campaign_2016a_secondary_college

* 
BCS Inc’s critique
of VSBA’s PlantingList
hotchpotch
is a looming
issue for the
site, as 72%
of new
planting would
be exotic and
non-indigenous
plants, which
is totally
inconsistent
with the
important Vegetation Protection Overlays that cover
Beaumaris in
order to help
maintain its
distinctive indigenous plant character.
BCS Inc.
advocates that
new planting
on this site
should match
the land in
the bushland
corridor –
which it is
part of – by
being 100%
indigenous
planting. That
could be
sensibly and
economically
sourced from
Bayside City
Council’s Community Plant Nursery,
which is just
north on
Reserve Road.
Regardlessof any
exemptions
that the
Education
Minister might
have, the
College site
is
nevertheless shown
on the Bayside
Planning
Scheme, which
was published
in the VictoriaGovernment
Gazette afterits necessary
approval by a
former
Planning
Minister, as
having a VPO3

overlay.
As that State
Government
VPO3 overlay
purports to
protect
against wanton
removal of

indigenous
vegetation, it
misleads the
public into
believing the
overlay
protects flora
here.

*
Thedesultory and
indifferent
‘consultation’
that the

Victorian Government’s
School
Building
Authority was
conducting
with opponents
of the extent
of unnecessary
tree removal
came to an abrupt,
and unannouncedend

when
it brought in
chainsaws and
very large
excavators to
destroy
numerous fine
trees on the
College site,
as many
residents and
BCS Inc.
members – who
had only been
made aware of
the coup by an
anonymous text
message that
BCS Inc. had
received –
watched in
anger. The
video in a Facebookposting

by
Victoria’s
Shadow
Planning
Minister, Hon.
David Davis
MLC, who was
present to
witness the
slaughter, records graphically how two
of the large
trees were
toppled, early
on Monday, 19
December 2016.
Murray
Thompson, MLA
for
Sandringham,
and Sue
Pennicuik MLC,
were also
watching this.
See BCS Inc.
President’s article
in The
Age.

*
The
professional
arborist’s report on
trees on the Secondary
College site –
commissioned with the
support of crowd funding and
other very generous
donations – now
appears here.
See BCS Inc.
President’s media
statement here.

BCS Inc. appealed to
the MelbourneCricket Club

,
which remained in the
shadows and whose
plans for a ‘world
class’ sporting
precinct are at the
heart of the proposed
environmental
devastation, to do the
right thing. That
would have involved
removing a few metres
at the extremities of
oversized sporting
facilities and making
other minor design
changes. See a video
of the architect for
the school speaking,
and also the Cricket
Club CEO.

*

The two over-large
ovals in the College plan are
a cause of the great loss of
trees and general amenity of the
area. Questioning the Victorian

School Building Authority
on why the northern oval, for
the Melbourne Cricket Club,
was to be so big was answered
by its claim, “That is the
minimum size need for first
class cricket”. However,
the International

Cricket Council regulations

state, “A circular cricket
field is considered as the
perfect field, but generally
a cricket pitch is slightly
oval. Its diameter varies
between 137 m and 150 m. The
ICC Test Match Standard
Playing Conditions Law

19.1 defines the
playing area as a minimum of
137.16 m from boundary to
boundary square of the
pitch, with the shorter of
the two square boundaries a
minimum of 59.43 m. The
straight boundary at both
ends of the pitch is a
minimum of 64 m. Distances
are measured from the centre
of the pitch”

Based on that, the MCC
northern oval size sought
seems to far exceed the
minimum standards for even
Test Cricket!  Using the
above specifications, a
re-drawing in the diagram
below of the boundaries to
meet the standards reveals
extra space to save and plant
more trees, and even extra car
parking. Similar savings of
tree numbers on the site would
result from a correspondingly
smaller Community Oval south
of it also. Reducing the size
of that southern oval would
save much more of the bushland
to its south and west. The
on-site marking of the
northern boundary of the bushland
buffer width to
be left between the Long
Hollow Reserve and the
southern edge of the southern
oval shows it to be very
narrow, compared with the VSBA
diagrams, and leaves little
distance between the Reserve’s
boardwalk and the southern
oval. To enlarge the diagram
below of the northern oval,
double click on it. See

the proposal for Melbourne
Cricket Club facilities for the
site.




* The ‘Information

Session’ on the Secondary College
site held by the Victorian

School Building Authority, at the
Beaumaris Community Centre on Friday, 25
November 2016, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm
disappointed many that went. Many people
left early, commenting that it was
nothing but a sham. It was just a static
display of plans, many of which were on
VSBA’s

website. A significant plan on its
website did list 18

trees that might now be
reprieved. Seats for those present were
not put out, there was no public address
system, but 2 policemen were on duty
there for 2 hours.



The VSBA Senior Advisor Community
Engagement and other VSBA staff were
there, and would engage with individuals
that approached them, and answer some of
their questions, but they declined
requests to address those present as a
whole, so that all those present could
hear the questions and answers.

One of the three
State MPs present, Murray Thompson, MLA
for Sandringham, took the initiative,
walked up onto the stage, and asked
those present to hear points he thought
needed to be made. The BCS Inc.
President, who had previously listed
some of the many communityconcerns, corrected VSBA
statements that BCS Inc. was happy with
the situtation, but VSBA staff made no
public response. The Shadow Education
Minister, Hon.Nick Wakeling MLA, mingled with
residents discussing their concerns with
them, as did SuePennicuik, Greens MLC for Southern
Metropolitan. Somebody had removed, by
Saturday, the many people’s banners
on the school site fence that had still
been there on Friday!
  *
At
last, obtained on 2016-11-09, siximportant documents

, sought
from the Victorian School Building
Authority. See a 7-minutevideo

of Heather Stewart on the
school site putting the case for the
trees.

   

 

* 
See overflow information session
– with standing room
only – at the
Beaumaris Community
Centre, on 2016-11-16.
A 96 MB aerial photo
gives a zoomable high

resolution view
of the school site
then.