Contractors driving a truck through critically endangered old-growth grassland at Truganina Cemetery have left a trail of destruction, prompting urgent calls for better oversight by state and federal authorities.
Damage to the 1.6 hectares of grasslands west of Melbourne snapped Spiny Rice-flower, crushed Button Wrinklewort and compacted soil.
Truganina Cemetery is a fenced cemetery that protects the most genetically significant stand of the Endangered Button Wrinklewort remaining in Australia – a remnant patch crucial to the species’ long-term survival, given it is on the brink of extinction. The grassland also includes the critically endangered Arching Flax-lily, and Spiny Rice-flower.
The grasslands are among 36 biodiversity hotspots mandated for protection under the Melbourne Strategic Assessment. This joint federal–state agreement protects threatened plants and animals as part of the 2009 expansion of the Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary.
Adrian Marshall, spokesperson for the Grassy Plains Network, said the episode highlights how crucial strong oversight by both state and federal authorities is.
“Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust has done a good job over many years respecting the irreplaceable grassland at Truganina Cemetery. But they really dropped the ball this time,” he said.
“Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has to make sure every land holder knows their responsibilities and that those obligations apply to everyone down the chain to the workers on the ground. But DEECA isn’t doing its job. We need the federal authorities to step-in and make them.
“This is not an accident. Ignorance and failures of proper process can’t be forgiven. The people responsible need to be held to account. We need deterrence. We’ve had a string of these failures.”
Several months ago, fencing contractors working adjacent to another conservation area, Sewell’s Road Grassland, trashed a roadside opposite a large population of critically endangered Spiny Rice-flower. While the developer knew about the presence of the Spiny Rice-flower, the workers on the ground were not informed. Fortunately, the Spiny Rice-flower were on the other side of the road and a council officer saw what was happening.
“Relying on luck is simply not a good conservation strategy,” Adrian Marshall points out.
Even more concerningly, last year a 40 hectare grassland known as Conservation Area 9 and also in Truganina was buried under asbestos-contaminated fill, an incident still under investigation.
“Grasslands must not suffer death by a thousand cuts,” Mr Marshall said.
“This is one of the most threatened ecosystems in Australia and there is almost nothing of it left. Business as usual means the whole ecosystem will go extinct. The federal authorities must ensure DEECA actually protects the grasslands like they promised to.”
