State planning minister Richard Wynne has moved to allay fears that Sunbury sites of cultural and historic significance will be impacted by growth imperatives.
The town residents association has raised concerns about developments in the Jackson’s Creek valley between Rupertswood and Emu Bottom homestead.
The town’s Lancefield Road precinct structure plan has earmarked some 34 hectares of land, bounded by Jackson Creek and Racecourse Road, and near the Emu Bottom wetlands, for urban growth.
The precinct includes a number of historically and environmentally significant sites, including several 1000-year-old Aboriginal earth (bora) rings and Rupertswood mansion itself. The valley is home to one of Victoria’s most thriving platypus communities.
An online petition created last month is pushing for protection of the sites. Residents association president Peter Free said a March 4 forum heard from a National Trust spokesman who said the valley was a unique piece of land.
“What we want is to leave that land open for future generations,” Mr Free said. “There are 19,000 homes that are going to be built in Sunbury over the next 35 years – if we ruin the valley, that’s it, we can never get it back.”
A planning department spokesman told
Star Weekly that the earth rings, Rupertswood and Emu Bottom homestead are not among areas proposed for housing, having been deemed “unsuitable for development”.
See the petition at bit.ly/2mlhPua.
