Occasional newsletter, January 2022
The latest news on Point Grey
Who would have thought, a year ago, that we could say we are progressing well? Then, a VCAT case was waiting to be heard. Some $20k was being raised in a crowdsourcing campaign. Community organisations in Lorne were yet to come together to work as a partnership.
A lot has changed.
Although we still do not know the result of the VCAT case, the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCAPA) voluntarily threw away the approved Opera-House style Beacon Building plans and agreed to start with the more popular idea of retaining, reimagining and repurposing the existing Fishermen’s Co-op Building.
Friends of Lorne, and others, are now part of a ‘co-design’ process with GORCAPA to realise that objective. Meanwhile, GORCAPA is also working with the Aquatic Club to address the frustrating (but yet, currently approved) traffic plan. This plan, for example, required boats hauled up from the shore to exit the precinct, turn left on to the Great Ocean Rd, turn right and travel up behind the Pacific Hotel and then enter back down into the precinct for any further work (like fish cleaning).
But it is not all sorted. We have had two meetings of the co-design group. Some important progress has been made, e.g. GORCAPA overcame their initial hesitancy about transparency (all documents we received at the start were marked confidential, that’s fixed now). We have felt heard and respected and get the sense that the GORCAPA architects are on the same page with us. They are already working with some of our local architects (volunteers) on what the alternative design would look like. The next meeting is on 31 January. We’ll update our Pt Grey page on the Friends of Lorne website after that. Meanwhile, if you want to know more please email committee@friendsoflorne.org.au
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Your chance to comment on worker accommodation issues
Have you see these signs around Lorne?
Don’t forget that we are seeking feedback on the options being developed by the newly formed Lorne Community Land Trust. Their goal is to provide accommodation for up to 20 families in 2 years. If you missed our email about this, contact us on committee@friendsoflorne.org.au and we will send it to you with the DRAFT report they are working from.
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Lorne’s water supply – how long will it last?
At the end of 2021, Barwon Water, the water supply authority for Lorne, called for comment on a draft of its plans for the future. These plans were made in the light of a possible 40% reduction in rainfall courtesy of climate change and a substantial increase in the demand for water, over the next 50 years. At worst, Barwon Water expects it could have trouble meeting its supply target in Lorne from 2027 onwards.
In our response we raised points about the strategies for both supply and demand. We were particularly concerned that environmental aspects of water supply in Lorne seem to have slipped under Barwon Water’s, and the Lorne community’s, radar.
Lorne’s water comes from the Allen Reservoir (Allen Dam) on the St George River, just upstream of the Phantom Falls. We use about 340 million litres (ML) each year, which is more than the 215 ML capacity of the Reservoir. We therefore rely on water falling in the catchment quite frequently to top up the Reservoir before it runs dry.
How well does our system work for humans?
Lorne cruised through the millennium drought (~1996-2010) because there was enough rain to keep the Reservoir above the level that triggers restrictions. Much of the rest of the region was, however, under Stage 4 restrictions by 2009. Because the Allen Reservoir is not connected to anywhere else, water could not be distributed to needy places.
The other side of the supply coin was revealed in 2016 when rainfall in the St George River catchment, as measured at Mt Cowley and Benwerrin, was between 54 and 64% of the long-term averages. The dry weather, exacerbated by higher-than-average temperatures, resulted in Lorne using about 10% more water than in the previous year. With a high demand for water and not much inflow, water level in the Reservoir fell to a record low of 24% of capacity. Stage 2 restrictions were introduced in March followed by Stage 3 in May 2016. Supply was reinforced by trucking water in. Apollo Bay and Colac also had restrictions, but not other towns in the region because they are connected to a water network which reduces their dependence on local sources.
Our dependence on the Allen Reservoir can therefore be to our advantage or disadvantage. Another circumstance in which it could be to our disadvantage is if there are substantial fires in the catchment. These would reduce supply in both the short and long terms.
How well does our system serve environmental objectives?
The volume of water reaching the estuary of the St George River in summer is probably about half that received when the river was wild.
When the Reservoir drops below full, water stops spilling over into the St George River. The duration of this no-spill period varies from zero months of the year (2021) to eight months (2015). The raising of the dam wall completed in 2018 means that we should anticipate longer no-spill times in the future, irrespective of whether predicted reductions in rainfall come about. At no-spill times, flow downstream of the Reservoir is dependent on flow in the Cora Lynn Creek which flows into the St George River below the Reservoir. Barwon Water does not release water from the Reservoir for environmental purposes.
