Eynesbury Township

The Eynesbury Township is a unique property development about 40 km west of Melbourne’s CBD surrounded by environmental assets such as the 180 ha Eynesbury Grey Box Woodland, Native Grassland Reserve, Greenhill and the Gorge and Werribee River Environs. Nature Advisory was engaged by Eynesbury Property Development Pty Ltd to respond to requirements under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (FFG Act). In addition, we assisted with local planning permit requirements for the removal of native vegetation.

What it involved

• Advice on key biodiversity issues on the site and how to approach these with the regulators (Commonwealth and State)
• Scoping and implementation of detailed flora, fauna and native vegetation surveys, in accordance with required survey methods and standards including:
   
  • Native Vegetation Quality Assessment (habitat hectare)
  • Bird utilisation surveys
  • Targeted surveys for threatened flora species
  • Striped Legless Lizard and Fat-tailed Dunnart surveys
  • Growling Grass Frog surveys
  • Golden Sun Moth surveys
  • Plains-wanderer surveys
  • Kangaroo Management Plan
• Preparation of Environmental Management Plans for the woodland and grassland reserves, Greenhill and the Gorge and Werribee River Environs
• Preparation of EPBC Referrals
• Overall offset strategy including early works using an offset tracking tool accepted by the Department of Sustainability (now DELWP) as a unique way to keep track of offsets assigned to different development stages at Eynesbury
• Stage-by-stage advice on ecological values and preparation of Flora and Fauna reports to accompany planning permit applications
• Pre-clearance surveys for Fat-tailed Dunnarts (surface rock removal) and general wildlife (tree removal)
• Ongoing advice on design modifications in response to ecological constraints and permit conditions as well as native vegetation offsets

Outcome

Nature Advisory has been assisting the property development for Eynesbury Township for over 15 years, and continues to provide support as the development is ongoing. Eynesbury Township embedded the environmental and heritage-listed homestead within a 4,500 lot Masterplan and won a planning excellence award of the Planning Institute Australia (PIA) in 2010 for Environmental Planning and Conservation (Tract Consultants in partnership with Nature Advisory).