Agriculture
22 April, 2024
Water buy up: Coliban gets farm probe property
By CHRIS EARL PART of controversial Avicenna Farm at Newbridge will be turned into a waste processing facility. Coliban Water will construct a biosolids base on the the 613-acre property after buying the land at the weekend. It says biosolids are...
By CHRIS EARL
PART of controversial Avicenna Farm at Newbridge will be turned into a waste processing facility.
Coliban Water will construct a biosolids base on the the 613-acre property after buying the land at the weekend.
It says biosolids are organic material left after sewage treatment and can be used to improve soil quality and crop yield.
Newbridge will be Coliban’s third biosolids facility. Dunolly, on 10 acres, opened last year.
Passed in without bid on Saturday, the 613-acre Avicenna Farm parcel later sold for $1.875 million after several prospective buyers had negotiations with selling agent Sherif Ahmed.
The $3059 acre deal was below the pre-sale indication of between $2 and $2.2 million.
More than a dozen people were at the Wimmera Highway auction. Among them local landowners and representatives of Coliban Water and the Victorian Land Monitor. The monitor oversees “government land transactions to give the government confidence that the right processes have been followed”.
Land purchases of more than $1 million fall within the monitor’s review brief.
In a statement to the Loddon Herald on Tuesday, Coliban said: “We currently operate two biosolids bases in Dunolly and Elmore. These bases can receive biosolids from any of our 16 water reclamation plants.
“During 2023 and 2024 we conducted an expression of interest process to identify parcels of land for additional biosolids bases.
“On Saturday, Coliban Water purchased a parcel of land between Newbridge and Marong that meets the regulatory requirements for a biosolids base. The Newbridge base will be managed and operate within all relevant planning and Environment Protection Authority Victoria obligations.
““While we have purchased the land with the intention of using it for a biosolids base, no project timelines are available at this early stage.
“As the project progresses our usual project engagement with the community will occur,” Coliban said.
A second 150-acre lot at Avicenna Farm was passed in on the vendor bid of $700,000.