Midwest cucumber growers angst at bypass road plan

Growers at Australia’s cucumber capital outside Geraldton are worried about Main Roads’ proposal to widen the road in front of their properties, fearing it could put their livelihoods in jeopardy. Moonyoonooka horticulturalist Kam Phonphiboun said they mostly lived and worked opposite the airport in a row of deep blocks fronting Geraldton-Mount Magnet Road. In what threatens to be a disastrous move for them, Main Roads proposes to excise a 50m strip of land from the front of their blocks along with packing sheds, loading docks and houses. Mr Phonphiboun said the blocks were fully developed, and even if he found a similarly sized block, the soil would not be the same heavy red Chapman River loam where cucumbers thrived. “That will be hard for us to fit around because we have already designed it and we’ve got no more room to move,” he said. “It’s taken up the whole of the property already, building greenhouses.” Mr Phonphiboun said he was puzzled that after receiving planning permission and 20 years spent establishing his market garden it could now be taken from him. He said he wanted to know why Main Roads could not take an equivalent strip from the airport land opposite the grower’s properties as the landing strip was about 200m from the road. The City of Greater Geraldton operates the airport. Mayor Shane Van Styn said he did not know whether airport land could be excised. “Like everybody else, we have only just found out so we are working at it,” he said. “Any future highway could limit the possibility of future works at the airport. “It would be interesting to see what it does to height limits, and whether it restricts planes from landing from the north.” Mr Van Styn said a local government such as Geraldton could have its wishes overridden by a State Government. Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said she expected all public submissions to be in by the end of January, with the final planning decision to be made after the March State election.