Yarra Ranges councillor Noel Cliff is disgusted at the dumping of ivy in Olinda.By Tania Martin
SHIREof Yarra Ranges Streeton Ward councillor Noel Cliff has labelled the dumping of a truckload of ivy and fence posts in Olinda as a sign of disrespect towards the environment.
Cr Cliff said he discovered the pile of rubbish on the side of the Olinda-Basin Road near the Dandenong Ranges National Park several weeks ago.
He said this dumping came days after the Olinda Action Group had one of their working bees and spent a day cleaning up all the ivy and other weeds inhabiting the area.
“Whoever did this has no respect for all the hard work our friends groups do cleaning up the area,” Cr Cliff said.
“And I am sick to death of our shire being a tip for these irresponsible people.”
Cr Cliff said dumping rubbish such as ivy was wasting local environmental groups’ and the council’s money.
“We spend thousands of dollars to prevent and control weeds in the shire and then you see someone go and do something like this, it’s just despicable,” he said.
Cr Cliff said he suspects the culprit was a nearby building site or a contractor as the wood dumped was old fence posts.
He said the ivy appeared to be growing on the fence and whoever replaced the fence had decided to dump the material in a place they thought it wouldn’t be noticed.
“People don’t respect anything. They just dump rubbish and leave it for someone else to clean up,” Cr Cliff said.
“But if someone was to dump rubbish in their yard I bet they wouldn’t like it.”
Council manager of community relations James Martin said the council could apply several fines for the dumping of rubbish.
Mr Martin said fines for minor littering offences ranged from $105 to $210, whereas bigger penalties may apply for the dumping of car, bodies, mattresses and rubbish, including fines of up to $1000 and appearing before the Magistrates’ Court.
He said it cost the shire more than $100,000 per year to clean up rubbish that had been dumped.
Shire biodiversity coordinator Simon Demby said the dumping of rubbish including garden waste was one of the biggest problems in the council’s quest to control the spread of weeds. Mr Demby said ivy was the number one problem weed in the shire, and although the council had instigated a weeds black spot program, it was important to change the community’s attitude and behaviour towards weeds. He said ivy was commonly grown along fence lines, and if people were ripping out old fences they should dispose of the material properly instead of dumping it.
