised wildlife corridor.
Can you help us to achieve this?
Here’s a summary of some of our most pressing concerns
**Community consultation and communication
What our questioning and probing has revealed is that since at least May 2020 the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s plan was actually to do the things we now know as noted below.
We have finally been informed this last week (Thursday 4/3/21) of the rough plans for vegetation removal and that the implementation is scheduled to start this Friday 12/3/21. No opportunity for feedback from the community has been offered despite many requests for this information for months. Recent zoom meetings to which some community representatives were invited have been totally inadequate because of the lack of information prior to the meetings, the limits on participant numbers, lack of time to have questions answered and other restrictions.
**Safety
The logic is flawed. The plan isn’t even safe.
The type of pedestrian crossing planned has not been built in Melbourne for 10 years and will be used by many more people than the current one and is dangerous for anyone with mobility issues, prams, children, and the elderly.
The plan as now revealed to us in a piecemeal way is
Remove and re-locate the current station
Remove the existing carpark near the station entrance and local shops
Relocate parking to up to 500m from the station entrance
Split the replacement parking (with no new spaces) across both sides of the track requiring removal of 200 plus mature indigenous trees (the major part of the local wildlife corridor)
Provide a replacement crossing for pedestrians rather than a bridge or a tunnel even though either could be accommodated in this hilly terrain (to our knowledge, pedestrian crossings over the train line (called ‘at grade crossings’) are no longer considered safe enough and have not been built in Melbourne for the last decade)
Rebuild the local road bridge that connects the two halves of our leafy suburb (not informed in the October 2020 consultation) and requires night works, road closures and vibrating bore drilling for the next 2 years within the wildlife corridor)
** Environment
The railway corridor is recognised as an important wildlife corridor by the Banyule City Council and the Victorian State Government. However in the groups’ first meeting with LXRP on 4.3.21 the community learnt that this status was immaterial and that the corridor’s destruction would commence Friday 12.3.21.
Although the corridor will be replaced with other habitat plantings and promises to be an innovative design, the very limited exposure the groups had to this design suggests that it looks unsuitable for the gliders. For gliders to travel, the tree canopy they use must be no more than 40 metres apart. Tall trees are also preferred by Sugar Gliders to avoid their predators, particularly cats, foxes and dogs. For nesting box installation, it is recommended to be at 3 metres high from the ground as a minimum. Where total removal of existing vegetation is planned (as in the majority of this corridor), no landscaping will suffice for many years to come. This revegetation will not happen until the rest of the works are completed in a year or two.
Ideally the LXRP team would have asked the groups and others 6 months ago to codesign a re-establishment plan for the existing glider boxes and their inhabitants. As it is now they have less than a week to plan and re home these gliders.
This is devastating for us residents who love our hilly shady treed suburb with a wildlife corridor running through the middle. This train line reserve has provided a home and a link for local wildlife between the Plenty River and Diamond Creek – the two waterways either side of our suburb.
Other rare and endangered species have been noted and as yet this has not been able to prompt an environmental impact statement.
** Community well-being and mental health concerns
As we have seen through this last year with the covid pandemic and through the recent felling of all the trees in the gateway to Eltham, the community is in need of care and kindness. Communication and meaningful consultation creates this.
There is plenty of evidence now that mental health and community connection are key factions to overall well-being.
Our neighbourhood character is being ignored. The current plans are not even a safe option. It seems that budget considerations are being prioritised over safety.
A safer more fitting option is possible for the same cost. If we can get in front of the people actually making the decisions here we can put a case for a low key, lower cost upgrade that is safe for drivers, has safe crossings for the travelling public and doesn’t create a drivers’ bottleneck near 2 primary schools.
We only have days to turn around this mess. Please help us.
Regards
Jane Oldfield, Convenor of the Montmorency Biodiversity Group
Pam Rowley, Friends of Montmorency Bushlands
And including Montmorency Community Group
Addendum Letter from Dr Suzanne Cremen, Eltham
Re- planned railway duplication works, Montmorency to Greensborough
We are facing total destruction of the distinctive local character of our suburb. The appalling lack of communication or real community consultation is what would have been expected in the dark ages.
