The following is the last post from the community group that defended the Coomoora woodland in south eastern Melbourne for so long.
Heavy machinery moved into Coomoora on 12 January 2011, reducing much of the woodland to woodchip ...
Coomoora Woodland Flora and Fauna Reserve is a precious area of remnant native bushland and tranquil retreat for nature lovers, local school groups and the wider community. Listed by the National Trust for its environmental and heritage significance, Coomoora is one of the few nature reserves left in the heavily industrialised City of Greater Dandenong and metropolitan Melbourne. Adjacent to the nature reserve is open grassland containing majestic River Red-gums, Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and a wetland.
Despite the availability of a viable alternative route, the State Government plans to bulldoze most of Coomoora Woodland Flora and Fauna Reserve in 2010 for the Dingley Arterial.
[Save our bush rally, 2010]
The last update, Feb 2011
"In a clinical display of technical efficiency and sheer brute force, heavy machinery moved into Coomoora on 12 January 2011, reducing much of the woodland to woodchip and flattening its most ecologically significant vegetation community in the process.
Contrary to prior undertakings by the former State Labor Government and VicRoads, the footprint of the bypass construction is no smaller than originally proposed and no habitat offsets have been identified for translocating rare flora species.
Driven by corporate greed, political myopia and bureaucratic deceit, the juggernaut of economic growth has again trampled over community and nature. The saga of Coomoora is another tragic episode in the unfolding environmental crisis that overshadows our future. Only collaborative, concerted and democratic activism can counter the narrow self-interest of ruling elites and forestall the fate that otherwise awaits us all. May the loss of Coomoora not be in vain".
The last post from this campaign is available here.
See the destruction and what we have lost.