People are being thrown out of their rented homes to make way for desal workers at hugely inflated rents. Do you know of anyone in this situation?

If so please ask them drop in and speak with a representative of the Tenants Union (confidentially) who will be at the Bass Coast Shire offices on Thursday 18th February (contact the shire on 56712222 or 1300 226278)

The local member of Parliament, Ken Smith, is also looking into this. He can be cotacted at his Wonthaggi office in McBride Ave. (again confidentially) 56724755, ken.smith@parliament.vic.gov.au

Or contact Jessica from Watershed on 0407 307231

Watershed will again be running an education and information stall at the Sustainable Living Festival in Federation Square, February 19th to 21st.

http://festival.slf.org.au/
If you would be able to help out on our stall please contact Jessica on 0407 307231.

PAST EVENT
FRIDAY 22nd January, 7.30pm, Wonthaggi Town Hall.

A GREAT time was had by around 250 people who attended the Watershed fundraiser show, “Bugger the Polar Bears - THIS IS SERIOUS”. As well as being hilariously funny, there was a fair bit of educational content as well.

We have now had a response of sorts from Westpac and NAB. As expected, they have not addressed many of our concerns, and they have relied on the State Government’s poorly scoped and inadequate EES. Stay tuned for more on this!

Gross negligence in funding the desal plant against their own ‘Equator Principles’. Looks like we may need to organise small groups, 2 or 3 people in your suburb, to let the public know in front of Westpac and NAB branches. Watershed can supply leaflet material (by post or we could make it available off the website for you to print). If you would like to participate, should we need to do this, please leave your details with an email to answers@watershedvictoria.org.au

Past event - Monday 23rd November, 11.00am

Well it’s been nearly three months now and the Banks haven’t given us any indication yet that they are following the corporate responsibility principles that they say they are. To their credit they did send a reasonable delegation of their representatives to meet with Watershed Victoria, but they provided nothing to indicate that they had met their obligations under the ‘Equator Principles’. More than a month later they have still not answered any of the many questions we left them with. Time to start spreading our concerns again, so we leafleted City branches on Monday, starting with the Westpac branch on the corner of Swanston and Collins St. at 11.00am. Join us now by writing to the banks to try to convince the banks that they have to do more if this investment is to come anywhere near being acceptable, both socially and environmentally. Further more diverse leafletting to follow if we don’t get responses soon.

This is the leaflet we handed out -

feel free to copy and distribute.

Click on the image, or here, to get a good copy

of both sides of the leaflet.

Questions, contact:

Stephen 0407 811778 or

Jessica 0407 307231

Results of our Annual General Meeting held on 20th October:

The following nominations were unopposed and duly elected:

President - Stephen Cannon
Vice presidents - Col Truman & Mark Robertson
Secretary - Neil Rankine
Treasurer - Kaye Craddock
Public Officer - Roger Thorrowgood

Contact details for the above if you click on the CONTACT tab above.

We invite further volunteers to the Committee to assist all activities of Watershed in seeking sustainable water solutions for Victorians - use the contact button above if you would like to be involved in a more sustainable future.

Still concerned about a healthy future for our children & their children, about caring for the environment, about sustainable water solutions? We are. We met once again in the Wonthaggi Town Hall where it all began.

HELP US  -  ONGOING ACTIVE MONITORING OF DESAL SITE:

As our campaign is strongly motivated by our love for the Bass Coast, we plan to actively pursue compliance with the Environmental Effects Study (EES) as well as acting on the social and traffic impacts of the project on our community.

In the next few weeks we will summarise the key EES recommendations to make it clear what may be breaches and to which authorities breaches can be reported. A program will be worked around this.

At the brainstorm on the 15^th August, 3 action areas were identified:

·         Monitoring wildlife, especially bird life.

We plan to get an idea of pre -existing conditions of a few key indicators such as the endangered Hooded Plover, which is known to visit Williamsons Beach and attempt to breed along the coast. Other species will also be important. Whales continue to migrate along the coast – there have been over 30 documented sightings in the last month. Salinity measurements will be important  near the outlet, though that will depend on our resources. Noise measurement will be needed. Vibration and light glare will also affect the environment.

·         Breaches of performance requirements.

During the pilot plant construction, numerous breaches of the Environmental Management Plan were identified, such as dumping of asbestos in Campbell St, waste dumping in Skip Lane and delivery of materials using trucks which were not compliant. We are not too hopeful of a better result now that the Aquasure consortium are in charge– the need for haste, disturbance of acid sulphate soils and waste silt flowing into the Powlett River some of the many conditions likely to cause problems. We have already had contradictory statements about at what hours per day the construction will take place.

·         Social  Impacts.

Traffic and housing problems are already affecting coastal residents. We need to identify which authorities are in charge of traffic planning and compliance. A list of people whose tenancies are threatened and  those who are experiencing problems with housing is being compiled, but follow-up is needed. Many families are not keen to make a fuss, in case they risk their chances of finding secure housing.

If you are keen to help with a bird count and keeping an eye on the project, please get in touch with Chris Heislers 0419556381 or Jessica Harrison 0407307231

Click here for photos and details of previous events that Watershed Victoria has been involved in.

You might be able to find yourself “on the web”.