What is Anglesea’s Eden? By Mary Bremner
As the dust settled from the demolition of the Alcoa power station, Anglesea residents turned their thoughts to what would become of the site and the massive cavity remaining from the coal mine. Shortly after the site closure in 2015, Alcoa commenced a community consultation. Feedback indicated that residents wanted to maintain the town’s seaside village vibe by limiting residential development, but also support economic growth. This could be achieved through ecotourism, adventure-tourism, recreational and educational activities or renewable energy as an industry on the site. There was strong recognition of the community’s desire to take advantage of the site’s natural surrounds and unique flora and fauna.1 The idea of a large water body as a centrepiece for the future site captured people’s imaginations. Alcoa soon set about rehabilitation of the site. There’s broad agreement that the earthworks carried out to grade the mine’s edges and the carefully planned revegetation program have already resulted in an amazing transformation. In 2018, Alcoa developed a Freehold Concept Master Plan. Key to this plan is the creation of ‘a new tourism destination for Anglesea and the Great Ocean Road’. This arose from the company’s desire to leave a ‘significant and lasting contribution to the region’s future’.2 In need of someone who could turn this vision for the site into reality, Alcoa approached the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. This UK-based educational and environmental charity and social enterprise is famous for having transformed a disused clay quarry into a highly successful tourist attraction. CEO of Eden Project International Limited (EPIL), David Harland, said they get numerous enquiries of this sort, but Alcoa’s proposal piqued their interest. Eden came to Anglesea and liked what they saw. It fitted with EPIL’s vision to create international projects promoting an understanding of the vital relationship between plants, people and resources. 8
The Eden Project Anglesea remains on the table as a concept for the former Alcoa mine site.
‘We were impressed with Alcoa’s rehabilitation plan,’ David Harland said. In comparison with other opportunities, the distance from Melbourne and the number of visitors already travelling down the Great Ocean Road made Anglesea attractive. In May 2019, Alcoa and Eden Project launched the ‘concept phase’ of Eden Project Anglesea. They outlined a vision to the community ‘to create a place of extraordinary experiences, fusing science and wonder to immerse visitors in the extremes of the elements – earth, air, water, fire – and in so doing, creating a must-see prelude to a journey on the Great Ocean Road’.3 This vision is expanded on the website at edenprojectanglesea.com.au with artists’ impressions and descriptions of how each of these themes might be realised. As with Eden Cornwall, the proposed focus is on an educational experience – at Anglesea the emphasis would be on the local ecology and a theme of sustainability. At a series of community meetings, Alcoa and representatives from Eden, further fleshed out the proposal. The enterprise aims to attract 750,000
visitors a year. The cost of building the project, estimated at $150 million, would be funded by impact investment, that is, investors who are interested in using their money for the good of communities. The project would also rely on government investment in the necessary infrastructure support. The Eden Project would be on the former mine site, adjacent to the proposed water body, located in Area 3 of the A nglesea Futures Land Use Framework (see map on the right). The former power station site is not part of the Eden Project Anglesea concept – Alcoa will seek partners to develop a visitor and parkland destination offering a range of community facilities on that site. This would be independent of, but complement, the Eden Project. Eden made clear that its proposal is contingent on the resolution of a number of issues, not the least being the filling of the mine void to at least 50 per cent capacity by about 2024. Modelling has indicated that it would take 50 years to fill the void naturally. Early suggestions of diverting Salt Creek and using recycled water have been deemed unviable, leaving drawing water from the underground aquifer as the only option.
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