MARCH 3, 2020 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
(Joe Mastroianni) 204940_01
Hair to help Four Bacchus Marsh locals will soon be feeling a bit cooler on top. The quartet will be shaving their heads bald on March 14 as part of the World’s Greatest Shave, helping to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation. For Kim Hopper, it’s something she’s wanted to do for some time. “It’s going to be quite a fun day and I’m actually pretty excited for it,” Ms Hopper said. “I’ve thought about it before, but I always had something like my engagement or my wedding, but so many people have to be bald for reasons that they don’t want to be, so if I can do it and give back to the organisation I’m happy to do that.” As well as raising money through donations and raffles, all the hair that is cut off will be donated to be made into wigs for cancer sufferers. Ms Hopper said there was a personal connection to the cause for everyone taking part. “It’s something that we’ve all been affected by.” The group has already raised $1500, and is hoping to get to $4000 on the day of the shave. The shave will take place at the Royal Hotel at 1pm on March 14. The day will also feature live music and more fundraising for the cause. STACEY BUNNEY AND KIM HOPPER
Ewen McRae
People power mobilises By Ewen McRae Anger continues to simmer in Bacchus Marsh over a proposal to store contaminated soil at the Maddingley Brown Coal site. A petition opposing the MBC tender was delivered to Parliament on Monday with more than 4,400 signatures. Last week, more than 400 people attended a town meeting to discuss a tender from MBC to receive and store unclassified soil from the Westgate Tunnel Project. The tender is with Transurban, which will decide on its preferred site.
It will then need to be ratified by the planning minister. Members of a newly formed group, the Bacchus Marsh Community Coalition, which organised and ran last week’s meeting, said their concerns about the proposed dumping were growing. “[Maddingley Brown Coal] has Parwan Creek running through it, it’s adjacent to Werribee River, very close to Bacchus Marsh Grammar and Bacchus Marsh College schools, and those waterways obviously service the instigators in the market gardens of the area,” a spokesman for the group said.
“We don’t want this here.” Local MPs Steve McGhie and Michaela Settle said they would take all community concerns to the minister and the Environment Protection Authority. Upper house Liberal MP Beverley McArthur told the meeting it was disappointing that decisions about the storage of the soil were being made at such a late stage in the process. “In 2017 it was well known that this soil was contaminated,” she said. “Nearly three years later, the state government is in discussions with multiple landfill operators, and you’re quite right to have concerns about what might
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happen if this contaminated soil comes into your area. “This is a famous and vitally important food bowl, feeding the people of Melbourne and beyond. We cannot risk contamination.” The Bacchus Marsh coalition has received support from a similar group in Wyndham which is opposing a plan to use a Wyndham Vale stabling yard to store toxic soil. The Wyndham group says they are planning to blockade the stabling yard if any contaminated soil makes it’s way there, while a tractor convoy will lead a planned rally through the streets of Werribee on the night of March 3.