Prospecting sites found at the Hoddles Creek Bushland Reserve on 11 May have damaged the reserve’s protected environment.
Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) parks and nature campaigner Jordan Crook warned the holes left by prospecting activity would disturb the area’s unique landscape.
“The soil disturbance from the prospecting increases the severity and amount of weeds in the area. It can also dig up native plants and orchids and it adds to soil erosion in the area as well.”
While the Liwik Barring Landscape Conservation Area 10 year plan states prospecting is allowed at the Hoddles Creek Bushland Reserve, prospectors are obliged to restore the landscape to its original state.
Friends of the Hoddles Creek (FOHC) president Laurence Gaffney said while those with a Miner’s Right permit can engage in prospecting in certain areas, they should still exercise care for the land.
“Members of the Friends of Hoddles Creek have observed similar excavations in the Hoddles Creek Area which we attribute to prospecting. Where permitted, prospectors are obliged to immediately restore the area to how they found it by backfilling holes they have dug and replacing leaf litter.”
“Unfortunately it would appear that this is not happening in some cases,” Mr Gaffney said.
Mr Crook was enjoying the Hoddles Creek Bushland Reserve, which is a part of the Liwik Barring Landscape Conservation Area, when he came across the holes.
“There needs to be an assessment to see if there was more. I found three or four holes myself, but I wasn’t there to look for prospecting.”
“Mining activity also impacts the quality of the water in the area as well,” Mr Crook said.
Restoration of the land could include refilling the holes, replanting native plants and weed management which all take resources and time to carry out.
Mr Gaffney said the impact of prospecting should be included in the Liwik Barrings’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Framework/Program.
Mr Crook advocated for people to respect the point of why nature reserves are established in the first place.
“There’s definitely a need for better education of the public on what those reserves are there for and we do not have that many of them. They’re very small so we need to look after them a lot better.”
“When you’re in areas of native remnant vegetation, they need to be looked after and not exploited whether it be for minerals and the like that prospectors are looking for,” Mr Crook said.
