Environmental war looms on the Mornington Peninsula as fifty big names sign open letter

FIRST with NEIL MITCHELL

Fifty big names have thrown their support behind a campaign to stop the expansion of a quarry at Arthurs Seat.

Former Greens leader, Bob Brown, CSL boss Brian McNamee, director Fred Schepisi and actor Stephen Curry are among the signatories who have put their names to an open letter.

They say expanding the Hillview Quarry at Dromana would destroy some of the Mornington Peninsula’s “last remnant, old growth bushland”.

Mark Fancett from the Peninsula Preservation Group, the group leading the community campaign to stop the quarry, says the expansion will go ahead if the public doesn’t protest.

“We’ve lost 80 per cent of our natural vegetation and here we’ve got this company wanting to put in a massive industrial complex on he side of Arthurs Seat and clear a massive amount of bush,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Mr Fancett says it’s a powerful “to have such a group from the arts, from, business, from academia, from conservation groups, and some of these are very private people as well, willing to stand up”.

“We want the wider Melbourne community to stand up and tell our politicians we’re not going to stand for this anymore.”

“If we don’t all stand up we are going to lose this and it will be too late.”

More than 41,000 have signed a petition to stop the quarry going ahead.

In a statement, Hillview Quarries said it’s in the “very early stages of an environmental effects statement process”.

“The site under investigation has been operating on and off as an active quarry supplying the Mornington Peninsula and south-east Melbourne growth corridors since the 1960s,’ the statement read.

“The size of the quarry pit is yet to be determined.

“Hillview Quarries has been actively and openly consulting with the community.”

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