IF YOU’RE not concerned about the prospect of thousands more B double sand trucks rumbling down the Bass Highway to sand mines, not only at Grantville where two new mines are set to open off McGrady Road soon, but also through Wonthaggi to Leongatha South, you soon will be.
Long-time Phillip Island surfer, now permanent resident, Mark Schaller, a renowned Victorian artist, has already seen enough.
“I drove down to the Mornington Peninsula last week with a mate and we couldn’t believe the number of B double sand trucks on the road and it’s only going to get worse,” said Mark Schaller this week.
“And why you would want to be transporting the sand by truck back to Melbourne, from an area with major environmental issues when you have a perfectly good resource at Trafalgar with access to the main train line.”
He’s taken an interest in the local environment, as a direct extension of his work as an artists, painting all around Phillip Island and Western Port for more than 25 years, and his love of surfing, taking a hand in the Western Port Seagrass projects, supporting the Save Westernport campaign which ultimately won the day against the planned expansion of the Port of Hastings and in recent times the Save Western Port Woodlands campaign.
Mark is also concerned that mining interests might get control of the former Holden Proving Ground site and open up a further 900 hectares to sand mining.
“They’ve been clearly able to demonstrate that it’s completely the wrong place for mining activities, so close to such an important location as Western Port with no prospect of containing the impact.”
But Mark likes a challenge and when he heard about the ‘Save the Western Port Woodlands Art Exhibition and Auction’, June 21-23 he went on location to view one of Bass Coast’s massive sand mines and put it down on canvass.
The result is a stunning piece of work, titled The Minefield, that will be auctioned as part of the special fundraiser at The Goods Shed Gallery in Wonthaggi on Sunday, June 23 from 2pm to 3pm, towards the end of the exhibition and sale of art which starts with an official opening and awards night from 6pm–9pm on Friday, June 21.
All works will be for sale, with 40 per cent of the sale proceeds going to the campaign to save the Western Port Woodlands.
There’s been something of a hiatus in activity for Save the Western Port Woodlands supporters waiting for the Distinctive Areas and Landscapes report to come out, while working behind the scenes, so far unsuccessfully, to have “publicly available” mine works plans released so that the local community can be better informed about the scope of present and future works.
