Carter family takes land fight from council to Parliament House

Tamrie and Pauline Carter were joined by supporter Anita Donlon in a meeting with Planning Minister Richard Wynne and Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards at Parliament House in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The family is appealing to Mr Wynne to reject a proposed public acquisition overlay on 313 hectares of their farm, on which last month the City of Greater Bendigo voted in favour 6:2 to establish the proposed Marong Business Park.

They presented a letter to Mr Wynne, written by Ms Carter, that outlined their family’s history on that parcel of land and their plight.

Ahead of the noon meeting, Ms Carter read a statement on behalf of her family to a group of supporters who had gathered on the steps of Parliament House.

“The council thinks that by offering compensation we would be happy, despite my father telling them from day one we are not for sale… To every politician and councillor who gets to hear this, please. Please stop and think about us – the people who make up the community,” she read.

Watch the full statement here:

Ahead of the meeting, Ms Carter said she was looking forward to meeting Mr Wynne and having him recognise they were a family and real people.

"So he knows we're not just a name on a file or a piece of land," she said.

She later said Mr Wynne was polite and had listened to them, and had explained that he expected to make a decision within four to six weeks.

A spokesperson for Mr Wynne said “all proposed acquisitions are carefully considered and put through a stringent process”.

“All proposals put to the Minister for Planning are considered on their merits,” the spokesperson said.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning will assess the proposed planning amendment, including the appropriateness and justification for applying the public acquisition overlay.

Ms Edwards said it was good to meet with the family and hear their concerns, and noted that it was a difficult and emotional experience for them to go down for the meeting.

She said she was not in a process to make any calls one way or another on the matter, explaining there was a process and legal issues to be worked through.

With weeks to wait until a decision, Ms Carter said the family would continue to rally support.

“We’re still urging people to put pressure on (Mr Wynne), let him know we’ve got a community who doesn’t want this to go ahead,” she said.

Watch the rally at Parliament House:

At last month’s council meeting, councillors in favour of proceeding with the acquisition pointed to the need for the business park to foster economic and job development for Bendigo into the future.

Supporters from the Bendigo area and further afield joined in support of the Carter family at Parliament House on Wednesday.

Among them was former mayor Alec Sandner, who said the council had ignored the findings of an independent panel that considered the suitability of that land.

Mr Sandner also said the need to pump out groundwater for the development would destroy the productivity of five surrounding farms.

There were also supporters who did not know the Carters, but empathised with them.

One, Sunbury resident Graham Berry, said he did not think it was right of the council to compulsorily acquire the land.

Another was Giuseppe Taranto, who understands planning woes: he bought a block on Gippsland’s Ninety Mile Beach decades ago but has never been allowed to build on it.

Debate about the Carters property has, in recent months, focused on the conclusions of an independent planning panel in 2016, which found there was insufficient justification for council to compulsorily acquire property in Marong to build the business park, when other options were available.