Rhett Burnie
CONCERNED Pyalong residents and emergency service personnel are urging Mitchell Shire Council to pull the plug on a planned rave party at a local property next month.
More than 2000 revellers are expected to turn out to the three-day-long Strawberry Fields dance party, which is scheduled to begin on November 26 on a West Road property.
But health and safety concerns could see the party’s organisers searching for a new venue, with one worried resident lodging a formal objection and petition to Mitchell Shire Council, urging them to reject the permit application for the party.
“We will be in the midst of fire season and Pyalong will be tinder dry,” the objector, who asked not to be named, said.
“The access road for this music event is (a) very narrow single vehicle track at best, it's quite rough with tight corners - a fire truck would have trouble accessing this event if there were a serious fire threat,” he said.
“This event will be running 24 hours a day for three days … so it will greatly impact on the residents, local community and our animals, etcetera.”
The objector said residents were also worried about the noise the rave would produce, with non-stop music and night-time laser light shows a major selling point for the event.
“When do we get sleep?” he questioned.
“My partner and I are both shift workers.”
He said he was also concerned that party goers would take drugs at the event, with the festival’s organisers reportably linked to the December 2007 Ultraworld Festival held at Ballarat’s Kryal Castle where 14 people were treated after overdosing
According to reports at the time, six of the 14 people required resuscitation, with three ending up in intensive care at the Ballarat Base Hospital.
“I feel this event cannot be properly policed …” the objector said.
“How are police supposed to thoroughly search ever vehicle going into his event for drugs etc, when they are expecting 2,200 party goers?” he questioned.
Twenty-seven Pyalong residents signed the petition accompanying the objection.
The objector said that, like fire trucks, ambulances would also have issues accessing the property.
“Ambulance access is the same as the fire truck - a very narrow track one way in and one way out and if there was a serious incident Kilmore Hospital would almost certainly refer them to the Northern Hospital at Epping some one hour’s drive away or Bendigo - 45 minutes away - in which time the patron could be deceased,” he said.
Pyalong Fire Brigade Captain Trevor Witham said holding the festival at the beginning of the bushfire season could prove deadly.
He said he agreed with the objector’s comments in relation to emergency service access, should it be required.
“There’s no access, if we get a south-running fire off a northerly (wind) that would be a disaster,” he said.
“If it (a fire) started there and headed south we’d have a dickens of a job getting to it.”
Captain Witham said fire fighters would probably not have an issue with the rave party if it were being held in the cooler months.
“If it was in the middle of winter who’d care?” he said.
The North Central Review made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the organisers of Strawberry Fields.
Meanwhile, tickets to the festival are believed to be almost sold out, with the festival’s website promising party goers an event like no other.
“For three days you will live with thousands of strangers, encountering the limits of human sight and sound and surpassing them, making new friends, losing your sanity, finding it again and experiencing all that life has to offer,” the website reads.
“There will be no rules, save that you respect one another and yourself,” it continues.
Mitchell Shire Council Chief Executive Officer David Keenan said a decision on whether to allow Strawberry Fields to go ahead will be made at the next council meeting on October 25
Mr Keenan also defended the council after it was claimed that some neighbours had not received a letter advising them of the permit application.
‘Mitchell Shire Council sent out 25 letters to landholders deemed to be potentially impacted by the planning application,” he said.
Have your say
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