Residents in south- western Victoria are worried land once used for dairy farming -- is being snapped up by wealthy buyers and turned into plantations. They want a moratorium on tree planting -- and a change to land use rules to protect farms used for food production.
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00:00If you want to be a dairy farmer, southwest Victoria is one of the best places to do it.
00:13The fertile volcanic soils and a metre of rain annually make the Corangamite Shire ideal
00:20for dairying.
00:22The shire produces more than 20 per cent of the country's milk.
00:27Most of its 12 towns are centred around the dairy industry.
00:35But dairy's dominance is being challenged by a German company buying land for tree plantations
00:41and the carbon market.
00:43They're taking out five or six farms in the one road.
00:48We just can't sit back and accept what is happening.
00:50We've got to be loud and noisy community together.
00:54If this trend continues we will get to a point where we might have to import milk.
01:01The cause of this angst is Midway.
01:05Midway is an Australian publicly listed company.
01:07We run a plantation management business specialising in carbon and we export wood fibre.
01:15It started buying farms for German reinsurance giant Munich Re last year and has $200 million
01:22to spend over five years.
01:25They see Australia as a really good place to be planting trees and they recognise the
01:29value of the Australian carbon credit system which the Australian government has put in
01:33place and is well regarded globally.
01:36The plantations aren't 30 year hardwood for building, they're for pulp.
01:41In 12 years these blue gum seedlings will be shipped out as wood chips from Midway's
01:46Geelong site.
01:49Midway has acquired 2,000 hectares and plans to buy another 6,000.
01:56Mayor Kate Makin says the council is hamstrung as it's legal for tree companies to buy farmland,
02:03legal for farmers to sell to tree companies and legal for the deals to be done off market.
02:10Legalities aside, councillors aren't happy.
02:13We were gobsmacked, we were absolutely gobsmacked.
02:16We thought why?
02:17How can this be happening?
02:19How can the federal and the state government allow this to happen?
02:23We still don't have those answers and I would love to understand why this is happening.
02:28Is council opposed to plantation forestry in the shire?
02:32We're not opposed to it, we just want it to be done in the right areas at the right times
02:36and at the moment we feel it's just concentrated in one area.
02:39Why have it all in one area?
02:42Can we not spread the love?