Gun range ‘threatens properties’ Our values ‘to be shot down’

Andrew Mathieson
The design of a proposed “amphitheatre” shooting range has angered Anakie residents worried about noise travelling kilometres toward their homes.
A planning application to build the facility for two Geelong gun clubs has prompted residents of the small town to form Anakie Residents Action Committee to fight the proposal.
The group is also enlisting the support of several large corporations and Asian land syndicates who have purchased properties in the area.
They believe the owners could lose millions of dollars from falling land prices if the shooting range won council approval.
Residents’ spokesperson Russell Burns feared that the shooters could force residents to surrender their quiet, country lifestyle, which had attracted many to the town north of Geelong.
“They will be shooting into what’s like an amphitheatre,” Mr Burns said.
“They’re going to be elevated 138 metres above sea level and shooting down towards the You Yangs, so the sound is going to travel.
“The residents here work in Melbourne or Geelong and when they come home they want to relax on a Saturday morning or Sunday but that’s going to be the core shoot times.”
Mr Burns said the application from Geelong field and game and clay target clubs proposed shooting five days a week between 10am and 6pm.
Shots would be heard as often as every 45 seconds on competition days.
Mr Burns said concerned residents had “serious doubts” about tests that suggested the noise of gunshots would have little affect on the nearby town.
The action group were measuring the noise to prove their case, he said.
“We can then show the residents the noise they are going to put up with for the rest of their lives.”
Mr Burns said the closest residential property was about 1.2km from the site.
“The owners bought (the land) about 18 months ago and are now devastated,” he said.
“They’re both hard workers and want to come home to their own little piece of paradise.”
Mr Burns said serious investors owned hundreds of hectares around Anakie for the “pure value of hanging onto the land”.
“They are going to lose out the most financially,” he said.
“Then we have career farmers who this land is virtually their superannuation.”
The proposed site is also next to one of two major stormwater catchments for Hovell’s Creek, which passes Lara before draining into Corio Bay.
The Independent revealed earlier this month the clubs had lodged their planning permit application for approval with Geelong’s council.
State Government evicted the clay target shooters from their Eastern Park headquarters in 2008 over lead shot and shooting debris floating into Corio Bay.
The Independent was unable to gain comment from the shooters’ representative before the paper went to press this week.