General News
7 May, 2025
Prime farming land being taken over
THE fight to save the Heytesbury Settlement continues to cause a stir, with hopes government action could be taken to provide dairy farmers with greater protection.
The loss of fertile agricultural land, including beef, sheep and dairy, to encroaching timber plantations backed by foreign investment has been a growing concern for residents, fearing their communities could be lost without intervention.
District residents re-ignited the push in the lead up to the 2025 Federal Election, meeting with candidate Alex Dyson and attempting to meet with incumbent Dan Tehan MP – who has previously met with Simpson residents – to push for direct action.
Among those who have been vocal in opposition to the rising presence of the plantations has been Simpson’s Pappy Hunt, who fears the continued loss of farms could have disastrous impacts on the nation’s food security, heightened bushfire risk and the loss of employment opportunities in the south west.
He is concerned farming towns face an uphill battle against investment which has targeted the settlement for the same reasons the land is so desirable for farming.
“We’re up against a $200 million investment coming in to buy up good farming land, which takes away our food production in favour of monoculture blue gum plantations which are cut down, taken straight over to the wharfs and sent straight overseas for woodchip,” he said.
“There’s minimum work opportunities in plantations, and we lose our communities if we lose our dairy farms.”
While timber plantation investment has been an issue for the better part of 30 years, the situation came to the forefront in May 2022 when Midway, one of Australia’s largest wood fibre processors and exporters, announced the $154.1 million sale of its existing 17,000ha plantation estate to MEAG – a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s largest reinsurance corporation, Munich Re.
The sale was made through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a company created for a limited purpose to isolate financial risks.
Alongside the announcement, the SPV also made a $200 million land investment commitment for “new hardwood ‘greenfield’ plantations” in south west Victoria over a five-year period.
Hardwood plantations, unlike softwood plantations used for structural timber, plywood and paper, are predominantly used for pulp and the sale of carbon credits which offset carbon emissions, providing little direct benefit to the communities in which they’re planted.
The threat of valuable farming land being lost, Mr Hunt feels, flies in the face of what has made the Heytesbury Settlement home to generations of families.
The settlement was established in 1952 to support soldiers returning from World War Two in entering the dairy industry – and while quickly dismissed as a failed policy, it soon grew to become one of the nation’s most productive farming regions.
“For more than 70 years, it’s worked,” Mr Hunt said.
“We’ve had our ups-and-downs from floods to fires and bad milk prices, but we’ve always survived and that’s been integral for our businesses, our hospitals and our schools.
“It’s blossomed – and while we’ve seen smaller farms selling up and bigger farms taking over, that’s still generating a massive amount of money down in the Heytesbury Settlement.
“The beef, sheep and dairy industries are putting a massive amount of money through our community and local businesses – even throughout Victoria where we buy wheat from – and it’s feeding our nation.
“These trees are taking over and they are on a 12-year rotation – in between those 12 years, there’s nothing in terms of employment opportunities.”
Mr Hunt fears change has already been experienced due to the influx of new plantations, despite the widespread investment from Munich Re still being in the early stages of its five-year rollout.
“The next five years are going to really tell a story,” Mr Hunt said.
“We have to be worried about factories shutting down.
“It’s been such a good thing since 1952, but we have to worry about a giant corporation making massive profits and a government benefitting from carbon credits.
“In 18-months, it’s already destroying the place.”
Greater protection for farmers within the district could soon be approved with the recent lodgement of Corangamite Shire Council’s Planning Scheme Amendment C67.
As Western District Newspapers reported last month, Corangamite Shire councillors had agreed at the March Ordinary Meeting of Council to lodge an application with Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny to incorporate the Grow Corangamite strategy into the Corangamite Planning Scheme.
The motion drew unanimous support from councillors and includes a range of amendments such as updating policy, zoning and framework to protect prime farming land – including a new Farming Zone schedule which will require a planning permit for timber plantations above 40 hectares.
Western District Newspapers understands the application, which would bring the conditions in to effect, remains before the Minister for Planning’s office, and will soon be made available for public exhibition.
The amendment would give Corangamite Shire Council the opportunity to prevent larger areas of farming land being sold for the purposes of establishing plantations, but Mr Hunt feels greater action from all levels of government is required under a collaborative effort.
Among the most popular grassroots solutions is a moratorium – a temporary prohibition of an activity – on farms being purchased for plantations while further impact assessment is undertaken.
“We want this stopped until we have a better understanding of what damage is being done,” Mr Hunt said.
“Let’s reassess what’s going on because there should have been a better plan, more community consultation and a more clearly defined area of what is wanted.
“There will always be farmers ready to sell out, and more planning would have created more options for farmers, but that planning would have protected the farmers who wanted to stay.
“We’re not saying we don’t want any trees – there could be farming areas which aren’t that flash.”
Mr Hunt would also like to see more support for young farmers who are looking to enter the farming industry, helping to maintain a fair playing field for an industry which has been so vital for the prosperity of the Heytesbury Settlement and the state in general.
“When it was originally settled, the government of the day gave rural finance to young farmers to support them buying farms and having a career in the dairy industry,” he said.
“It worked fantastic.
“Now it’s the opposite – it’s the tree companies getting around $2000 per hectare and our young farmers can’t get jack, which prices them out of competing.
“When milk prices are down, those wanting to join farming just cannot compete with the tree companies – they are set up for failure.
“They say young people don’t want to get in to the dairy industry but there’s a heap of young people who want to farm, but there’s not enough support helping them to do it.”
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