by Cam Lucadou-Wells
Vehicle storage yards are a symptom of creeping industrialization of the Bangholme Green Wedge, says a nearby resident.
In contrast to the wide, green pastures, the back of an Elms Road lot holds dozens of vehicles, including trucks and an ambulance – allegedly without the required permit.
The “junkyard” is in full view of mourners in the new Rawda As-Salam section (Garden of Mercy and Peace) at the adjoining Bunurong Memorial Park.
Also nearby in Elms Road, a permit application for a vehicle yard had lapsed in 2023.
However works have begun on a security gate and fence, as well as levelling the property, adding a crushed rock driveway, a power transformer, piles of timber waste and new drains and culverts.
Alan Hood, who lives nearby, said the industrial uses were not just a blight on the bucolic landscape but undercutting businesses in more expensive industrial zones.
Convoys of trucks would be churning up dusty, unsealed access roads.
“It’s about people doing the wrong thing without permits in the wrong zones.
“Perhaps 200 trucks on a dusty dirt surface would be coming and going throughout the day from about 3am while nearby there are burial services attended by up to 500 people.
“The zone is there for farming, not for dusty car parks or trucks emitting particulates.
“That’s not good for neighbours with cattle and grazing livestock or for the cemetery trying to conduct services.”
Heavy vehicles are banned from nearby Harwood Road, which would mean the proposed truck yard would require an access road via Fernside Drive, Mr Hood says.
Likewise, the proposed vehicle yard was just 250 metres from Melbourne Water’s Eastern Treatment Plant – well within a ‘major hazard’ buffer zone due to the plant’s use of chlorine, Mr Hood says.
The site’s security fence itself breaches fire safety requirements. Thin wire fences are required to allow fire services to cut through to fight bushfires.
In 2022, Greater Dandenong Council took action against illegal dumping of fill and rubble as well as the storage of B-double truck trailers at an adjoining lot on Fernside Drive.
Mr Hood said the site had been rented to an interstate transport company who advertised the address as their Melbourne depot.
This is despite there was no authorised B-double access road to the property.
Greater Dandenong city futures acting executive director David Fice said a planning permit was required to store vehicles on Green Wedge land.
“We have received reports from the community regarding these matters.
“We are looking into them and will respond directly to those involved.”
Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, which manages Bunurong Memorial Park, stated the issue was a “matter of the City of Greater Dandenong”.
“SCMT will leave the matter for Council to manage.”
