Little River freight terminal
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (09:53): On Saturday I had the privilege to join the wonderful residents of Little River to protest against the proposed Pacific National mega-intermodal freight terminal. Little River is a small town of around 1200 people south of Werribee and is the gateway to the You Yangs. The freight terminal is proposed to be built on a 550-hectare site, where it will handle some 2 million containers a year and add around 1500 additional trucks a day to the local road network. Outrageously, its location is in a designated green wedge that consists of rare native grasslands hosting multiple threatened species and immediately adjoins the Little River township. A fire or toxic spill at the terminal would almost inevitably feed into the nearby western Ramsar wetlands, which are recognised as internationally significant and one of the most diverse birdlife reserves in Australia. The proposal has been thumpingly rejected by the Wyndham council and is opposed by a range of conservation organisations and local communities. The logic of developing this site is also now largely non-existent. It was designed to be close to the western intermodal freight terminal at Truganina, which has been deferred indefinitely, and the outer metropolitan ring-road, which is now not even on the development radar. If there is even a skerrick of corporate responsibility in Pacific National, get the hell out of Little River and abandon this disgraceful proposal.