墨尔本的西部草原：去，去…

该40公顷的现场仍在州和联邦环境当局进行调查，尽管该年龄段报道，毫无疑问，梅尔顿市议会，负责当局

Almost 10 years ago Melbourne’s western grasslands: going, going… was published with a photo from Faulkners Road on Mount Cottrell (south of Melton) looking east towards Naarm/Melbourne across one of the properties that was (and still should be) destined to become part of the Western Grassland Reserves.

大约10年前，墨尔本的西方草原：走，走……出版了一张来自梅尔顿山（Melton）山（Melton）山（Melton）山（Melton）山（Melton）的福讲道（Faulkners Road）的照片，向东望向纳尔纳姆（Naarm）/墨尔本（Naarm）/墨尔本（Melbourne），穿过（并且仍然应该）注定要成为西方草原储量的一部分。

In recent months, the grassland has been illegally bulldozed to oblivion. So, going, going … and now gone.

近几个月来，草原被非法推销至遗忘。所以，去，走了……现在走了。

See also

参见

The destruction of this 40-hectare site is still being investigated by state and federal environmental authorities, although The Age reported that, bizarrely, Melton City Council, the responsible authority, was aware of the illegal land clearing but did nothing.

州和联邦环境当局仍在调查这个40公顷现场的破坏，尽管该年龄段报道说，怪异的梅尔顿市议会是负责的当局，他意识到非法土地清理，但什么也没做。

The site is subject to a Public Acquisition Overlay, meaning that government is scheduled to acquire it for the Western Grassland Reserves.

该地点将受到公共收购覆盖的约束，这意味着政府计划为西方草原储备收购。

But this site was destroyed during a court case, in which developer You Min Wu was fined $260,000 after one of his contractors scraped bare another nearby 19-hectare site, known as “Conservation Area 9”, and covered it with tons of asbestos-contaminated fill in 2021-2022. The contractor was fined $210,000.

但是该地点在法庭案件中被摧毁，在该案件中，您的开发商Min Wu被罚款260,000美元，此前他的一位承包商将附近的另一个裸露裸露的19公顷现场（称为“保护区9”）被罚款，并以2021年至2022年的大量石棉污染的填充物覆盖了它。承包商被罚款210,000美元。

The developer is still to face court, in a case brought by federal environmental authorities over the asbestos clean-up costs.

在联邦环境当局对石棉清理成本提出的案件中，开发商仍将面临法院。

Given that a 220–230 square metre house and land is selling for more than $500,000 in the area, I doubt the developer is going to be very much out of pocket if it gets away with developing the land (19 hectares of housing sold at a low $500,000 per 230 square metres is about $413 million in the final sale price).

鉴于该地区的220–230平方米房屋和土地的售价超过500,000美元，我怀疑如果开发商逃脱了土地（19公顷住房的售价为19公顷，以每230平方米500,000美元的价格出售，最终销售价格约为4.13亿美元）。

Both these sites are listed for acquisition as grassland reserves.

这两个地点都被列为草地储量。

Once the grassland is gone, the owners probably expect they will be able to develop it, since there seems little point in the government purchasing this disaster for a grassland grassland reserve.

一旦草地消失，业主可能会希望他们能够开发它，因为政府为草地草原保护区购买了这场灾难似乎并不重要。

Or is there?

还是在那里？

There are two good reasons to legally confiscate these properties and turn them into grassland reserves.

有两个充分的理由可以合法没收这些特性并将其变成草地储备。

First, if these developers get away with this power play, why won’t every other landowner in the proposed Western Grassland Reserves, and elsewhere, bulldoze any environmental assets on their property, pay the token fine and make big bucks selling it for development?

首先，如果这些开发商摆脱了这项强力游戏，为什么拟议中的西部草原储备中的所有其他土地所有者都不会在其财产上推销任何环境资产，支付象征性的罚款并让大笔款项销售开发呢？

It’s not just the Western Grassland Reserves, but the principles and integrity of public planning are threatened by these greedy developers. You can be sure that these cases are being watched with a vulture stare by the rest of their class.

这不仅是西部草原储备，而且这些贪婪的开发商威胁着公共计划的原则和完整性。您可以肯定的是，这些案例在其余的班级中都凝视着秃鹰。

The second good reason is that a scraped-bare paddock is a good place to restore a native grassland, if it can be resown with appropriate seeds before millions of invasive weeds take hold.

第二个充分的理由是，如果可以在数百万侵入性的杂草拿起之前，可以用适当的种子恢复适当的种子，那么刮擦的围场是恢复本地草原的好地方。

It will not be as good as the original old-growth grassland, but it could eventually return to a similar condition.

它不会像原始的旧生长草那样好，但最终可能会恢复类似的状况。

The Victorian government’s grasslands management program is being implemented with good intentions by the Department of the Environment’s Melbourne Strategic Assessment team and Parks Victoria.

环境部墨尔本战略评估团队和公园维多利亚州的维多利亚州政府的草原管理计划正在以良好的意愿实施。

Yet, after 15 years of the assessment, five years after 100% of the reserves were promised to be purchased (but only about 10% have been), there is still no native grassland seed production strategy to be seen, let alone a seed orchard.

然而，经过15年的评估，承诺购买100％的储量后五年（但只有大约10％的储量），仍然没有当地的草原种子生产策略可以看到，更不用说种子果园了。

Will Labor let the developers get a pass and a token fine for their criminal acts? Or will they be forced to pay token fines and offset money, which they can easily recoup from developing and selling the land?

工党会让开发商通过其犯罪行为获得通行证和令牌罚款吗？还是他们会被迫支付令牌罚款和抵消款项，他们可以轻松地从开发和出售土地上恢复这些款项？

Offsets are the government’s easy way out; the whole Western Grassland Reserves are, in fact, an offset.

偏移是政府简单的出路。实际上，整个西方草原储量都是偏移。

A very small, but much better condition grassland, is currently being bulldozed by the government, with offsets, of course, for a new train station car park at Watergardens.

当然，一个非常小但更好的草原草地正在被政府推销，当然，偏移是在水上镇上的新火车站停车场。

Fifteen years of government dragging its heels while proposed grassland reserves (offsets) deteriorate from weed invasion and, now, active destruction of areas intended for conservation, is rolling up the point that conservation and planning experts said from the outset (reinforced by the Auditor General in 2020): it would be more effective for conservation, and much cheaper, to purchase the entire proposed reserve area via compulsory acquisition right away.

十五年的政府在提议的草原储备（偏移）中拖延了脚跟，导致杂草入侵恶化，现在，积极的破坏了旨在保护的地区的积极销毁，这是一种观点，即保护和规划专家从一开始就说过（由审计师将军加强2020年，在2020年加强）：可以有效地购买保护区，并且可以购买整个建议，并提供了整个建议，并提供了整个建议。

Exactly why Labor has failed for all these years to achieve such an obvious solution is not clear, but its disdain for nature conservation is.

这些年来，劳动已经无法实现如此明显的解决方案的原因尚不清楚，但是它对自然保护的不屑一顾。

[Ben Courtice is a botanist and conservationist based in Naarm/Melbourne.]

[本·考特斯（Ben Courtice）是位于纳尔姆/墨尔本的植物学家和保护主义者。]