🟠 Hands off our hill

WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• THURSDAY 11/12/25, 7PM | Magic Dirt

• FRIDAY 12/12/25, 6-10PM | Manningham Carols by Candlelight

• FRIDAY 12/12/25, 8.30-11.15PM | Stars

• SATURDAY 13/12/25, 11AM & NOON | Bush Buddies @ Croydon Main Street

• SATURDAY 13/12/25, 4-9.30PM | Knox Carols

• SATURDAY 13/12/25, 5-8.30PM | Lilydale Township Action Group’s “Carols in the Park”

• SATURDAY 13/12/25, 6.30-9.30PM | Whitehorse Carols

• SUNDAY 14/12/25, 11AM-5PM | Polish House Syrena’s Christmas Market

• COLDSTREAM — EVERY DAY UNTIL 24/12/25; WANDIN — EVERY DAY to 04/01/26, EXCLUDING CHRISTMAS DAY | Cherry Picking @ Cherry Hill Orchards

📰 RECENT LOCAL HEADLINES

🪏 “Massive scar on the edge of Mount Dandenong”: Montrose locals rebel against planned ridge impact

Eastern Melbourne locals are continuing to hit back against the proposed 30-acre and 32-year expansion of a quarry in Montrose, arguing the removal of a natural ridge would exacerbate dust and noise impacts.

In October, Boral announced the expansion plans for its Montrose quarry, which would increase the boundary by about 30 acres and provide access to about 26 million tonnes of additional material over about 32 years.

Boral has submitted a referral for the Planning Minister to consider if an environment effects statement (EES) – an in-depth analysis of a project’s environmental impacts – would be required before plans could be approved.

Following a recent protest on the site and online petitions attracting close to 3,500 signatures, about 150 local residents and members of the STOP the Montrose Quarry Expansion group came together on Wednesday December 3 to discuss potential next steps.

One of the presenters was Melissa, a local parent and a teacher at a school near the quarry, who spoke to the Eastern Melburnian on the condition of only giving her first name.

She said she had been a Montrose resident for the past 13 years, but she and her family would have to consider leaving the area if the expansion went ahead, due to fears around the health impacts on herself and her children.

“It's not an environment that we want to be staying in,” Melissa said.

The southern side of the quarry site is bordered by the forested hillcrest Callam’s Ridge.

Melissa and others opposed to the pit’s extension argue the effect of removing part of the ridge would increase the risk of exposure to dust and noise.

“It's this massive scar right on the edge of Mount Dandenong,” Melissa said.

A Boral spokesperson said the proposed plan would "predominantly have a minimal effect on the landscape and surrounding visual amenity”.

The spokesperson said widening the pit into the southern edge of the site aims to move quarrying activities away from the densely occupied Ash Grove and Kirkwood Court towards less populated areas to the south and southwest of the site.

“There will be an impact to the north-west side of the ridge that will be internally facing to the operational site, minimising any impact on the external visual amenity and shielding the majority of the quarry from the view of residents to the south of the expanded operations,” said the spokesperson.

Following recent changes to the state’s Planning Provisions, the power to approve or decline the extension sits with Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, who is also able to fast track the process.

A state government spokesperson said the Boral proposal "will be considered on its merits".

🦚 Is human interaction re-writing the Superb Lyrebird’s song in Sherbrooke Forest?

In the documentary The Message of the Lyrebird, film-maker Nick Hayward recorded the sound of a Superb Lyrebird mimicking a chainsaw, catching the attention of biologist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

Was the sound real, or was the lyrebird reproducing a natural sound? And was the lyrebird mimicking other human sounds?

About 160 Superb Lyrebirds currently call the Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges National Park home. The Eastern Melburnian spoke with Jan Incoll, secretary of the Sherbrooke Lyrebird Study Group, to find out more.

Volunteers from the Sherbrooke Lyrebird Study Group have been running an annual count of the unique species – known as the “Dawn Survey” – since 1970.

Jan Incoll has been watching lyrebirds so long she’s known locally as the “Lyrebird Lady”. She said she has seen first-hand how visitors to the forest can have an impact on local populations.

“We love sharing our knowledge with people, but we don’t want more people in the forest,” said Incoll. “There’s enough, we don’t need it.”

“Group members have said a particular bird in Ferntree Gully said ‘piss off, go get the ranger’ but I couldn’t hear that,” said Incoll. “Sometimes, you see weird behaviour, but you don’t understand it. I wish I did.”

La Trobe University Research Centre for Future Landscapes and Department of Ecological, Plant and Animal Sciences research fellow Dr Alex Maisey said lyrebird mimicry can take generations for sounds to enter their repertoire.

“Lyrebirds learn which songs to sing culturally,” Maisey told the Eastern Melburnian. “It seems to take many, many years for a lyrebird to integrate a new sound into a population.”

Maisey said he had never heard human-origin sounds in the male lyrebirds’ primary songs.

“They do have some calls where sometimes males are courting females outside the breeding season,” said Maisey. “That’s where you hear these weird sounds and it appears as though they’re improvising and they just do these random sounds.”

Maisey said there were bigger threats to local populations beyond humans, including fire and feral deer populations impacting nesting habitat.

“With climate change, I expect to see pretty dire consequences across the distribution of the lyrebird,” said Maisey. “More fires are definitely going to affect the species.”

According to the Bureau of Metrology, the last financial year running from July 2024 to June 2025 was officially Australia’s warmest on record, with the national average temperature 1.68 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average.

According to the Australian and New Zealand Council for fire and emergency services – also known as AFAC – there would be an increased risk of fire for most of western and north-east Victoria this summer, due to severe rainfall deficits.

The National Climate Risk Assessment report, released earlier in the year, detailed how climate change threatens and will continue to endanger our natural flora and fauna.

Maisey said adequate funding and control measures were still needed to keep the future of lyrebirds secure.

“It’s important we recognise the important habitats to lyrebirds, particularly cool temperate rainforest areas,” said Maisey. “Fairly intensive management [is needed] if we’re to conserve the biodiversity we all love.”

SEEN THIS WEEK 🤓

AI is the “biggest copyright theft in history”: GANGgajang frontman

GANGgajang frontman Mark “Cal” Callaghan says more needs to be done to protect music from AI.

Watch his chat with the National Account’s Archie Milligan below.