We need your help to keep the pressure on the State Government to investigate an alternative route. A short email to

jacinta.allan@parliament.vic.gov.au

or phone 0383926100

and say " An alternative route for the Western Highway Upgrade, Buangor to Ararat is preferable and possible...Check the facts...They do NOT support MRPV's Option 1 route." 

Works can begin again on or after May 15th..

don't waste time...

send an email  NOW.

and to remind you of the campaign history and the facts supporting an alternative route ..here they are,

Environmental specialists, traffic and construction engineers, the local Traditional Owner community, residents and supporters have argued for years against plans for the invasive 5.7 kilometre stretch of this Buangor to Ararat section, 12.4 kilometres in total length.

Based on inaccurate information, decision-makers chose a deviation route that would worsen impacts. In 2015, the former VicRoads, now Major Roads Projects Victoria (MRPV), itself acknowledged the 2012 Environmental Effects Statement’s 740% undercount of large old trees threatened by the project. We now know the route selection process also overlooked an entire Djab Wurrung precinct and 150% of the area of remnant vegetation on the hilly deviation. Route selection has not been revised, with better data available since 2016.

Planned impacts include felling four-fold more large old trees, major landscape incursion from an extra 1,200,000 cubic metres of “cut and fill” earthworks and fragmenting critically endangered habitat. These impacts are compared with a standard high-speed road designed carefully along and near the existing highway. Five independent reports, backed by legal testament, together show that despite the high quality vegetation beside the existing highway, using the existing highway route has very significantly lower cultural and environmental impacts. The alternative route’s advantages are summarised below.

With 7000 petitioners, KORS Inc formed to seek minimum damage from this project. In 2016 we joined with two landholders to challenge the route-selection process in the Victorian Supreme Court. Our evidence includes an environmental review commissioned by VicRoads itself. MRPV has delayed the case until 2020. We have also applied to the Department of Energy and Environment to revoke MRPV’s approval to destroy MNES on this project.

The deviation would cut through the culturally significant Djab Wurrung people’s site with its special importance to women and children. The January announcement of realignment to avoid some important Aboriginal trees did little to calm campaigners and 80,000 petitioners, as it fails to address the route- diverting errors. The Minister for Environment’s decision to reject the Djab Wurrung people’s June 2018 application under the ATSIHP Act to protect their impressive heritage in the planned road corridor,including the deviation, was quashed on 12 April 2019 and remitted.

Nevertheless MRPV is poised to commence works after 15 May 2019.

Greater priority for preserving natural remnants is basic to a climate-safe economy. Destroying these cultural sites, especially during Victoria’s Treaty negotiations, would continue the shocking record of Aboriginal treatment. 

Advantages of the alternative “Northern Option” route:

• Traditional Owners
–Avoids Traditional Owners’ heritage sites with artefacts, scarred trees, culturally modified hollow tree.

• Environment
–More large old trees preserved (only 21 impacted vs. 94)
–Critically endangered EPBC-listed Box-Gum Grassy Woodland avoided (0 ha impacted vs. 4.3 ha) –More EPBC-listed Golden Sun Moth habitat preserved (0.5 ha impacted vs. over 12 ha)
–More connectivity kept (2 natural corridors broken vs.7); less patch bisection
–Less native vegetation lost, by quality-weighted area (11.8 units vs. 12.3).

• Emissions
–Shorter, flatter route, avoiding 3.5 km of major landscape impact - 600,000 cubic metres of “cut”, and at least 600,000 cubic metres of fill - so fewer emissions

• Legal
–Will obviate Victorian Supreme Court proceedings now in progress against the State’s process to date.

• Funding
–$25 million (careful estimate, 2 methods) saved from resource-heavy, climate-changing activities (includes avoiding one extra bridge).

• For Drivers
- 6 months faster construction

Note: Impacts calculated on the alternative route may include 0.4 hectares of a rare species of bush. This impact is recoverable within 4-5 years, in sharp contrast with the irreplaceable planned losses of ancient trees and hillsides.