> Community Involvement and Consultation

We are keen for the community to be involved in this project. Your feedback and input are an important part of our investigation.

Some of the things we are doing are:

• Project Updates > click here
• Community Information Sessions
• Door knocks of landowner properties
• Phone calls and emails to landholders in the investigation area
• Face-to-face meetings
• Media stories
• Community updates in newspapers
• Displays at key locations in the local community
• Project Information Desk > click here
• Regular meetings with the Harcourt Rural Water Services Committee
• Regular meetings with the Agency Reference Group, which includes organisations such as the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD), VicRoads and Mt Alexander Shire and City of Greater Bendigo Council.

Pictured above: Representatives from the project team and the ARG in the investigations corridor.

> Landholder Engagement

Most of our investigations work to date has involved accessing private property.

In August we sent a formal Notice of Entry and we have been in contact with landowners through doorknocks and telephone calls to discuss access to private land for the investigations. Thank you to property owners and tenants for your co-operation.

We still have some investigations work to be completed in the first few months of 2010, so we will continue to be in touch to discuss access, unless you have already provided ongoing approval for access for the duration of the investigations.

If your property is in the preferred pipeline alignment area we will invite you to a face-to-face meeting to discuss what happens next. If the project goes ahead, we expect that these meetings will start a few months into 2010.

We will arrange discussions with Harcourt rural customers at the same time in early 2010.

Landholder rights - heritage investigations

Coliban Waterassures private property owners that there is no risk of land acquisition (by the Indigenous community or government) resulting from European or Indigenous heritage findings on private property. Private land is protected under the Native Title Act.

The aim of heritage (both European and Indigenous)surveys is to record what sites, areas of sensitivity or objects are located within the investigation area, so that they can either be avoided (by the pipeline) or removed and preserved.

If artefacts are uncovered during the investigations and it is not possible to preserve the site, following consultation with the Aboriginal community, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria (AAV) or Heritage Victoria (HV), the artefacts may be removed and the site restored as closely as possible to its previous condition.

> Community Information Sessions

On 3 and 5 December 2009, Community Information Sessions were held in Harcourt to provide an opportunity for anyone interested to speak to members of the project team and learn more about the Castlemaine Link and Harcourt Modernidation.

About 70 people attended the afternoon and weekend sessions and spoke to our designers, engineers, community engagement, environmental, planning and approvals team members.

Some of the main queries raised related to:

• The pipeline alignment
• Avoidance of areas of significance (such as trees within private property)
• Water allocation and flow rates
• Infrastructure on private property (e.g. storage tanks)
• Service point locations

All questions have been responded to individually due to the specific nature of the enquiries. In some cases the informationn may not yet be available (for example, the exact location of the pipeline) as the project is still in the investigations phase. However, we will continue to keep you informed and involved as the project progresses.

Most attendees were very happy with the level of information provided on the day.

A majority also advised that our community newsletters (distributed locally by mail every few months) is their preferred source of information about the project. The next edition of the newsletter will be distributed in February 2010. Copies are also available online >click here.