WESTERN Port communities have made a joint submission to the Commonwealth Department of Finance and Defence regarding the proposed divestment of HMAS Cerberus.
On 15 October, 17 organisations lodged the submission, which asks the Commonwealth to establish the facts prior to the land being sold.
In February, the Defence Minister announced the land would be partially divested as part of a larger defence land sell-off (“HMAS Cerberus to be ‘partially divested’ in defence land sell-off”, The News, 04/02/26).
The submission states the Western Port communities understand a decision will be made once and stand for generations.
“Seventeen organisations, most of them run by volunteers and several appointed by the Minister to manage Crown land, have set aside their usual work to write together,” the submission reads.
“We hold this coast as one connected system, Cerberus is its anchor, and its future should be decided on evidence.”
The submission expresses the community’s interest in seeing the land divested to nature conservation.
Greg McLardie, who prepared and gathered the submission, said he believes the broader community should be aware of the potential impacts the divestment could have and what the submission requests.
“We had a town hall meeting on 1 August with the Balnarring community,” said McLardie.
“At that meeting Cr David Gill was present, and we discussed many issues that concern the community, and we spent most of the discussion talking about Cerberus and making a submission.”
McLardie said he has a background in environmental measurement and decided to put his hand up and take responsibility for the submission.
Gill said he is impressed by the amount of work McLardie has done while taking on this important local issue.
“Greg McLardie has done an exceptional job in researching and creating a facts-based advocacy case that brings community stakeholders, including community associations, foreshore management groups, the local biosphere foundation, and Save Westernport, together with a coordinated position on the Commonwealth government’s decision on land divestment of much of the Cerberus Navy base,” said Gill.
“Greg has also worked with the shire to ensure public awareness of potential planning zone outcomes affecting the green wedge and other potential outcomes regarding the sensitive environmental landscape, to make sure they’re taken into account if the divestment proceeds.”
The submission requests the Commonwealth assess the land as the Western Port coastal eastern anchor, rather than an isolated parcel, and establish the baseline of the receiving environment.
It also requests the engagement of Traditional Owners and an independent pre-disposal assessment of connectivity, soil, water, insects, vegetation, and fauna.
The Western Port communities have requested the Commonwealth transfer clean parcels to a body willing to accept them and agree with the shire and state on the planning framework that should apply on transfer.
The submission includes a statement from Trust for Nature, which says the organisation is “willing to accept title to land within the divestment area for conservation purposes”.
It states this is subject to board approval and a number of listed conditions.
The submission also requests the land be held in public ownership until each parcel transfers to a conservation tenure and that whatever the pathway is, the vegetated areas be protected by a conservation covenant before the land is valued.
McLardie consulted with Jonathon Fetterplace, who is a town planner and the director of A Different City.
Fetterplace said he provided commentary on planning considerations from his perspective as a town planner.
“I think it’s really important that the community have a say in the local planning of what is effectively a blank spot in state planning controls that apply to this part of the Mornington Peninsula,” said Fetterplace.
“Cerberus is currently within a Commonwealth planning jurisdiction, and effectively it is exempt from the Mornington Peninsula planning scheme and is exempt from all relevant state planning associated with the site.”
Fetterplace said in his view, the land should be transferred into state and shire jurisdiction prior to divestment to ensure planning controls apply.
“So, you would create the new jurisdiction, and then the starting point from that would be then under that new jurisdiction, what is the appropriate suite of planning controls, having regard for overarching state and local policy considerations?” said Fetterplace.
Fetterplace said in Plan for Victoria, a 2025 document, the site is identified as forming part of green wedge land and is a national state park reserve.
“If Cerberus were to transfer, to let’s call it a non-Commonwealth ownership, that could be state government, could be local government, it could be private ownership, in that event the state planning policy would suggest that the land should be zoned for a green wedge purpose,” said Fetterplace.
“The natural application of zone and policy controls that should be applied to any divested land would be a green wedge zone that maintains and implements those key policy provisions of the urban growth boundary and green wedge policy at a state level.”
First published in the Mornington News – 20 October 2026
