Mirvac’s Harcrest estate lake in Wantirna South not wildlife friendly
Ducklings are struggling to waddle out of a man-made lake to get to food at a Wantirna South housing estate. And they are sitting ducks for a prowling predator.
Outer East
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Ducklings struggling to waddle out of a man-made lake have been left unable to get to food source and are sitting ducks for prowling foxes.
Harcrest Estate residents in Wantirna South are fed up with Mirvac, which appear to be ignoring the 56ha estate it developed on the former Austral Bricks Quarry.
Gayle Wittmer said ducklings were unable to exit the “awful” concrete lake the developer included on the estate, to get food.
“I’ve had a gutful of Mirvac,” she said.
“I’ve had to make a makeshift step.”
Ms Wittmer said her complaints to the developer to fix the lip of the lake had fallen on deaf ears and she had gone to Bunning and bought tiles to try solve the issue.
However, the next morning she discovered someone had removed the makeshift steps.
She said the lack of thought for wildlife when the lake was designed was one of the many issues Mirvac continued to ignore.
“There is heaps of graffiti and broken glass, which was there a week before a resident cleaned it up,” Ms Wittmer said.
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Ms Wittmer said she had contacted Knox Council but it cannot do anything until Mirvac officially finalises and hands over responsibility of the estate.
She said she had also contacted the Ombudsman and Consumer Affairs with no luck.
“The water is polluted and the EPA won’t do anything,” she said.
“I can’t get anyone to do anything.”
Knox environmentalist Darren Wallace said the ducks were a captive audience for predators like foxes, that didn’t have an issue with water.
“I think Mirvac is a big enough company to work out an engineering solution,” Mr Wallace said.
“Mirvac needs to be more communicative and responsive with its community.”
Mirvac has been contacted for comment.