Mixture of opinions

There were mixed opinions among neighbours and community members who addressed Baw Baw Shire in relation to a proposed nursery operating from a Jindivick garden.

Twelve people, including the applicants, outlined a range of supporting arguments and opposition to the proposal for a rare plant nursery to operate at the Palmer Rd property.

Applicants David Muscat and Phillip Hunter told council they had relocated the nursery to the garden. It was previously located in Jindivick, adjoining their restaurant.

They have had their Jindivick property for 23 years.

Mr Hunter said they had been running open gardens, weddings and private functions at their garden.

While acknowledging the roads accessing their property were narrow, he said they were similar to Walhalla Rd that carried thousands of visitors each year.

“There are lots of rural nurseries and gardens on rural roads, some of them gravel. People come here to buy feature or rare plants,” he said.

Mr Muscat said the nursery was something to celebrate in the region.

“There’s a sense of community to support each other, it’s about a business community,” he said.

One objector, Andrew Brown, said the application had nothing to do with a popularity contest of the people involved in the proposal. “It’s purely about the nursery on the end of a dead-end road.”

Mr Brown said 60 per cent of the people who lived in Palmer and North Jindivick Rds were objecting. He said the main concerns related to traffic.

Michelle and Robin Vierke also aired their concerns about increased traffic.

Ms Vierke said her young son rode his bike along to road on weekends and he would not safely be able to do that with increased weekend traffic.

Mr Vierke said it was not only cars that travelled up the road to the garden and nursery but also buses.

“It’s a rural zoned area and this is a commercial operation. There are opportunities to lease a property in town.

“I have no objections to an open garden, it’s beautiful. But not a nursery,” he said.

But a number of submitters supported the nursery, urging council to support the proposal that many said would be good for tourism and business in the town.

Lesley Austin said she had assisted Mr Muscat at his rare gardens fair in the past and it was the only place people could go to buy some of the rare plants he has in his collection.

“He is appreciated by people in Melbourne and Gippsland for his knowledge. Broughton Hall is a beautiful facility and it’s been done with style and thought to visitors.

She said the garden had been open 20 years and there had never been any incidents on the narrow road.

Paul Day said West Gippsland had some of the best gardens in Victoria. “Having the nursery there adds to the reason for people coming to Jindivick,” he said.

Anita Day said in the last five years, business activity had diminished in Jindivick and it would be a shame to lose another business.

Angela Betheras said she supported anything that “brings the higher echelon of customers back to this region and spend their money.”

“We have to get that money back and we need to create scope for more of these business to get into the market,” she said.