Friends of Ainslie Volcanic Grasslands say their taxpayer-funded conservation work is under threat. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
A mobile phone tower is to be built in Ainslie on land that a local conservation group has been given thousands of taxpayer dollars to rehabilitate.
The Friends of Ainslie Volcanic Grasslands have been working to restore native temperate grasses to the land at the corner of Limestone Avenue and Quick Street for the past three years with backing from Transport Canberra and City Services.
It received a $14,000 government grant in 2023-24 to continue their project.
But the Territory Planning Authority approved the construction of the 28-metre high tower for Optus and Vodaphone last October, saying the Conservator of Flora and Fauna had advised the site was covered in exotic grasses and had no ecological value.
But Friends member Marianne Albury-Colless said the group had been progressively working down the slope behind the tower site and had started plantings on its edge.
The project was intended to cover the entire patch of open land, but that was now uncertain. Ms Albury-Colless said the tower construction would encroach on about a third of the area where the Friends had been working.
Ms Albury-Colless said the Friends feared the construction and the movement of trucks and machinery would interfere with their work and impact already restored grasses.
She said it appeared to be a case of one hand of government not knowing what the other was doing.
“It just seems to me to be such a strange disconnect between what the Planning Authority does and what the people who are trying to rehabilitate natural grassland and grassy woodlands are doing,” Ms Albury-Colless said.
“I used to work with the federal government and we’re very aware of silos, and I think it’s a silo effect”.
A photo montage showing what the tower will look like from Limestone Avenue. Photo: Indara.
The Friends had intended to take the matter to the ACT Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal but discovered the decision could not be appealed.
Ms Albury-Colless said the Friends were not opposed to a mobile phone tower to improve services for Ainslie residents, just this particular site, saying a better, more secluded site was available nearby next to Ainslie Village.
They are calling on Minister Chris Steel to overrule the decision and Indara, which will build the tower, to reconsider the alternative site, which it had dismissed due to access issues and electricity wires.
A government spokesperson said Mr Steel did not have the power to intervene, and it was up to Indara to reconsider the site and lodge another DA.
Ms Albury-Colless said the site next to Ainslie Village was a wide strip of land and the only wires were attached to a single pole at the bottom. Access was available from a dirt road.
She said the Limestone Avenue site was “unbelievably easy for them” and “probably an economic gift”.
Independent MLA Thomas Emerson backed the call for Indara to use the alternative site and has written to Mr Steel and the company.
Mr Emerson said the Planning Authority’s decision didn’t make sense.
“The ACT Government has provided grant funding to support the work of volunteers in preserving and restoring these grasslands,” he said.
“It’s patently unfair to turn around and approve a significant industrial structure on this site.
“This is an example of the left hand forgetting the right hand even exists. It just doesn’t make sense.
“Surely we can achieve the same telecommunications uplift without the unnecessary environmental and aesthetic damage.”
The alternative site for the tower favoured by Friends of Ainslie Volcanic Grasslands. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
While Indara said it will plant mature trees around the tower to screen it, Ms Albury-Colless said it would still dominate the corner.
The Planning Authority was satisfied that this screening would be sufficient and considered that the tower’s visual dominance would be limited given the street light and adjacent buildings, although there are residential homes directly opposite on Quick Street.
Indara had also redesigned the antenna component to lessen the tower’s visual impact.
The Planning Authority said Indara would have to provide a Construction Environment Management Plan to ensure there was no impact on ecological communities.
Last November, ACT Conservation Council executive director Simon Copland said the tower would significantly impact endangered temperate grasslands and further threaten endangered ACT species, including the Golden Sun Moth, Striped Legless Lizard, The Button Wrinklewort and Gang-Gang Cockatoo.
“We cannot afford to lose any more of these ecosystems,” Mr Copland said.
“Construction and development of the telecommunications tower infrastructure will introduce invasive species, light and noise pollution, roads and vehicles. As a result, the ecosystem will no longer perform a habitat function for species dependent on the ecosystem.”
A 2023 Friends petition to the Legislative Assembly called for the site to be protected as part of the Mount Ainslie Reserve, attracting almost 600 signatures.
Loading ...
