Natimuk group standing firm

Legal advice has given a community group confidence in its strong stand to protect the integrity of a community Trust fund dedicated to enhancing the environs of Natimuk Lake.

Natimuk Lake Foreshore Committee chair Brenda Strudwick said the advice, forwarded to the committee by trustees in charge of a Otto Spehr Lake Natimuk Trust, represented ‘a big win for the community’.

She said the advice, from international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills to Perpetual Trustees Company, was clear that money from the Trust could not be used to subsidise government revenue.

“Our reading of the advice is that a government agency can apply to the Trust only in circumstances where what they are seeking to do is above and beyond what they are responsible to do and do not have funding for,” she said.

“Given that Parks Victoria made a public statement that it would now be responsible for finishing the outlet at the lake, we’re interpreting the advice to mean that Parks is now ‘tasked’ with the completion of the weir – and so would not be able to dip its hand into the Trust.”

The correspondence is the latest development in a dispute over what body should have primary responsibility in providing advice on who should access money from the Otto Spehr Trust.

The foreshore committee has traditionally accessed income from the Trust for lake projects as part of a ‘joint committee’, a term referenced in Trust terms, which also originally included former Shire of Arapiles, now part of Horsham Rural City.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, which oversees Parks Victoria and based on its role as overall lake manager, had explored if there was any flexibility in the Trust terms to directly access money for lake projects.

The dispute stemmed from anxiety over the funding for and management of the weir project, designed to increase the longevity of water in the ephemeral lake.

Relationship

Ms Strudwick said the legal advice suggested Parks Victoria, as a successor to Horsham Rural City Council as lake manager, could be on a joint committee with the foreshore group.

“Although the committee has suggested this to DELWP, the overall governing department, it has rejected the idea of such a working relationship,” she said.

“The legal advice also suggests that joint submissions can be made to the Trust. But the committee understands that DELWP has told Parks Victoria the community must pay for the entire outlet and that Parks’ only responsibility is to manage the project.”

Ms Strudwick said DELWP needed to ‘come to the table’.

“So far all it has done is lose the goodwill of the Natimuk community, tie Parks Victoria in a knot and leave it without the assistance of the committee to complete the weir project. It has also effectively stopped Trust money being directed towards the project,” she said.

“We will watch with interest how Parks Victoria and State Government proceed with completing construction of the weir.”