A cleanfill disposal company wanted to dump 400,000 cubic metres of matter in Lysterfield. A tribunal just said no

The proposal “does not produce a net community benefit and does not constitute orderly planning”.

Author

Matthew Sims
June 29, 2026

A Victorian tribunal has refused a permit for a company to dump 400,000 cubic metres of unspecified clean fill, which could include uncontaminated soil, sand, gravel rock or clay, at a site in Lysterfield.

📍 The proposal: The plans for 465 Lysterfield Road proposed spreading the clean fill  across 15 hectares over three years, with hundreds of trucks arriving each week.

The clean fill, which would have been trucked from undisclosed State Government infrastructure projects, is commonly disposed of in landfills, quarries or transfer stations.

🧑‍⚖️ The battle: Yarra Ranges Council received the application in February 2023 before refusing it in October, finding it did not adequately protect Monbulk Creek and conflicted with the Green Wedge zoning intended to preserve non-urban land.

  • Applicant ESG Lysterfield Pty Ltd appealed to VCAT, with hearings held between February 2024 and September 2025.

"Death by a thousand cuts": Yarra Ranges green groups rally against massive soil dump

“Devastating destruction of the local environment”: A green fill site in Lysterfield has gone to VCAT after council said no.

❌ The decision: VCAT member Judith Perlstein upheld council’s refusal on June 24, finding the proposal “does not produce a net community benefit and does not constitute orderly planning”.

  • She also said the clean fill would be “incompatible” with the environmental significance of the Lysterfield Valley, including risks to the last remaining platypus population in the Dandenong Creek Catchment.

  • According to EnviroDNA ecologist Josh Griffiths, more sediment run-off caused by the proposed loss of vegetation was likely to negatively impact the platypuses as increased cloudiness in the catchment could lead to limited light entering the water, therefore restricting the productivity of the ecosystem and reducing the availability of a food source for the platypuses.

“Same destruction, new name”: Environmental groups say loopholes are allowing Victoria to log native forests

“We've seen trees over 13 metres in diameter, hundreds of years old, being removed.”

✅ Local reactions: Friends of the Glenfern Green Wedge has long been lobbying against the clean fill proposal. President Johanna Selleck said the decision prevented a “terrible precedent”.

  • 🗣️ “It would have really made a mockery of the planning scheme,” Selleck told the Eastern Melburnian.

⏭️ What’s next? An applicant can appeal a VCAT decision to the Supreme Court of Victoria or the Court of Appeal within 28 days of the decision.