Flow from the Cora Lynn Creek is not always enough to sustain flow to the sea. The estuary closed in early 2016. Water remained upstream of the bridge on the Great Ocean Road, but by April it was smelly and low in oxygen. These conditions can be lethal to fish and other aquatic life.
We know about the condition of the estuary in early 2016 because of the citizen science program ‘EstuaryWatch’ run by the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CCMA). Despite calling these 2016 events ‘unusual/extraordinary occurrence[s]’, we have not found any follow-up work on causes or consequences. Indeed, Barwon Water, when contacted in early 2021 by Friends of Lorne, was not aware of the events, perhaps because the lower reaches of the St George are not part of the proclaimed area directly under its control.
There are other puzzling aspects of the CCMA’s and Barwon Water’s approach to the St George River. On a CCMA website the St George River is described as ‘pristine’, a strange word to apply to a dammed river. Environmental concerns are taken into account by Barwon Water and other agencies in the management of the Anglesea River and bore field, the Barwon and Moorabool Rivers, and the Barham River at Apollo Bay. Why not the St George River? Furthermore, when Lorne’s supply drew on the Erskine River, that river was protected by a prohibition on harvesting water when flows were low.
If there has been debate about environmental flows and the St George River, we have not found it. We suggest that an assessment should be an essential part of Barwon Water’s planning for the future.
What does the future hold?
The summer of 2015/16 was a portent of times to come. Rainfall was below the long-term average by the sorts of amounts predicted under climate change. If demand for water also increases (see ‘Your chance to comment on worker accommodation issues’ in this Newsletter), where will that leave us?
It leaves us trying to find additional sources of water and constraining the growth in demand.
Increasing water supply
None of the options are easy or inexpensive.
We could connect to the network that supplies Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven. Topography makes this difficult.
We could raise the height of the dam so the Reservoir stores more water. This would cause further problems for the St George River.
We could have a local desalination plant. We have not investigated this option.
We could make use of recycled water from the treatment plant, the bulk of which is currently discharged into the sea. Australians have not embraced the use of recycled water for drinking purposes, despite it being de facto a source of water for many people. For example, Canberra’s effluent is discharged into the Murray-Darling river system via the Murrumbidgee River.
We could make more use of rainwater tanks. They are the sole source of water for most people in Wye River, Separation Creek and Kennett River.
We could divert water from other nearby rivers. Barwon Water notes there are environmental difficulties with this, and that in any event, when flow in the St George River is low it is likely to be low in other rivers too. Barwon Water still holds a right to withdraw water from the Erskine River.
Managing demand
Data presented in Barwon Water Annual Reports suggest that people in Lorne are profligate users of water. In 2020/2021, for example, they calculate usage in Lorne as 410 L/person /day. This is an unbelievably large volume of water given that the equivalent numbers for Geelong and Melbourne are about 195 and 160 respectively. It turns out that there is a problem with the data for Lorne. It attributes all water usage to the permanent residents and none of it to part-time residents or tourists. However, if biased allocation was the whole story we would expect similar tourist towns to use similar volumes. Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven do indeed use amounts similar to Lorne, but Apollo Bay and Skenes Creek use a lot less.
Tourism is, on an international scale, a heavy user of water. Accommodation alone can account for up to 2000 L/tourist/day. At the moment we have no evidence that tourists in Lorne use more than permanent residents or holiday house owners. We have asked Barwon Water if their statistics can be refined to help to target areas that need attention. It is remarkably easy to use a lot of water. For example, if you have an ancient cistern, your flushes will add up to 55 L/person/day.
The current (December 2021) cost of water to residential consumers in Lorne is $2.09 per 1000 L, so there is not much of a financial incentive to be ‘water wise’. We are, however, subject to the Victoria-wide ‘permanent water saving rules’. These include the requirement that hand-held hoses have a trigger nozzle, watering systems should only operate between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. and a general prohibition on using water to clean hard surfaces. When water storages fall below predetermined levels, additional restrictions on the use of water are triggered, escalating from Stage 1 to Stage 4.
One community wide way of reducing demand would be for Lorne to agree to a lower water service level. We might, for example, accept that in order to keep the St George River flowing we have to factor environmental demand into our equations and put up with restrictions occurring more frequently.
Concluding comment
Given that there is always an environmental cost of harvesting water, and that the natural environment is invariably the thing visitors to the Victorian coast say they value most, none of the options for increasing supply and/or reducing demand are easy ones.
For a fuller version of this article, including references to sources, email us at committee@friendsoflorne.org.au
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Loopholes in implementing Lorne’s Structure Plan
Friends of Lorne has recently written to the Surf Coast Shire Council expressing dismay in how planning processes seem to work. We’re asking for a better way of protecting features valued and special to Lorne.