All we want is the best railway duplication solution for this hilly leafy suburb where the train line runs through a recognised wildlife corridor.
Can you help us to achieve this?
Here’s a summary of some of our most pressing concerns
**Community consultation and communication
What our questioning and probing has revealed is that since at least May 2020 the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s plan was actually to do the things we now know as noted below.
We have finally been informed this last week (Thursday 4/3/21) of the rough plans for vegetation removal and that the implementation is scheduled to start this Friday 12/3/21. No opportunity for feedback from the community has been offered despite many requests for this information for months. Recent zoom meetings to which some community representatives were invited have been totally inadequate because of the lack of information prior to the meetings, the limits on participant numbers, lack of time to have questions answered and other restrictions.
**Safety
The logic is flawed. The plan isn’t even safe.
The type of pedestrian crossing planned has not been built in Melbourne for 10 years and will be used by many more people than the current one and is dangerous for anyone with mobility issues, prams, children, and the elderly.
The plan as now revealed to us in a piecemeal way is
Remove and re-locate the current station
Remove the existing carpark near the station entrance and local shops
Relocate parking to up to 500m from the station entrance
Split the replacement parking (with no new spaces) across both sides of the track requiring removal of 200 plus mature indigenous trees (the major part of the local wildlife corridor)
Provide a replacement crossing for pedestrians rather than a bridge or a tunnel even though either could be accommodated in this hilly terrain (to our knowledge, pedestrian crossings over the train line (called ‘at grade crossings’) are no longer considered safe enough and have not been built in Melbourne for the last decade)
Rebuild the local road bridge that connects the two halves of our leafy suburb (not informed in the October 2020 consultation) and requires night works, road closures and vibrating bore drilling for the next 2 years within the wildlife corridor)
** Environment
The railway corridor is recognised as an important wildlife corridor by the Banyule City Council and the Victorian State Government. However in the groups’ first meeting with LXRP on 4.3.21 the community learnt that this status was immaterial and that the corridor’s destruction would commence Friday 12.3.21.
Although the corridor will be replaced with other habitat plantings and promises to be an innovative design, the very limited exposure the groups had to this design suggests that it looks unsuitable for the gliders. For gliders to travel, the tree canopy they use must be no more than 40 metres apart. Tall trees are also preferred by Sugar Gliders to avoid their predators, particularly cats, foxes and dogs. For nesting box installation, it is recommended to be at 3 metres high from the ground as a minimum. Where total removal of existing vegetation is planned (as in the majority of this corridor), no landscaping will suffice for many years to come. This revegetation will not happen until the rest of the works are completed in a year or two.
Ideally the LXRP team would have asked the groups and others 6 months ago to codesign a re-establishment plan for the existing glider boxes and their inhabitants. As it is now they have less than a week to plan and re home these gliders.
This is devastating for us residents who love our hilly shady treed suburb with a wildlife corridor running through the middle. This train line reserve has provided a home and a link for local wildlife between the Plenty River and Diamond Creek – the two waterways either side of our suburb.
Other rare and endangered species have been noted and as yet this has not been able to prompt an environmental impact statement.
** Community well-being and mental health concerns
As we have seen through this last year with the covid pandemic and through the recent felling of all the trees in the gateway to Eltham, the community is in need of care and kindness. Communication and meaningful consultation creates this.
There is plenty of evidence now that mental health and community connection are key factions to overall well-being.
Our neighbourhood character is being ignored. The current plans are not even a safe option. It seems that budget considerations are being prioritised over safety.
A safer more fitting option is possible for the same cost. If we can get in front of the people actually making the decisions here we can put a case for a low key, lower cost upgrade that is safe for drivers, has safe crossings for the travelling public and doesn’t create a drivers’ bottleneck near 2 primary schools.
We only have days to turn around this mess. Please help us.
Regards
Jane Oldfield, Convenor of the Montmorency Biodiversity Group
Pam Rowley, Friends of Montmorency Bushlands
And including Montmorency Community Group
Addendum Letter from Dr Suzanne Cremen, Eltham
Habitat loss for the Eltham Copper ButterflyArticle published in The Age 11 March 2021
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