Ivanhoe treetop adventure park rejected by Banyule Council

A Melbourne council has found itself facing a legal battle after it backflipped on it’s decision to approve a treetop adventure park.

An inner-city council faces legal action after a lengthy battle to build a treetop adventure park near the Yarra River was scuppered by the local Indigenous group.

Banyule Council had initially been in favour of the tree-based, self-guided high ropes course proposed for Yarra Flats Park, but it — and Parks Victoria, which controls the land backflipped — after it received a letter from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation stating it was against the proposal.

The letter stated the location of the project was of “sensitive and importance” to the Traditional Owners, being the site of the historic Banksia billabong.

“(The) project would result in impacts on the sensitive cultural values of the region if it were to proceed,” the letter reads.

The area of the proposed treetop adventure park in Ivanhoe East.

But Ecoline, the adventure park operator, is fighting the decision and has made an application for an injunction on the matter, with a tribunal hearing set for July.

The application alleges the council made a “misstep” in the planning process by voting to abandon the proposal, after it initially resolved to conditionally approve the planning scheme amendment in late 2021 and allow it to lapse until October this year to make time for negotiations.

At a recent council meeting Ecoline’s lawyer Barnaby McIlrath said the company remained in discussions with Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung elders.

“You’re talking about a project that does not remove a tree, that does not have any significant ground disturbance,” he said.

“The concerns of (the community), they can take those up with Parks Victoria, why does the council need to stick its nose out on that?”

Environmental community groups have fought against the adventure park after it was put to council in 2020, stating the development would cause damage to “a fragile environment”.

A petition to stop the development attracted more than 1700 signatures, the council amendment received 192 formal objections and a community campaign raised $10,500 to hire independent experts to argue against the project at the planning panel in 2021.

Save Yarra Flats Park spokesperson David Gentle said the planning scheme amendment should never have been approved.

“If it were to get up, it would allow a theme park over an ecologically sensitive billabong in the Yarra Flats wetlands which is habitat to threatened species and species threatened with extinction,” Mr Gentle said.

“For reasons of democracy, the environment and the Wurundjeri, the project should not have got to this point.”

Banyule councillors voted unanimously to abandon the planning scheme amendment, with Mayor Peter Castaldo stating the endorsement of the Traditional Owners of the area was “critical”.

“The position of the First Nations people has been made very clear now, rejecting the treetop adventure park with a letter we have just received,” Cr Castaldo said.

“The recommendation of council to not support the amendment is the obvious course of action and I fully support the abandonment of this planning amendment.”