A former dairy farm spanning 89.45 hectares at Cooriemungle will soon turn into a timber plantation.
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The land at 1361 Cooriemungle Road is in the name of Woodlea Partners, and while the sale has not yet been finalised, Otway Silva has placed a caveat to purchase it for use as timber plantation and forestry activities.
A planning application lodged by Midway with Corangamite Shire Council is seeking to separate a dwelling on the land - occupied by the current owners - into its own lot measuring 2.730 hectares.
The rest of the cleared grazing land would be used for forestry activities.
It comes as Midway has been managing a $200 million land acquisition program on behalf of MEAG, a subsidiary of the German-based fund manager Munich Re, which holds all equity shares in Otway Silva.
As of September 2023 the program had acquired about a dozen properties across the shire since the project started in October 2022, most of which were cattle and sheep grazing properties. Some were dairy farming operations.
Corangamite Shire south central ward councillor Jo Beard has previously expressed concern that more timber plantations on prime farm land was putting the viability of small towns at risk.
Census data from 2016 showed there were 364 residents in Cooriemungle.
