PLANS to build a new train stabling yard in Melton Shire have fuelled fears about endangered growling grass frogs in the area.
Seventy hectares of farmland in Plumpton, bordering train tracks to the west of the Calder Park drag racing circuit, have been nominated by the state government for a yard designed to stable 30 ‘next generation’ trains.
The trains will have the capacity to carry 1200 passengers each instead of the current 800.
Melton Environment Group president Daryl Akers said the yard would threaten growling grass frog habitats at risk unless protective measures were put in place.
“Wetlands need to be protected from any development and healthy buffer zones of at least 30 metres will be needed,” he said.
“Trains are very oily so we’d also need to make sure the wetlands are protected from any run-off. Frogs are very sensitive to any kind of pollution because of their skin.”
Found on Melbourne’s suburban fringes, the growling grass frog is a fist-sized amphibian with dark olive to bright emerald green colouring.
It is classed as endangered in Victoria and vulnerable nationally.
Mr Akers said growling grass frog populations around Melbourne had been steadily falling, partly because their wetland habitats had been built over. The frog’s population has declined by 29per cent
in a decade, according to a new Melbourne University study.
Public Transport Victoria spokesman Daniel Stockman said accommodations for native frogs living near the proposed stabling yard were included in the planning process.
“PTV is confident that any final plans for development of the site will not have an adverse impact on native flora and fauna,” he said.
An ecological impact assessment of the project states a dam that is inhabited by growling grass frogs would have to be removed to build the yard.
It proposed to offset the dam’s removal by creating a new habitat for the frogs elsewhere, but that plan would first require the tick of approval from federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.
