Locals spell it out for Premier John Brumby - Nick Higginbottom

COASTAL residents poured on to a beach in eastern Victoria to question the State Government's proposed desalination plant yesterday.

More than 1200 protesters converged on the beach at Wonthaggi to form a giant human question to bring attention to the devastating consequences the plant may have on the pristine coast.

Protest organiser Gill Heal said the issue was at the heart of the local community's concerns.

"This issue's really touched a chord with people," she said.

"It was an extremely exciting result because we'd hoped about 500-600 people would turn up, so our expectations were doubled."


Drilling for the Brumby Government's preliminary investigations into whether an environmental assessment report would be required for the proposed plant has been going on near the beach.

Protesters fear the report will be inadequate and believe Victoria can save enough water to avoid the need for a desalination plant.

Ms Heal said that a parliamentary report stated Melbourne would need an additional 200 gigalitres of water a year by 2050.

"But we send about 300 gigalitres of water into the ocean every year," Ms Heal said.

"You can see the political machine at work and we just wanted to encourage other Victorians, and Melburnians in particular, to ask more questions of the Government."