Throughout 2023, the prevalence of the community taking action into their own hands, often with a successful outcome, was too hard to ignore for Issue of the Year.
From floods to unwanted service stations and the awarding of heritage overlays, with petitions raised and voices heard, the community stood tall.
Star Mail first reported on the proposal for a service station to be built at 41 Monbulk Road in Mount Evelyn in February, when 174 objections had been received by Yarra Ranges Council.
Leading the charge, Nic Sanders, whose house would border the proposed drive through if approved, couldn’t fathom the need for another service station, let alone one that will have some
services open 24/7.
“The 24 hours, seven days a week is a little over the top I think for Mount Evelyn,” he said.
With Mount Evelyn Primary School just two doors up from the site, parents and residents were concerned about the safety of the children particularly during school hours.
Carly is one of those parents who has one child at the primary school, one catching the bus to high school from Monbulk Road and one at the kindergarten opposite the school.
She told Star Mail that with a pedestrian school crossing just before the proposed driveway entrance, it seemed too risky.
“The traffic is so busy now and it will get worse and if you’re going to have big trucks coming in that don’t stop in time, there was already a crossing man who passed away years ago [of a heart attack] because a truck didn’t stop,” she said.
The matter returned to the front page when Yarra Ranges Council refused the permit application at the Tuesday 14 March meeting after hearing from Mr Sanders on behalf of the 194 objectors.
“We want you, our elected representatives, to refuse this application based on the traffic issues raised,” Mr Sanders said.
“We want you to refuse this application because of the unacceptable health risks to school children from petrol vapour and fumes based on published studies.”
Councillor Tim Heenan put forward the motion to refuse the application to build a service station.
“We don’t need another infrastructure like this in that area. I want to go on to say that I know my community. I understand how Mount Evelyn [people] feel. I’ve been listening for years to concerns on these sorts of developments,” he said.
“Mount Evelyn is not a suburb. It’s a township with a large rural feel.”
The applicants, Peregrine Corporation, took the matter to VCAT and is yet to be heard.
Bookending the year were the frustrations of residents who had been severely impacted by the previous year’s floods, with the drainage system incapable of holding the mass amounts of water.
In March, eight residents in and around Bristol Crescent in Lilydale remained dismayed at the lack of infrastructure upgrades to drainage and blockages which caused havoc.
Brendon and his wife Beryl have lived on Bristol Crescent for 36 years and said this was not the first time they had experienced major flooding, particularly because of the development of the area.
“If they keep building more water catching areas, it’s putting more water into the drains and we’ve always had water come through our place from houses above and I don’t know how many driveways have ended up down from my place,” Brendon said.
In the last 10 years, Brendon said he had seen severe flooding at least twice and “they call it a once in 100 year event that comes every 10 years”.
Wrapping up the year, residents of the Gateway Estate in Lilydale submitted a letter of complaint to Yarra Ranges Council and Melbourne Water for ill maintained drains and poor infrastructure.
The letter, signed by 130 people, raised a multitude of concerns, some that have been left unheard for over 19 years.
The daughter of a 90-year-old Nimblefoot Way resident, Julie, said when her parents first moved into the property 20 years ago, it didn’t take long for instances of flooding to occur.
“Dad raised the issue when it first started and it’s been going on now for 19 years because dad went up to the council straightaway and complained,” she said.
“He was always going into panic that he had to sell the house because they were scared.”
From overgrown drains to unconnected stormwater pipes in people’s backyards, the stories of just a handful of residents brought to light the issues playing out each time it rains and the fear of flooding at each occurrence.
From the safety of peoples homes, to the safety of the urban area’s furry friends, in June a petition came to the fore to enclose the Kilsyth Dog Park.
Residents called on Yarra Ranges Council to provide a fully enclosed off-leash dog park within the current Elizabeth Bridge Reserve area only properly fenced on one side.
A petition started in May by Shelley Large reached over 250 signatures by June. It was submitted to the council in September with over 700 signatures.
With very few options, aside from the new Kimberley Reverse fenced off-leash dog park in Chirnside Park and the Eastfield dog park in Maroondah, resident Jan McGannon said in order to train dogs in a safe space, better areas need to be provided.
“People don’t use this space, they go to Eastfield Road in Maroondah because that’s considered best practice, it’s got two areas,” she said.
“It’s got a small area and a bigger area. Some of the people from here, I know from there because it’s where I go, so we all use Maroondah’s.”
Also in June, a second emotional plea from Mount Evelyn resident Vanessa Walton, who had been impacted by falling trees during the June 2021 storm, was successful in having a permit approved for eight trees to be removed from her property despite them being deemed safe by the council.
After a battle of almost 13 years to remove a tree from their property, a Chirnside Park family finally received the support of councillors in November to remove an “inappropriate” native tree from their nature strip.
It was the second time the issue had been heard at a council meeting during the year, with the final tick of approval granted to the Kingswood Drive family.
“It’s not a case of we hate the tree and we just don’t want it. They’ve actually given us a situation where there’s this display of risk with people, multiple people have been injured through a slipping of the pine needles,” Councillor Richard Higgins said.
“We have to now get a planning permit to do so. And that’s what this motion is doing, getting that planning permit, so we can continue on the goodwill that we gave the residents of this area about this tree last time.”
The final step in Lilydale’s heritage overlay plea from Lilydale Historical Society’s immediate past president Sue Thompson was finally achieved in October when the council voted to protect two further items.
With discussions of protecting Lilydale’s history first beginning in December 2017, speaking on behalf of Ms Thompson, Society treasurer Phil Burton said “this final step has been a long time coming”.
The olive tree at 2-4 Albert Hill Road and Heatherlie, a property located at 57 Warburton Road, as well as the pine trees lining the driveway, were included in the planning scheme.
“This has been a very difficult and costly process but has been cheap compared to the value of the story of each of the buildings and homes and people who lived and worked in them. It is both priceless and timeless,” Mr Burton said.
Capping off the year of community action, it didn’t take long after the decision to close Kilsyth Centenary Pool for the community to come together and form a petition.
The news of the closure in October shattered the community, with it coming as quite a surprise to many.
Lead petitioner Janis Floyd was “shocked with the suddenness” of the decision by Yarra Ranges Council and the immediacy of removing the infamous dome.
Garnering over 450 signatures in a week on the petition, both online and in physical form at the Kilsyth Festival, Ms Floyd said all it asks is for the council to essentially rebuild what existed at the site.
“The council might say, ‘yes, we’ll do it. It’s a 40 year plan’. We want it now and that can’t be emphasised enough. They’ve taken it away now and we want it back now,” she said.
The petition is still running for the first half of this year.
There’s no doubt the community will stand tall yet again in 2024 and bring ideas, concerns and action to the table.
