We Need to Protect Prime Farm Land on the Edge of Daylesford

I would like to add my voice to the need to protect the prime farm land on the edge of Daylesford that is currently the focus of proposed rezoning for residential development in East St.

The  farmland land on volcanic soils to the east of Daylesford is of the highest value for the following reasons:

• flat to gently undulating,
• deep free draining soil with excellent structure and mineral fertility suitable for a wide range of field, horticultural and especially high value tree crops needing large rooting volume such as chestnut, walnut and cherry.
• reliable rainfall
• accessible ground water for irrigation,
• adjacent the town including the Railway market site

While the natural characteristics mentioned are similarly true for much of the  volcanic cleared farmland between Trentham and  Daylesford, it is the proximity to the town that makes the area in question so unique. Much of this prime horticultural land has already been lost to development, including the East St light industrial estate,  the Smith St residential development and most recently part of Wombat Park estate, making the remaining areas close to town all the more important to conserve.

This requires some explanation that the planning consultants employed by Hepburn Shire have failed to acknowledge or perhaps even recognise.

Firstly the twin towns of Daylesford and Hepburn are unusual in being largely surrounded by bushland on steep sedimentary land with  infertile and erodible skeletal soils.  Some of this is private but most is part of the 2000 hectare Hepburn Regional Park that gives such character to the town.

While this character to central to the ambience (and bushfire hazard) of our towns it is atypical of most towns that are surrounded by farmland with forest further afield because most towns were located to serve that good agricultural land.  That more typical pattern reflects settlement patterns of both indigenous Australians and the European ancestors of most Australians.

In the 19^th century German geographers identified a specific  pattern of land use zones around dense urban villages and towns.  On level land of equal quality, the first ring of land outside the urban centre was devoted to horticulture, the second to field crops, the third to pasture and the fourth to forests.  In the 1970s, Mollison and I adapted this pattern to design sustainable land use zones around self reliant homesteads (Permaculture One 1978).  Today some version of this zoning pattern is taught and applied around the world through the global permaculture network. This pattern of  “permaculture zoning” is very different from the way the planning profession and government rezones land.

Of course this simple pattern should be, and is, modified by land shape, type and infrastructure. So in our own community the towns and villages  and the roads linking them are mostly located on flatter volcanic lava flows and cinder fields cleared for food production such as between Daylesford and Glenlyon or Daylesford and Trentham.  Elsewhere most sedimentary country is steeper forest or lower quality pasture land not suitable for cultivation and has poorer transport power and communications networks.

Just as we should locate kitchen gardens close to the house in a rural or residential permaculture design, for our whole town we should reserve the best  land within walking and bicycle distance from town for commercial horticulture not just for being adjacent to markets (including roadside stalls) but also to local labour necessary for intensive organic horticulture.

The obvious challenge to this analysis is that modern land use and economics supported by fossil fuelled transport and infrastructure  have totally scrambled the patterns I describe.  Most of us consume more far away than local food, even if  our town’s tourist and tree change economy is itself, at least partly, built on at the idea, if not as much the reality, of local food. For those of us more committed to supporting local producers, in preference to the global supply chains of supermarkets, this issue of conservation of prime horticultural land close to town is very important.

Again, why should the ideals of a minority drive land use planning?

One the reasons behind local/slow/organic/permaculture food production is the recognition that the future may be one of re-localisation rather than more globalisation maintained by clean technology, without the downsides of diesel and petrol.  Over the decades these ideas have been influential in our community, all articulated and documented in the Hepburn Energy Descent Action Plan commissioned by council that we prepared in 2011.  While these ideas remain marginal to mainstream sustainability plans, let alone pro-growth development policies forced on all communities by state governments, they do have significant support in this community.

Rather than further articulation of  the re-localisation/energy descent future as positive and necessity, it is important to recognise the value we currently get from owners and farmers managing the land in question.  This land is largely used for livestock grazing with occasional rotation to field crops. This reflects our currently globalised food system that provides little or no advantage to local (walking distance), small scale intensive production and marketing.

Well managed pastures and livestock represent the best low cost “caretaker” land use that actually improves the soil, avoids the use of most toxins and keeps our community’s options open, in case our children and grandchildren need to re-localise our food system.

Consequently I strongly support the campaign and the slogan “Pastures not Pavements” even if some might say we are not short of pastures in our community or country. These are very special pastures!  So we need to encourage and reward owners and farmers as stewards for the future, rather than waving the carrot of dirty developer’s money in their faces and the stick of rate increases that push them to give in.

As a land use consultant, ecological developer and farmer with four decades knowledge of the territory and the issues, I would be happy to discuss in depth with councillors, planners, consultants, community member and journalists (including alternative solutions to the need for housing)

David Holmgren