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Mitchell Shire Council spends $1.3 million+ on quarry dust-up

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By Lauren Duffy

Freedom of information, FOI, documents show that Mitchell Shire Council has spent at least $1.3 million to fight the proposed quarry south of Wallan.

The documents, provided to the Review by quarry operator Conundrum Holdings, show council’s legal bills for the ‘No Quarry’ campaign totalled $1.31 million, including GST, from 2016 to 2022.

The invoices from Maddocks Lawyers also include payments to specialised consultants and experts.

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From 2016 to 2019, $78,562 was spent on lawyers, but it was in 2020 that council’s legal bills ramped up – totalling $286,557 for the year when COVID hit.

However it was 2022 that proved to be the most costly with Maddocks’ invoices seen by the Review showing a total of $926,961 was spent on legal fees, much of it following a 28-day panel hearing requiring several legal practitioners, including barristers and experts.

Council also spent more than ,000 on fighting Conundrum Holding’s Freedom of Information request, which was referred to the Office of Victorian Information Commissioner, OVIC, before council took the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, VCAT.

A string of other costs were also involved in the campaign with 60 spent on catering sourced from cafes across Mitchell Shire; 5 on food from supermarkets to supply at ‘No Quarry’ meetings; 0 on a bus trip for community members to protest on the steps of Parliament; plus ,092 on other consultants.

About 40 members of the No Quarry for Beveridge/Wallan community group protested on the steps of the Parliament of Victoria in June 2022, presenting a petition with more than 1300 signatures calling to stop the quarry. Mitchell Shire Council spent $660 on a bus trip for community members to get there.

A total of $36,051 has been spent on marketing materials for the campaign – $4180 on 200 t-shirts; nearly $20,000 on 85 banners, corflutes and signs, including items replacing signs that carried the slogan ‘Tell Minister Wynne this quarry is a sin’ – which sparked outrage from Conundrum Holdings when it was displayed at a council stall at an Assumption College event in 2021.

Marketing also included $3388 on placing ‘No Quarry’ advertisements in the Review.

Conundrum Holdings managing director Ron Kerr said after years of inaction and delays, his company implored decision-makers to clearly and quickly outline the future of the quarry application.

“Now this has been confirmed, we are saddened that an authority [Mitchell Shire Council] that should be doing more about road maintenance and local services has devoted so much money and resources to deny this vital primary industry,” he said.

The invoices supplied under the FOI process do not include money that council has spent on internal resources, including staffing.

The Review requested council provide an estimate of how much it had spent on staff wages and other internal resources, but the question was not answered.

The land on which the quarry south of Wallan is proposed.

Mitchell Shire Council chief executive Brett Luxford said the cost of the ‘No Quarry’ campaign is directly related to the importance of the issue to the community.

“The bulk of the expenditure in this matter relates to the unfortunate situation council found itself in having to engage lawyers and experts to defend a scenario we should never have been put in,” he said.

“When the Victorian Government exhibited the Beveridge Northwest Precinct Structure Plan for public feedback in 2019, the quarry was not identified as part of the Future Urban Structure.

“We have a community of residents who bought properties not knowing there would be a quarry in the middle of their neighbourhood.”

Proposed quarry location in Wallan. Image: Mitchell Shire Council

Mr Luxford said the community had made it clear they did not want the quarry and council supported the ‘community-led campaign’, which had raised concerns about a quarry creating congestion on roads and excessive noise.

He said council believed the proposed quarry would stifle the delivery of essential infrastructure for the next 30 years in parts of Victoria’s fastest-growing municipality.

“While we are disappointed that we have had to expend significant resources on this issue, council stands by its decision to do everything in its power to protect our community and their future,” he said.

“Throughout this process, council has complied with all Freedom of Information requirements. We are not anti-quarry; we just cannot accept a quarry in the middle of a master planned community of more than 100,000 residents.”

Wally Mott, the owner of the land on which the quarry is proposed, is also the owner of the Review.

For more from Conundrum Holdings, see its paid advertisement on page 3 of this week’s print edition.

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