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A property developer involved in the illegal destruction of a rare native grassland in Melbourne’s west is fighting a council’s order to rehabilitate the land – which is covered in asbestos-laced industrial spoil – by complaining the directive is too costly and onerous.
You Min (Peter) Wu, a prolific developer of industrial land and housing across Melbourne, is seeking to overturn an order to restore a critically endangered grassland in Truganina that he pleaded guilty in February to helping wreck.
Conservation Area 9 should be protected but has been ruined by dumped spoil.Credit: Eddie Jim
According to court documents, Wu paid earthmover Adam Ibrahim to create a firebreak on the $11 million property, and Ibrahim scraped the land of vegetation and covered it with fill that contained industrial waste. Ten months on from Wu’s guilty plea, which the magistrate said at the time saved him from a larger fine, Wu is contesting Melton City Council’s order that he rehabilitate the 19-hectare area.
Wu and his company, Centreland, were fined $170,000, plus $90,000 in court costs, for their part in destroying 19 hectares of kangaroo grass. Ibrahim was separately fined $150,000.
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In Sunshine Magistrates’ Court, Wu apologised and said he felt “embarrassed and ashamed” about the destruction of part of a conservation zone that is permanently protected under a state and federal agreement.
The council has given Wu a 36-month deadline to remove all the industrial fill that was dumped on his land and begin revegetating the grassland via direct seeding.
In a directive that an environmental group has likened to reconstructing the heritage-listed Corkman Hotel in Carlton, the council’s enforcement order seeks to compel Wu to revive the contaminated landscape to the healthy grassland it once was.
It states he must replant the area with indigenous grasses within 12 months of removing the imported fill, reinstate the landscape with surface rocks, and fund and establish a native seed regeneration facility.
The directive also states Wu must care for the rehabilitated grassland for 10 years, perform regular weeding, annual reseeding and maintain a dense cover of native grasses. Any dead or dying plants must be promptly replaced. The area must be fenced off, locked and protected from any form of development or farming, the order states.
The grassland is one of 36 conservation areas established in outer Melbourne in 2009, when the city’s urban growth boundary was extended. Native grasslands once stretched from Merri Creek to the South Australian border, but today just 1 per cent of the environment remains intact. The grasslands have been classified as critically endangered.
The reserve has been covered in industrial fill contaminated with asbestos.Credit: Eddie Jim
Wu is contesting the enforcement order at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) under the company name Mt Atkinson Property. He is arguing Melton council’s order is punitive, impractical and too expensive.
“The proposed orders are disproportionate to the contraventions that have occurred, including because they direct actions which would be disproportionately costly and which, in some cases, require compliance in perpetuity,” his statement of grounds argues.
Wu has argued the council should withdraw its enforcement order and let the Environment Protection Authority manage the site’s rehabilitation.
The EPA has separately ordered Wu to submit an asbestos management plan, sample analysis plan and a rehabilitation plan for his Truganina property.
Wu has argued that the council’s demands “have the potential to be inconsistent with” the EPA’s orders and amount to a “double handling” of enforcement orders.
Ahead of a scheduled hearing in May, the two parties held a compulsory conference last week.
The hearing will be a litmus test for Victoria’s legal system, which has never been used to compel a landowner to restore a grassland.
The Victorian National Parks Association’s Dr Adrian Marshall said the case was vitally important.
“Our priceless grasslands will soon be extinct if developers aren’t forced to restore what they’ve destroyed,” he said.
“This is just like the Corkman pub, but these grasslands are our natural heritage and infinitely more important for our kids’ futures.”
The case offers hope that grasslands could at last get some justice, Marshall said.
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“If the developer in this case is successfully forced to recreate a high-quality grassland on the site they smothered under asbestos-contaminated fill, it will serve as a real warning to others that grasslands can no longer be destroyed with impunity,” he said.
Wu declined to answer The Age’s written questions while the matter was before VCAT. A spokesperson for his company said: “The damage done to the land by a contractor was unauthorised and unacceptable. Mt Atkinson Property Pty Ltd wants to work with the council and other authorities to achieve the best result on the site for the environment and the community.”
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