THE long-standing overall intent of developing the Hamilton Coleraine Rail Reserve as a viable walking and cycling track appears to have recently raised a considerable level of antagonism and exasperation to some in the community, with matters including soil testing for chemicals and missing property only adding to the acrimony in the last few weeks.
A landowner living adjacent to the reserve just outside of town said the gate that he placed at a road crossing had been taken, and that the goodwill created by a long-standing agreement for keeping grass controlled has been eroded.
Donald Irving, who lives along the trail south of Digby Road, said he has been disappointed with the recent communication and actions of the current Hamilton-Coleraine Rail Reserve committee, specifically in respect of his own contribution over many years by allowing his horses to graze there.
But about a year ago he was surprised to discover he was no longer able to renew his licence with the committee and ended up taking issue with the way consultation with him and other adjacent landowners had been handled.
Letters from the committee had been sent to landholders for various issues, but he claims collaboration on decisions had evaporated.
Since the end of last year, tensions with some members of the committee appear to have escalated to the point of a recent removal of a gate that Mr Irving had installed to assist with the grazing, with the first sign of trouble coming when he wasn’t home but received a phone call from a neighbour.
“We got home at seven o’clock – our horse was out and the gate was gone,” he said.
He said he went to the police who said there was nothing that could be done and felt maligned as he had kept the track clear of rubbish and noxious weeds but other sections which were only the responsibility of the committee “were nearly impassable”.
He also said, “it’s not the first gate that’s gone missing” and felt the committee was “not trustworthy”.
Mr Irving said he had started putting a fence up along his property line to comply, but he was now waiting for an equipment repair to complete the job.
When contacted, Rail Reserve Committee chairperson, Sue Brumby, would not be drawn about the specifics of the situation but said Mr Irving had been contacted several times.
Ms Brumby said while the committee had a preference for no gates along the length of the trail, other recent factors played into the decision-making such as the recent discovery of arsenic in soil in the reserve.
She said sampling had taken place in collaboration with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and the policy they now had was to keep stock off the track.
Arsenic was used as a herbicide during the time the railway was in operation, but the line closed in September 1977 – information about the extent of the contamination has been requested from DEECA for this article but was not received by deadline.
However, The Spectator spoke with several other stakeholders (who did not wish to be named) surrounding management of the trail in conjunction with adjacent landholders and the wider community and there was suspicion of the emphasis on the arsenic, with one person claiming it was just an “excuse” to keep landholders’ stock off the reserve.
“If the arsenic ‘threat’ is so urgent, why aren’t DEECA quickly moving to ban grazing on all disused rail lines within Victoria?” they asked, adding grazing was still common along the old Balmoral and Cavendish lines.
A question was also raised about the chemical and whether it would be at a level safe for humans if it wasn’t safe for stock – Mr Irving said the letter he received from the committee dated September 21, 2022 describing the threat he felt wasn’t consistent with the committee’s own actions four weeks later with a school group doing some organised tree planting.
A new committee had been elected in February 2022 and one local claimed everything had been fine for years with them but now that had changed.
Relationships are said to have become strained with some landholders, and a common allegation was that some new members of the committee were not as “easy to get along with” compared to the old committee which “was very harmonious”.
Another complaint was a tendency to be “authoritarian”, “riding roughshod over the adjoining landholders” and “their tactics have been terrible”, pointing to one committee member especially they claimed had made it a mission to regularly take photos for the smallest of issues, and actively singled out and made an example of community members in meetings.
One local wanted to praise Mr Irving – “Donald’s done a great job there” – and said his years of work had kept his adjoining section relatively well-managed whereas before “it was just a dumping ground for neighbours throwing their green waste and household rubbish into the reserve”.
They questioned the capacity of the committee to manage vegetation along the length of the trail and pointed to the fire hazard potential: “No way can a team of 12 people with some support from the Friends Group manage 37 kilometres of rail reserve”.
They added they thought the committee might be “going backwards”, citing environmentally friendly programs in metropolitan Melbourne areas using goats to control hard-to-access land next to railways.
However, another local contacted hoped the situation could be resolved.
They said the animosity the situation had created was regrettable and described the landscape as “one of the best in Victoria” and “in terms of conservation, it has the most beautiful grassland and woodland ecology around the region”.
Ms Brumby said the matter was “too complicated” to discuss at length, adding that the report DEECA was still preparing on the soil testing was a major factor in determining what happened next; “I think it’s better to wait”.
“I think it will become clearer in another week or so,” she said.
“The goal of the committee is to have it open for the public to access.”
Mr Irving said he understood the committee were within their rights to manage the reserve as they saw fit, but he felt it was only a handful of them who were creating “friction” and pursuing “a personal vendetta” towards him “because I’m the only one that’s speaking up at the moment”.
“We just want to prove that the farmers are looking after the rail reserve better than what the committee is,” he said.
