Ballarat East locals woke to the sound of trees being felled and scrub being mulched on Wednesday morning as the housing development for the former Anglican School site at St Paul’s began clearing for building.
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Worried residents contacted The Courier after a number of trees were felled on the site, including a substantial red box, which could be seen lying on the ground in the centre of the development on Thursday.
However the landscape report for the development reveals that just five trees on the site were recommended for retention, all on the boundaries of the property, leaving the way clear for complete clearing of the interior.
Local resident Gabriel who lives above the former Anglican school site said he saw at least one large oak tree cut down inside the building area.
“There was another oak tree up here a bit further,” he says, pointing to an area just off the bitumen carpark which serviced the school.
“They took it down; it’d be worth several thousand dollars to a furniture maker, surely.”
Developer David O’Brien says the work has run strictly to the conditions set down in the planning application.
“We always abide strictly to the conditions we are given,” Mr O’Brien told The Courier.
He says he understands why neighbours of the new development find it worrying when works begin.
“Look, people find change scary, that’s fair,” he said.
“And then new people move in, and they become the new neighbours and life moves on.”
He said he is pleased the site clearing is underway, and that most utilities for the new homes are in place.
Gabriel, in the meantime, is preparing himself for the increased amount of building work he’s about to be surrounded with.
“This was originally a garden for the church,” he says.
“It used to be church land, and the church ran the school. Then the Education Department took it over, it became Crown land. I think council have managed all of this dreadfully, you can tell when you ask them about it.”
He says it has been years since locals rallied to object to the density of the project on the historic site, the place where Ballarat diggers met for the monster meeting of November 1854, unfurling the flag of the Southern Cross.
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