Saving Point Nepean E-letter No 4 Dear members and supporters Please sign on to the Community Consensus Statement on Point Nepean VNPA and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) are facilitating a Community Consensus Statement on Point Nepean (see below) in the lead up to the closing of tenders (6 October) for the lease of the 90 hectares of Commonwealth land at Point Nepean.
The Consensus Statement is a reflection of the Victorian Community Expression of Interest (EOI) in Point Nepean (you can see it on www.vnpa.org.au ) facilitated by VNPA and the National Trust. At the EOI's heart was the return of Point Nepean to Victoria for inclusion within a national park. The Consensus Statement reaffirms that objective and also articulates the community concerns about the leasing process for Point Nepean recently announced by the Commonwealth Government (for more detail see www.vnpa.org.au). We are very keen to gain your support, or that of your group, for the Point Nepean campaign by signing on to the Consensus Statement. If you or your group wishes to sign on all you need do is send Chris Smyth a note by snail mail or email, or give him a call, or fax it back to him with the name and group's contact details (Chris's details are below). If you know of other groups or people that you believe would be keen to sign on, please forward this email to them. We will eventually release the consensus statement and the list of groups, individuals etc that have signed on to send a clear message of the widespread and growing community support for Saving Point Nepean. If you can get your details to Chris by noon on Tuesday 30 September it would be much appreciated. COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF COMMONWEALTH LAND AT POINT NEPEAN We the undersigned community groups, associations, institutions, agencies, companies and individuals concerned about the future of 311 hectares of Commonwealth land at Point Nepean state that: POINT NEPEAN is a national treasure, an icon of Australia's rich natural and cultural heritage, with magnificent 19th and 20th-century heritage-listed buildings, breathtaking coastscapes and seascapes, and threatened coastal moonah woodland. POINT NEPEAN is endangered by the Commonwealth Government's impending break up of the 311 hectares of Commonwealth land 205 hectares to the Victorian Government, 17.6 hectares to the local council, and the remaining 85-90 hectares to private developers under lease. We the undersigned oppose the Commonwealth Government's lease of the advertised 85-90 hectares of Commonwealth land at Point Nepean (by 1 November 2003) because it will: * disintegrate the ownership, management and control of Point Nepean's exceptional natural and cultural heritage * threaten the integrity, fabric and spatial association of the Quarantine Station buildings, and encourage linear and overdevelopment along the shoreline * be contrary to the Community Master Plan's vision of a 'public park managed as a whole' * exempt developers from public scrutiny and local and state planning schemes and regulations designed to protect area's of significant natural and cultural heritage such as Point Nepean * enable intensification of development simply by the private developer and the Commonwealth Government agreeing to change lease conditions or to convert the land to freehold * establish prior use rights for private developers who could use them to prevent future governments and the local council removing inappropriate and excessive developments as a means to improve the protection and management of Point Nepean * avoid the protection of new national heritage legislation that comes into force in 2004. We the undersigned urge that: The Commonwealth and Victorian governments forge a partnership with the Victorian community to protect all of Point Nepean in a national park, with the Victorian Government upholding its commitment to cover the ongoing management and restoration costs, and the Commonwealth Government providing the land. All of the 311 hectares of Commonwealth Land at Point Nepean, including the Quarantine Station and Police Point, be transferred to the Victorian Government and added to the adjoining Mornington Peninsula National Park under the management of one agency Parks Victoria. Signed for and on behalf of: __________________________________________________________________ IN OTHER NEWS Despite the National Trust's avowed commitment to being apolitical, from time to time it is involved in campaigns that regrettably fall along party lines. The National Trust's only interest s protection of Point Nepean. The decisions made about Point Nepean endure well beyond the term of individual governments and it is the decisions and not who makes them that are of paramount consideration. Parks Australia will not be involved in Point Nepean Mrs Fran Bailey, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence on 23 September, confirmed to VNPA that the landlord under the lease would be the Department of Defence and that Parks Australia would not be gifted the land or involved in the leasing arrangements. No hotel in Victorian Community Expression of Interest The Victorian Community Expression of Interest facilitated by the VNPA and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) for the EOI process for sale of the site was a visionary statement about how a national park could be established, managed, maintained and used at Point Nepean. The uses for the proposed national park at Point Nepean would not be determined until the land is transferred by the Commonwealth Government to Victoria, its national park status is approved by State Parliament, and a community-based consultation process prepares a management plan for the park that first establishes the conservation, management, research, education tourism and other objectives of the park and later selects appropriate uses. This is the right and proper way to proceed, rather than proposing to use the available land and buildings first and then consider protection as an afterthought. Under the EOI's suggestions accommodation at Point Nepean, were it approved by the national park management plan, would be only for those people involved in the education, research, conservation and other programs at Point Nepean. And when considering the use of just one of the buildings on site, the Commanding Officers House, alternative suggestions in the EOI were a small conference venue and a training restaurant for student chefs and hospitality students. At the heart of the EOI is the integrated management of all the Commonwealth land at Point Nepean (311 hectares) with the two Mornington Peninsula National Park areas at Point Nepean (310 hectares) under one management plan and one management agency. This endorses the Community Master Plan's vision of a 'public park managed as a whole'. The EOI then suggested that the Quarantine Station buildings (about 30 hectares of the 611 hectares) be leased by a ministerially appointed Board of Management accountable to State Parliament and comprising community representatives and experts in the field of park management and built heritage conservation and restoration. This is very different to what the Commonwealth Government has announced. It is carving up the 311 hectares of Commonwealth land into at least three management areas and leasing out 90 hectares of this to private commercial developers who could sublease to other parties and thus further disintegrate management, control and accountability. RING YOUR BELL FOR POINT NEPEAN! JOIN THE RALLY AT POINT NEPEAN BE THERE ON SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER AT 2PM How to get there? Just follow the signs once you arrive at the National Park Visitor Centre to the west of Portsea township. Why ring a bell? A bell is a marine distress signal. We will be ringing the bell to warn of the serious threat to Point Nepean. Please come. More details will follow in subsequent Saving Point Nepean E-letter. And if you have your own bell, bring it along. Please forward this e-letter to your relatives, friends and colleagues. Chris Smyth Marine Campaign Officer VNPA Level 3 60 Leicester Street Carlton VIC 3053 Ph: 03 9341 6512 Fax: 03 9347 5199 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The National Trust is a non-government community organisation that relies on membership subscriptions and property entrance fees for its income. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 9656 9800 Fax: 9650 0004 "Advice and opinions expressed by Trust members and staff are proffered in good faith but on the basis that no legal liability is accepted by the Trust or the individual concerned." . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]