AN OLD Tower Hill quarry will be returned to pasture if plans before Moyne Shire Council are approved tomorrow night.
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The quarry is located just outside the southern wall of the Tower Hill crater, off the Princes Highway.
Bushfield-based company Rodger Constructions has applied for a planning permit to dump clean fill at the quarry and alter the access road into the site.
The company plans to reinstate the disused quarry site to its original contours to alleviate concerns that the northern wall of the quarry, which has created an exposed cliff face on the southern side of the crater, could collapse.
It is proposing to fill the hole with 555,000 square metres of clean, uncontaminated fill sourced from construction sites over a period of 10 years or more. The aim is to reform the natural contours, finish the site with topsoil and plant it with native vegetation.
Two nearby residents have objected to the proposal, saying the existing cliff was a significant visual feature and local landmark. They also raised concerns about the quarry’s close location to their home, visual impacts, noise, dust, traffic safety, water quality and weed control.
Company director Graeme Rodger, who has owned the land for the past 37 years, has told council he has the support of the Friends of Tower Hill, Department of State Development, Business and Innovation and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries.
VicRoads has also supported proposed changes to the access road, which would include realigning the Tower Hill car park entry.
In a statement, Mr Rodger said his company had never carried out quarrying operations at the site, only rehabilitation, and wanted to do “something positive and proceed to rectify a past error”.
“I want to make it quite clear that if I cannot reinstate this property in the manner I have envisaged, I will leave it as is,” he warned.
“This is not my preferred option, given the eyesore that it is and the danger for the collapse of the southern wall of the Tower Hill crater, not to mention the vermin and feral animals that the quarry supports at the moment.”
Although the company has been using the site as a clean fill dump site intermittently for the past 36 years, the shire has advised it needs a permit for the proposed work because it is located in a farming zone.
Moyne Shire planning officers have recommended the permit be approved with 15 conditions.
They say the site should only be filled to the same level as its southern lip so the cliff can be retained as a landscape feature at the entrance to Tower Hill.