Gembrook Park Drainage

I attended a public meeting today which was called to discuss the storm water damage caused by the housing developments to the north of the park. Erosion in the gully has increased as the flow of the water has with more houses built and the drained area enlarged, by the piping of storm water, to the one outfall at the head of the gully. There are many more houses yet to be built so it will increase.

This erosion has been of great concern to the Gembrook Park Friends group for several years. Installation of a water retarding basin where this outfall occurs was a requirement on the developers by the Cardinia Council  planning permit system. It hasn't worked from day one. The pipe going out at the bottom is too large and the water is funneled straight down the gully whenever rain makes the pipes flow.

Council has argued that the retarding basin is there for the 'big rain' event. We had in early Feb what the consulting engineer suggested today was a one in a hundred year storm, maintaining the basin would have done its job. A member of the Friends Group who visited on the Saturday morning immediately after the rain said there was no water in it and no sign that it had filled up at all eg flattened vegetation.

The engineer outlined possible action options-
1. Deepen the basin and reduce the size of the outfall pipe. Cost $90,000
2. Install a rock chute, designed strategically to slow the water and allow regeneration, a couple of metres wide, down into the park to where the gully floor or creek bed is less steep and more stable. Cost $190,000.
3. Divert water from basin to Pakenham Rd by means of a pipe all the way to the Cockatoo Creek. Cost $490,000
4. Build a series of litter pits at points along the drainage system before the water from the various pipes reaches the retarding basin (which doesn't retard). Cost $250,000.

This is all from memory so there may be some inaccuracy in my figures but the meeting was minuted by a council person and I will receive a copy soon.

The environment guy and the engineer from council preferred option no.2. Most of the people present who were mainly Gembrook Park people but also some others, voted for option 3, saying option 4 should also happen later. Now it's a question of funding.

This appalling situation is a stuff up of the greatest magnitude. The Gembrook Bushland Park is in my opinion the best thing about the town. Its degradation by housing development is a tragedy, and I can only hope somehow the authorities that charge rates ie Council and YVWater, along with the State Government, can find the funds to put it right.

I remember writing to Premier Jeff Kennett, before a road or house had been constructed, suggesting that the land north of the park should not be developed for housing but should be planted out with trees as a buffer to the Gembrook Park. A reply came from the head of a department saying the land had already been rezoned residential and the Gov't had finished its buy back program of private land in the state.

Who knows where this will end? After seeing the ineffectiveness of the Water Sensitive Urban Drainage scheme through Nobelius Park in Emerald, after a cost of $500,000, I'm not confident of a resolution.

Wounded Knee

I'm happy to say that I'm well after another health issue since my last post. The next day was hot. Finding some sprinklers not working at the farm with sufficient pressure I crawled into an mass of overgrown shrub and weed looking for the leaking pipe causing water to spill down a bank and into a neighbour's drive and down the hill. My knee cap twinged painfully.

The next day, suffering some discomfort, I walked with a bit of a limp. Alarmed I was not. The following day, the 21st, I drove to Tullamarine to pick up Ian Sinclair in the morning who was arriving with his son from Canada. Ian is a family friend from right back to Mt. Waverley days and went through primary school and tech school the same year as Jod. I had orders for foliage needing to be be picked that afternoon so after a lunch of salad rolls off I went up the tree. My knee had stiffened somewhat with the drive to the airport and back so it wasn't work I relished.

The climbing aggravated the knee. The legs do the supporting and bracing and balancing while you twist and turn reaching about to cut foliage with the pole cutter or the handsaw. By days end I was in agony and couldn't bend my knee sufficiently to apply the brake so Gord had to drive home. The pain continued right to the end of January so as it turned out, with first my back and then the knee, for about half of January I could barely walk.

Our Canadian visitors stayed till yesterday when they headed off to prospect for gold with a metal detector somewhere in the golden triangle. With the knee and visitors it's been difficult to focus on responsibilities as I normally would. Not that Ian and Culan were demanding, but the computer rooms were converted to bedrooms and the presence of overseas friends has you talking more and thinking business less. Yesterday it was 40C on our deck and I had a Nobelius Park meeting in the afternoon, out of which came plenty for me to do. I get the feeling February will also be tough as I have so much catching up to do.

Finishing on a bright note, I managed a second honey extract last weekend and it was our 30th wedding anniversary on Jan 31, which we celebrated in fine style. Thirty years married. I'm pleased with that. Lib is a wonderful friend and life ally. I'm very lucky.