The Great Southern Star - August 4, 2009

Page 1

Published at Leongatha for South Gippsland

36 McCartin Street, Leongatha 3953 PHONE: (03) 5662 2294, FAX: (03) 5662 4350 ACN 006 507 580 ABN 61 318 952 541 PRINT POST 336735 10006 Email - news@thestar.com.au advertising@thestar.com.au

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PAGES 28-31

The Great Southern

Star

INSIDE

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2009

Lighting the way

Page 18

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PUBLISHED TUESDAY 56 PAGES

Parrots finals bound Sport

Desal boom town Housing, jobs, roads big issues when construction starts By Jane Ross

How’s the cuppa? “Tops!” Harold Millard gives the cappuccino from the new café Terri’s Place at Rose Lodge, the thumbs up. See story page 22.

A JOBS boom, rental crisis and traffic chaos are just some of the local impacts expected after contracts were finally signed for the Wonthaggi desalination plant. AquaSure, a consortium of Suez Envrionnement (sic), Degremont, Thiess and Macquarie Capital Group will build the $3.5 billion plant. Work begins in October and will do so in earnest from the beginning of January, seven days a week. South Gippslanders are being encouraged to apply for the jobs it will provide, others are buying up real estate in anticipation of a rental bonanza and protestors remain determined to stop the project. Two were arrested on Sunday, charged with trespass. Emergency services and schools still have no idea what to expect. Neither does the Wonthaggi Business Association. Its head Gordon Muller said it is all up in the air. “I think it will have a big beneficial effect to the local economy but will be detrimental to renting capability,” he said. “This area is all tourist oriented. Workers will take up tourist accommodation and stop tourists coming.” “What will happen afterwards when construction workers leave? “It’s a bit frightening.

“It’s inevitable it was going to happen, but it’s been very secretive. Let’s get in and get something out of it. “We just have to hope for the best.” Bass Coast mayor Cr John Duscher, was none the wiser either. “We don’t know; that’s been the problem all along.” With an extra 1500 to 2000 people, the impacts on traffic and housing are issues of major concern to council. Wonthaggi North Primary School principal Paula Cross was equally in the dark, as was her Inverloch counterpart Stan Jackson. “There has been no information to tell us how many families there might be,” said Ms Cross. “If students turn up, we’ll deal with them. That’s what we do in the State system. We’re not expecting that many in the short term.” Cr Duscher said council was greatly concerned about the impact on regular renters, a sentiment shared by PBE Real Estate in Wonthaggi and contractors AquaSure. Traffic is another major headache. VicRoads has spent more than $1 million repairing bad sections of the Bass Highway between Anderson and Wonthaggi, but the new work started breaking up before it was finished and repairs on the repairs on the repairs are doing the same thing. Regional director Patricia Liew, said weekly inspections would identify potential hazards and VicRoads would work closely with the desalination project over heavy traffic during construction. Continued on page 5.

Fact or fiction: how the consortium believes the plant will look.


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