A planned start to earthworks for the Western Victorian Livestock Exchange at Mortlake were halted this week due to endangered species of wild flower on an access road adjoining the property.
A spokesperson for the developer, Brendan Abbey, said the hold up would cause only minor delay while a cross-over permit was gained for access to the property from the bitumen-sealed Connewarren Lane rather than from its dirty-road Racecourse Road entrance.
“It (the endangered wildflower species) was raised in the Development Application,” Mr Abbey said. “However the Connewarren Lane cross-over permit is also required for the main entrance to the facility.”
“I arrived and had hoped to see heavy machinery at the property today” Mr Abbey said.
“We will burn the property of its long grass tomorrow (Thursday) and hopefully things can move forward from there fairly swiftly”.
Mr Abbey said the earthworks component was estimated to take 30 working days to complete, with full construction anticipated over a tight nine-month time frame.
“We hope the saleyard will be ready to operate by Christmas. Once the roof is built the weather shouldn’t hinder us much at all as the block has been known to get rather wet” he said.