Any reference to CASACIR or its directors, shareholders, owners or operators relates to pre-14 February 2024 when the company was sold. In no way can anything said relate to the company or its new owners, operators, directors, and shareholders after that sale.
4 November
Further to my update of yesterday, it is to be noted that (1) at no time did man X, man Y or CASACIR, or any of the authorities apologise for the blatant breach, (2) the authorities failed to provide any disciplinary action, and (3) man X, man Y or CASACIR did not, in fact, state that they were unaware of the fact that it was a public holiday (in fact they confirmed their knowledge by their actions).
None of this should have been in any way a surprise to us given the fact that man X, man Y or CASACIR had previously illegally diverted our water and had not only not apologised but had denied they had done it (then committed deliberate fraud regarding it), and none of the authorities had taken any action against man X, man Y or CASACIR for the illegal actions.
There is a saying that “past conduct is the indicator of future behaviour” and it it is absolutely true with regard to man X, man Y or CASACIR, their quarry, and the authorities.
3 November
It is 11 years to the day since the first public holiday after man X, man Y and CASACIR opened their quarry at Neerim North.
The area, prior to man X, man Y and CASACIR’s quarry had been noted by council as being tranquil, idyllic, and wonderfully peaceful.
I woke on the morning of 3 November that year to what was the start of a beautiful day. I got out of bed knowing that it would be an unusual day, one where it would be quiet and peaceful because man X, man Y and CASACIR’s permit expressly banned them from working on a public holiday. I sat down to have breakfast on the verandah, watching the mist in the valley and listening to the early birds happily chirping as they went about getting their own breakfast. We had so been looking forward to this wonderful rare day of silence.
Imagine then our horror and surprise when a horrendously loud and almost constant noise at the quarry commenced early in the morning just after 7am. What? It couldn’t be the quarry, they weren’t allowed to work that day. I jumped up and got the acoustic monitor, turned it on and calibrated it. Not only were man X, man Y and CASACIR working when expressly forbidden to do so, they were over the noise limit.
I ran to the car and drove around to the site entrance and – no surprises there – the front gate was wide open. I drove to the office and got out of the car. A man came out of the office and seemed surprised to see me. He was not the usual worker from the site and I noticed that he had a jacket with a Granite Rock[1] logo on it. I asked for Paul, the site manager but was told that Paul and the others from the quarry had the day off (thereby proving that man X, man Y and CASACIR clearly knew that it was a holiday in the area).
I said that they were not allowed to work given that it was a public holiday and he said that he and others had been asked by man X if they wanted to work the day at Neerim North and that they agreed to do so.
I said that they had to stop work because the quarry was not allowed to operate or work on pubic holidays. He said that they were removing the overburden (I assume that this was an attempt to justify breaching the permit conditions), but I didn’t care what excuse he was trying to concoct, the fact was that they were not allowed to work that day.
I told him that we had been expecting to have a rare day of peace and quiet and, not only were they working when they were not allowed to, but that they were over the noise limit anyway and reiterated that they had to stop. By now I was angry, and frustrated at having my peace and quiet ruined by man X, man Y and CASACIR yet again.
He said that I had to leave, and that they couldn’t have me there, so I turned and left after saying to make sure he told man X that he would hear from me about this.
I went back home and immediately got on the computer. I send emails to Bignell, McWhinney and man X, man Y and CASACIR. Man X, man Y and CASACIR did not reply directly but their solicitor, Smith, sent me a letter again telling me to not trespass at Jindivick quarry – they obviously didn’t even know which quarry was which, and I hadn’t entered the Jindivick quarry anyway. The fact is that I had not trespassed at the Neerim North quarry because I had not previously been instructed to not go on site, left when asked to, and had been there for legitimate reasons.
A reply came back in from McWhinney who said he wasn’t sure that it was a public holiday in the area (this in spite of the Baw Baw Shire council website specifying that it was) – so that was absolute rubbish and yet another ignoring of breaches.
Man X contacted Bignell, calling me “that mad woman” and complaining that I “had told his workers that they couldn’t operate on a public holiday and that they were over the limit”. Bignell (1) did not object to that defamatory and derogative term on my behalf, and (2) did not tell him off for working an a public holiday. Instead, she acted on man X’s direct written instructions to her[2] (it was so easy to see who was in charge, and it was not Bignell – at that time she claimed to be the manager of operations for the Gippsland area for the Earth Resources section of the then DPI) by telling me to stay off the property. In fact, when man X tried to justify his decision to have the quarry open on the public holiday, Bignell actually not only backed his attitude that he had actually complied by working on a public holiday, but actually covered for him by sending me an email on 12 November stating that man X, man Y and CASACIR had been unaware that it was a public holiday in the area – this is a blatant and deliberate lie because man X sent Bignell additional information that specified that Melbourne Cup day was a known public holiday and that showed he deliberately gave workers at the Neerim North quarry the day off in line with some trade agreements, and then brought in workers from the Granite Rock quarry who were prepared to work. So she knew full well what he had done and why he had done what he had done.
In their affidavit dated 6 September 2010, on his own as well as man Y and CASACIR’s behalf, man X swore on oath that [emphasis mine] “(21) It has been alleged by [her] that works within the quarry were being undertaken on a public holiday, namely Tuesday 3rdNovember 2009” – but then he actually admitted the truth of my accusations when he further swore on oath that [emphasis mine] “(22) We allow our workers at our country facilities the choice of whether they work on Cup Day or not”and [emphasis mine] “(23) The work being undertaken on the site was primarily stripping of overburden using an excavator and trucks” – proving that I had made no mere allegation but that my complaint was based on absolute fact.
I contend that they worked on this day as a trial to see what would happen (i.e. if they could get away with it) given that it was the first public holiday after they opened the quarry.
They all really ramped up my anxiety and stress – but there again, given man X, man Y and CASACIR’s absolute belief that they had the right to ignore their permit and work authority at will, and to continue to ignore the pre-existing rights of others, and the authorities’ profound continued willingness to turn a blind eye to the breaches, what else could we expect from any of them? It did go to show what to expect and it proved to be very true as the years went on.Man X, man Y and CASACIR’s attitude was very clearly that they believed that they could twist what they could and could not do at will if they thought they could introduce trade agreements that were against their very explicit quarry conditions. However, not being allowed to work on a public holiday is just that, regardless of trade agreements. And my attitude to the so-called authorities responsible to ensure man X, man Y and CASACIR’s compliance? I would say, rather, that they were puppets that were prepared to lie for and cover for man X, man Y and CASACIR’s multitude of breaches of their permit and work authority – I can say this because that attitude continued until we left in February 2014 and I see from Google earth and later site visits that it continued as at early 2020 and almost certainly continues still.
[1] One of man X, man Y and CASACIR’s quarries, this one at Bairnsdale
[2] 2 faxes to Bignell from man X, both dated 4 November 2009, the latter with trade agreements attached.