Prison drilling starts again
Sharon Webb
Work on the Northern Regional Prison on Birralee Road has ramped up now the State Government’s self-imposed election gag on the issue is over, but the State Government could yet find that its chosen site is illegal.
Prison project director Colin Shepherd told Westbury residents that he expected exploratory drilling to start again on the Brushy Creek Reserve site on June 29.
In a letter dated 16 June to property owners in the Birralee area he wrote, ‘A small number (5–6) of additional geotechnical core holes will be drilled on the site in coming weeks.’
A government spokesperson has confirmed that the drilling is to determine soil, clay and rock composition and that no damage would be done to plant life because drilling would be ‘conducted in a manner that takes into account the sensitive natural values that have been identified on the site’.
But Westbury Region Against the Prison spokesperson Linda Poulton said, ‘The Government can’t even drill on site without potentially triggering processes under the Nature Conservation Act 2002. Given the natural values on the reserve, the proposal will unavoidably be beset by delay for as long as it runs its course. It is no wonder that the project is currently lagging behind by 12 months’.
WRAP has also presented another petition to Meander Valley Council for a public meeting on the issue, Meander Valley Council general manager John Jordan having stymied the previous petition when he found names without addresses.
That petition may be discussed at the July Meander Valley Council meeting.
As it tries to get the prison project up, the State Government is being chased by the Federal Environment Dept because Tasmania seemingly forgot its obligation to protect seven federally funded reserves, including Brushy Creek Reserve.
The Gutwein Government claims that Brushy Creek is an ‘informal’ reserve, but WRAP has uncovered documents indicating the Federal Environment Dept definitely regards the chosen prison site as part of the National Reserve System.
In December 2020, Federal Environment Dept assistant secretary Tia Stevens wrote to DPIPWE’s Andrew Crane asking for an update of the government’s ‘efforts to legally protect’ Brushy Creek Reserve, and for details on its management plan.
A January 2019 letter from Ms Stevens points out that DPIPWE received $569,396 funding to manage 2289 hectares of reserves, and the government had met legal requirements to protect only three of the ten properties.
This will be the Government’s second go at drilling on the Brushy Creek Reserve site. They tried in October 2020 but pulled out within days, publicly blaming demonstrators, rain and a low hanging branch blocking drillers’ water truck.
WRAP activists say that Right to Information documents show the real reason for 2020 drilling holdups. The drillers encountered a threatened species of tree on the reserve which presented an obstacle to any further progress.
RTI documents show at a meeting on 26 October 2020 between DPIPWE representatives and Justice Department consultants Johnstone McGee & Gandy, DPIPWE’s Andrew Crane was tasked with ascertaining whether a Forest Practices Plan would be needed in order to prune or remove the tree.
He was also tasked to ascertain whether a Permit to Take would be necessary to remove it under the Nature Conservation Act 2002. In the meantime, the consultants were told to ‘delay the drillers until further notice’.
DPIPWE also prepared a November 2020 parliamentary brief for Minister Roger Jaensch saying, ‘… drilling was planned for 19 October but was further delayed due to … the presence of threatened flora [being] more widespread at the site than previously recorded and that as such access to the proposed drill hole locations might impact on these plants’.
