By Mike Hast
OBITUARY
Barry William Leslie Ross, 30 January 1943 – 7 December 2019, banker, surfer, conservationist
BARRY Ross played a major role in the protection of green wedges in Melbourne’s southeast including the municipalities of Greater Dandenong, Kingston and Frankston for almost two decades. He was a conservationist for more than 40 years.
As long-time secretary of Defenders of the South East Green Wedge, part of the Green Wedges Coalition, Mr Ross was the bane of many a developer.
Mr Ross, who died in his sleep on Saturday 7 December aged 76 after a seven and a half year battle with oesophageal cancer, provided a sharp edge to the Defenders in the state’s planning tribunal, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, VCAT.
He challenged dozens of cases in the tribunal, many successfully, as he fought to keep green wedges free of housing estates, industrial buildings, depots, waste transfer stations as well as servos, retirement villages, plant nurseries, schools and religious centres.
Barry Ross was born in Richmond in 1943, the eldest son of Hugh and Alys Ross. His father, a salesman, served in the military during the Second World War, and his mother worked in retail as well as raising Barry and his younger brother Hugh Jnr, who died in his teens.
After the war the family moved to Edithvale where Mr Ross acquired a lifelong love of the beach and bush, later becoming a keen surfer. He attended Edithvale State School and Mordialloc High School before joining the ES&A bank, forerunner of the ANZ, where he worked for 39 years, retiring in 1998. He was at the Mordialloc branch in his early years with the bank, which he joined at age 16.
Mr Ross’s first house was in Aspendale and his first conservation activity was as part of a residents’ group opposing the sale and subdivision of Rossdale golf course in 1976. He joined Port Phillip Conservation Council and an early Friends of Edithvale Wetlands group. Later he helped the wetlands gain a Ramsar listing to protect migratory bird habitat.
By day he was an unassuming banker, by night and at weekends he was a conservation warrior.
Defenders of the South East Green Wedge was founded in 2001 as more and more developers eyed off the southeast green wedge in the municipalities of Greater Dandenong, Kingston and Frankston. He later advised green wedge advocates on the Mornington Peninsula.
Melbourne’s 12 green wedges were proposed by Victoria’s planning minister Dick Hamer in 1966. The idea of “green belts” around urban areas came from postwar Greater London planners. A 1967 government department report created the blueprint for Melbourne’s green wedge zones, and by 1971 their protection was part of planning law in suburban Melbourne. Soon after, Mr Hamer replaced Henry Bolte as premier and Alan Hunt (father of federal MP Greg Hunt) became planning minister.
Dick Hamer and Alan Hunt championed green wedges as specific planning policies for Dandenong Ranges, Yarra Valley, Macedon and the Mornington Peninsula were rolled out. A decade later, cracks started to appear in the wedges after a change of government. Labor under premier John Cain allowed Aspendale Gardens to be built in the southeast green wedge and the fight to preserve green wedges intensified.
In 2003, Alan Hunt, who had maintained an interest in green wedges after retiring from politics in 1992, wrote an article in The Age that broadly supported the Melbourne 2030 planning strategy to set permanent green wedge boundaries, now known as the urban growth boundary.
Mr Hunt wrote about the genesis of the green wedges and detailed how the Cain Labor government, the Kennett Liberal government and the Bracks Labor government all had allowed major housing developments in green wedges.
Against this background, Barry Ross’s first-ever VCAT appearance was to oppose a service station on Frankston–Dandenong Road at Bangholme, which was rejected in April 2002.
The state government passed laws to establish the urban growth boundary and set green wedge zones in December 2003 but there were exceptions for certain industries including waste storage and quarrying as well as grey areas about what could be built in special use zones.
At Dandenong South, more than 1000 hectares of green wedge land was excised for industry, much to Mr Ross’s displeasure, revealed by The Age.
A particular focus of Mr Ross and the Defenders was opposing industry incursions into the City of Kingston green wedge including by the waste industry. Kingston’s green wedge zone had more than 30 active landfill sites at one stage. Many have been closed and are being rehabilitated.
Two days before he died, Mr Ross was told that Kingston councillors had refused an application by Alex Fraser Group to continue crushing glass and concrete at its green wedge site on Kingston Road, Clarinda, for another 15 years after permission expired in 2023. A million tonnes of glass and building rubble is recycled at the site each year.
Removing the waste industry from green wedges is now a policy of Kingston Council with former landfills (tips) and green waste facilities being converted into parklands, part of the so-called Chain of Parks, first proposed in 1994.
Despite his illness, Mr Ross kept plugging away. In August this year, he was quoted in the Dandenong Star Journal when he opposed a solar farm on one of the old tips, on Clarke Road at Springvale South. Mr Ross said the Defenders supported renewable energy but “this is the wrong place for it” as it would interrupt the chain of parks.
