On track for rail row

Catherine Manning is a young mother who has thrown herself headlong into public life because ‘big brother’ wants to place an overlay on her private life.
Catherine has four children, a husband and home in the Cardinia area.
Everything was going along well until the Port of Hastings, many kilometres away, foreshadowed that it would build a freight railway line through her community.
Her life, her young family’s life, along with the lives of hundreds of others living in the region has been thrown into turmoil.
Their idyllic community atmosphere is under threat and the underlying value of their properties decimated.
“Who will buy a house in this area now?” they ask.
Ms Manning said the family lives in a green wedge area that was supposed to be protected against major development.
“Suddenly someone changed the rules because the government wanted to send 1.2 kilometre long freight trains with double stacked containers through our community.
Ms Manning was born at Oakleigh and grew up in the Springvale North area.
“Where I went to school is now a housing estate,” she said.
“I had my education there, but the last six weeks have provided a big learning curve for me.
“I found that all the people such as councillors and council officers who I thought would be able to help us could do nothing about the type of ‘takeover’ we faced.
So this former Channel 7 graphic artist, now mum, has taken on the massive Port of Hastings and the State Government and leads a movement hell bent on stopping the train.
Ms Manning said she loved her time working for Channel 7.
“I eventually left because of the roster system that we needed and went to help my husband, Steve, who is a painter and decorator.
“I met Steve through a friend when I was at a wedding and we now have four kids.
“We started out renting a house at Camberwell but we were interested in swap meets.
“That meant trips into the country and we got the country bug.
“We saw this property on five acres at Cardinia with a fantastic big old house so what better for Steve.
“Then along came Mietta, Lucinda, Lachlan, and Jem.”
Then on Wednesday, 29 November last year Ms Manning went to collect her daughter from a friend’s home.
“My friend had a flier about this railway line coming through our homes.
“I thought this was ridiculous.
“The flier was about a protest meeting at the Cranbourne Racing complex.
“I went along and couldn’t believe what was happening when I saw all the documents.
“There were 200 people at the meeting and only 10 from Cardinia.
“My community had no idea of what was about to happen to our people.
“We were given a response time of Monday, 4 December to comment on the proposal but we had that extended to Friday, 22 December.
“The deadline has since been extended Wednesday, 14 March and we now have a series of information sessions about the Port of Hastings Corporation plans coming up.”
Ms Manning came home from the Cranbourne meeting perplexed and next day rang Cardinia chief executive Garry McQuillan.
“Mr McQuillan said he wasn’t aware of the plan.
“I wanted to know whose responsibility it was to inform the community about this plan.
“Port of Hastings chief executive Ralph Kenyon said it was the council’s responsibility but Mr McQuillan said it wasn’t.
“It looked as though they all kept us in the dark about the plan but I’m inclined to think it was just a big stuff up.”
The City of Casey held a meeting at Pearcedale to discuss the rail proposal and Ms Manning arranged a meeting to be held in the Cardinia Hall that was attended by 250 people.
Ms Manning wants the railway line through the Clyde and Cardinia region stopped but also said the government needed to relook at the proposal to extend the wharf at Hastings.
“They are planning a wharf four kilometres long and there is no need for such a large facility.
“It will ruin our environment.
“They need to be more realistic.
“I believe we need an independent assessment of what is happening at Hastings.
“We can’t even provide enough water for the people already living in Victoria.”
Ms Manning said Cardinia people were enraged about the plan and formed the Southern Victoria Community Action Group of which she is president.
“Mr Kenyon then agreed to speak at our second meeting where another 250 people came and there were many different faces.
“That’s when we got a further extension of time for comment on the proposal.
“We held a meeting at Cranbourne on Wednesday, 17 January where we had 500 people turn up.”
Ms Manning said it was important that everyone had a chance to know about this railway plan.
She found herself working almost full time to coordinate meetings, do research, answer calls and generally encourage people.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of families with homes along a railway track that has no defined route and who face enormous uncertainty.
People have been offering support to Ms Manning and one newfound friend Sharon Mitchell from Pearcedale has put time aside to help.
Ms Manning has become a leader among her people and has every chance of success in having the rail route built along existing corridors — if it goes anywhere.