Right now, as a neighbour, you get letter from Council if an adjacent or nearby property to your own wants to carry out major works. You are asked if you wish to object, based on how you are ‘affected’. The usual things are privacy, noise, overlooking, loss of views and so on.
But this process is flawed for safeguarding larger issues that affect all-of-Lorne like loss of heritage/history, habitat, and native vegetation. The preservation of wildlife corridors is a whole-of-Lorne matter too. These are just some of the elements listed in the Lorne Strategy in the Surf Coast Planning Scheme (here). It is not reasonable to leave these decisions in the hands of adjacent property owners only. Less than a handful of people cannot be expected to step up to defend all-of-Lorne character.
We’ll keep you informed as this matter progresses. As just part of the solution (not all we hope) we might be asked to take a more active role in approving planning decisions. Up the road in Aireys Inlet, all new planning applications are commented on by the Airey’s Inlet and District Association (AIDA).
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Rufous bristlebirds need our help
On the topic of habitat protection, few people seem to know that a loud, distinctive call that you hear in Lorne and not back in say, Williamstown or Hawthorn, is a bird only found on the coast between Torquay and the mouth of the Murray River.
Rufous bristlebirds (Dasyornis broadbenti) are an endangered species. A colony in Western Australia is now extinct and there are none elsewhere in Australia. They live in thick undergrowth at low coastal elevations. Years ago, birdwatchers would arrive in busloads to get a chance to see them.
Many Lorne homeowners and visitors do not know about rufous bristlebirds. Others may take them for granted. Don’t, please. The recent fire clearing that has taken place around the towns means that the birds now use our own gardens and backyards as refuge. Thick low shrubs or dense hedges are ideal. Please don’t think cutting down a hedge and planting a canopy tree “pays back” the landscape enough. It won’t. It changes who can live there.
Rufous bristlebirds are shy, delightful birds. They scuttle into undergrowth when startled, in preference to taking flight. Click here to listen to their song. Once you hear it you will recognise it possibly as ‘Lorne’ at all times of the day – if you have some resident near you. If you don’t have any, then plant some habitat, and wait.
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Natural history note on house guests
From Mary Lush
Huntsman spiders are animals that I prefer not to encounter even though I know they are harmless. Unless, that is, you count car accidents caused by a huntsman appearing on the windscreen.
According to an Australian study of 168 bites by huntsmen, everyone bitten experienced pain. For about 30% of them, the pain lasted for about five minutes and was severe. Most had lingering evidence of their bite in the form of fang marks or redness, but not much else unless they were among the 9% who were anxious about being bitten. There were no allergic reactions.
Mostly we can avoid getting bitten simply by leaving the spiders alone. They are not aggressive. But if you don’t know they are there, perhaps, for example, hiding in your shoe, you may inadvertently interfere with them and suffer the consequences. Bites are most likely in warm months of the year and it seems to me, although the authors did not remark on it, that there were peaks associated with holiday periods.
The huntsmen in my house have a dismaying tendency to turn up adorned with dust and fluff. This probably says something about housekeeping standards. It is a fact though that huntsmen, being flattish, are good at creeping into houses though cracks and lurking in places rarely cleaned by even the most dutiful. Dust sticks to them because, like tarantulas, they are hairy, but zoologically speaking, they are not tarantulas. They are probably doing me a favour by eating cockroaches and the like during their stay. They don’t build webs so can’t be blamed for those.
The mountain huntsman shown here was photographed in my bathroom and after its removal to the great outdoors, where most huntsmen live most of the time. Of late my removal technique has involved a tall, translucent plastic jug. When inverted over a huntsman, the spider invariably races upwards to the top (technically the bottom) of the inverted jug. As a rule, inverted jug plus spider can be carried outside without incident. This one, however, proved the exception. It dropped out and had to be re-captured using the slide-container-over-a-sheet-of-paper technique.
We almost certainly have other species of huntsmen in Lorne including the badge huntsman (Neosparassus diana), and the social huntsman (Delena cancerides). As the last name implies huntsmen aren’t loners all of the time. Mothers remain with their numerous offspring until about the time the junior spiders are old enough to discard their exoskeletons for the first time.
Identifying huntsmen is not easy, and in any event DNA analysis may be in the process of rewriting their classification. A very useful, up-to-date website is inaturalist. If you have an even half decent photograph of a spider (or other organism for that matter) you can get help with identification on this site. You will also be contributing to general knowledge of the whereabout of species.