Up to 130 people blocked part of the Great Ocean Road on Sunday during a protest march over a proposed eco-resort at Princetown.
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Developers Montarosa have lodged plans with Corangamite Shire Council for a $9-million eco-tourism resort which would include a 20-room eco-lodge, 20 cabins, 300-seat restaurant, 280-space car park, playground, offices, shop and infrastructure for walking, boat and kayak tours.
Organisers were pleased with the turnout for the half-hour march from the recreation reserve to the township which blocked one lane of the Great Ocean Road.
Friends of the Gellibrand River, Estuary and Wetlands member Kim Morton said Sunday’s meeting was about being heard and letting the local community know what was being proposed.
A number of locals addressed the crowd and outlined their environmental concerns such as the potential impact on bird and fish populations, and damage to the wetlands precinct.
“Princetown itself is a tiny little community. We’ve got a pub and we’ve got a general store. The actual township has a permanent population of 15. To get over 100 people turn up is pretty unbelievable,” she said.
“We’re not against development. We live five minutes from the 12 Apostles, so we know development’s going to happen.
“The environment is the main thing we’re worried about, and they want to disperse their septic system out on a floodplain with a shallow water table.”
Owners of the the proposed development, Gavin and Dana Ronan, said they were focused on creating a sustainable tourism resort which was 100 per cent based on preserving and enhancing the local environment. “We understand that the local community cares deeply about his estuary and want to see it protected – we feel the same way,” Mr Ronan said.
He said the treated waste water would be high-quality - suitable for the production of cooked/processed human food crops – and dispersed at a rate of about 1mm per day on existing farmland above the one-in-20-year flood level, and there was capacity for about seven months of storage.
“The treatment plant and storage dam are sited well above the one in 100-year flood level. All of this infrastructure and the entire dispersal field is on existing high ground farm land, not wetland,” he said.