Other big projects opposed by Mr Ross and the Defenders included Boral’s plan for an asphalt plant in Langwarrin’s green wedge (lost), a giant produce market and distribution centre at Bangholme (won), subdivision of 42 hectares in Stotts Lane at Frankston South that would have removed the last green break between Frankston South and Baxter (won), the 2017 attempt to rezone part of the late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s Cruden Farm at Langwarrin (on hold), and the Radha Soami Satsang Beas vegetarian spiritual group’s complex in the green wedge on Boundary Road, Carrum Downs (lost; now under construction).
Between 2001 and 2015 he fought 28 cases in the VCAT and won 11. He was made a life member of the Defenders in 2011.
Mr Ross’s wife Christine said her husband had worked hard even when he was very ill. “He would sit in his armchair with his laptop and crack hardy [put on a brave face]. He went to fewer meetings in recent times but his productivity was undiminished.”
Admitted to hospital, he continued working from his bed. One Defenders colleague received a work email two days before Mr Ross died.
Barry and Christine Ross were married for 38 years, first living at Seaford and then moving to Hampton in 2012.
“He was quiet man; well read. He had a forensic approach to his Defenders work. He kept everything and could always find it,” she said.
Both Christine and son Sean helped Mr Ross with his projects, which they called his “green matters”. “Barry would come home from the bank and get stuck into tasks after dinner. After he retired, he was even busier.”
She said Barry was a mad keen Richmond fan. “He was born in a Richmond premiership year and died when they were reigning premiers. He and Sean went to the grand final last year, a fantastic experience for them.”
Last week, colleagues and friends praised Mr Ross and his work.
Rosemary West, a Kingston councillor and Green Wedges Coalition coordinator, wrote online: “We pay tribute to his courage, tenacity, integrity, decency and ability to fathom complex legal and bureaucratic matters, and to his crucial work for the Defenders … and for the Ramsar listing of Edithvale–Seaford Wetlands.
“Barry inspired many of us to resist inappropriate planning applications in Kingston and other parts of the South East Green Wedge. He was pleased and relieved about [Kingston] council’s decision last month to refuse Alex Fraser Group’s application … to extend [its] concrete crusher permit by another 15 years.”
Fellow Defender Alan Hood said he met Mr Ross in about 2002 when Greater Dandenong Council was “approving what we considered to be inappropriate developments”.
“He was always calm under fire; I’d be emotional and letting fly at developers; he’d be calm, organised and deadly.
“He acquired massive knowledge about Victoria’s planning system and an excellent understanding of strategies.”
“He drove the Defenders and made it a cohesive association.”
Green wedges advocate Leigh Eustace said Mr Ross educated members of Mt Eliza Action Group in 2006 soon after it was formed to oppose a controversial subdivision of the former Myer family estate in the green wedge between Mt Eliza and Mornington by aged care millionaire Chas Jacobsen.
“We knew nothing about planning or VCAT,” he said. “Barry, Alan Hunt and Rosemary West helped us plan a campaign, a green wedge fight. Barry had a unique ability to dissect a planning application and find its weaknesses.” Mr Eustace was later elected to the shire council and served one term, 2008–12.
He said Mr Ross contributed to Mornington Peninsula Shire’s first green wedge management plan in 2006. “The final plan only went through this year.
“He advised groups opposing other peninsula projects such as McLears Hill at Dromana, a huge holiday resort that never went ahead despite shire permission. Barry never sought recognition for his work; he was happy for others to take the limelight. He was always willing to assist. I thank Christine and the boys for allowing us to have so much of Barry.”
Former Frankston environmentalist Jim Kerin, now living in Melbourne, said Barry Ross was a fearless opponent at the VCAT. “I carried his bags to a number of hearings and then watched him methodically dissect the arguments of senior planning lawyers,” he said. “He was respected by many of these lawyers. He could not be intimidated. He was process savvy.”
Former Age journalist and Green Wedges Coalition member David Harrison said Mr Ross had been very helpful to Mornington Peninsula people during the fight to oppose relaxation of green wedge rules in 2012 and 2013. “The Baillieu state government and its planning minister, Matthew Guy, attempted to open up green wedges and farmland to more development,” he said. “He had a mountain of information at his fingertips. Barry was persistent and quietly determined in his opposition, the bane of many a developer’s existence. I don’t know how he could talk sometimes as his teeth were always in somebody’s leg.”
Mr Ross is survived by his wife Christine, their son Sean and grandson Arlo, and son Stewart from his first marriage. His funeral was at Cheltenham on Friday 13 December.
