If you head out past the industrial estates and new housing developments in Melbourne's outer west, you might just see Andrew Booth cycling through areas where very few bike riders venture.
On dirt tracks and narrow country roads, the conservation volunteer has taken to his trusty pushbike to keep an eye on some of Victoria's last remaining native grasslands.
But on a ride earlier this year, he was shocked by what he saw.
"I noticed this massive mound of dirt and this big excavating machine on top and that was ringing alarm bells," he said.
He consulted fellow environmentalist Adrian Marshall from the Grassy Plains Network, who checked the Truganina site on satellite imagery websites.
"I was in disbelief," Dr Marshall said.
"I was looking at aerial before and after shots and I could see this bizarre scraped pattern where it should have looked like paddock, and I couldn't understand what had happened."
Drone pictures later showed the full picture.
"There has been literally tens-of-thousands of tonnes of fill spread out over this landscape … smothering the grassland and all of the creatures," Dr Marshall said.
Calls to save 'ugly duckling' of our ecosystem
Much of the Truganina property was designated a conservation area under an agreement struck between state and federal authorities.
It had been home to some of the last remaining native grasslands in Victoria.
"Grasslands are a hard ask in many ways, they are the ugly duckling of our ecosystem," Dr Marshall said.
"Often they look like brown, snake-filled paddocks. The point is they are our national identity, they are what was here."
In a paper published in the Australian Journal of Zoology last year, scientists said these grasslands once covered 30 per cent of Victoria, but roughly 1 per cent now remain.
Much of what is left is concentrated around the western edge of Melbourne.
For Dr Marshall, the threat faced by these grasslands is part of a bigger problem.
Last month, the federal government released its State of the Environment report, which found Australia's environment was in a "poor and deteriorating condition".
The report also found the number of threatened species had increased and Australia had lost more mammal species than any other continent.
"Australia leads the world in mammal extinctions, well nearly 90 per cent of those extinctions were grassland-dependent species," Dr Marshall said.
It's part of the reason why he sees the destruction of the Truganina grasslands as so devastating.
State and federal agencies launch investigation into Truganina property
Melton City Council, the Environment Protection Authority as well as state and federal environment departments have all confirmed to the ABC that they are involved in investigating what occurred on this site.
The Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) said it was aware of allegations of "unauthorised works on Conservation Area 9 and we are taking this matter very seriously".
Melton City Council released a statement saying it was "aware of this matter and the extent of the alleged destruction of critically endangered grasslands" and was working with state and federal agencies.
It's not clear what penalties would apply, if any person was found to have illegally destroyed these grasslands.
The ABC is not suggesting any misconduct occurred.
Developer says 'conflicting information' raised about status of land
While conservation areas are often protected on public land, in this case the Truganina property has not been bought by the state and has instead remained privately owned.
The land was purchased last year for $11 million by Centreland Agriculture.
The company is registered to the same Fairfield address as property development business Centreland Group, which is run by Peter Wu.
The group has built warehouses in Melbourne's west, and its website spruiks residential projects including apartment buildings and townhouses across Melbourne.
A Victorian government report on the Truganina property, sighted by the ABC, included two maps that indicated the property was in an urban development area, without any significant environmental overlays under state schemes.
But the final map on that property report showed the land was possibly part of the Melbourne Strategic Assessment Plan (MSA), and included a link to a publicly available Victorian government website.
A search on that website showed much of that Truganina property had been listed as a conservation area.
The Victorian environment department also confirmed to the ABC that the Truganina property had been listed as Conservation Area 9 under that MSA plan since 2013.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Centreland Agriculture said "mitigation work" had been completed on the property to reduce fire risk, after fires in the area earlier this year.
"Centreland Agriculture Co. purchased the property at Mt Atkinson Road, Truganina on the basis that it was in an urban growth zone," they said.
"This is consistent with information currently available through a Victorian Government website and email advice from the City of Melton.
"Conflicting information about the status of the land has now been raised which we are currently reviewing, along with information provided to Centreland Agriculture Co. during the purchase.
"We take all regulatory and zoning obligations seriously and have endeavoured to follow these rules at all times."
Conservation areas still on private property
The Melbourne Strategic Assessment (MSA) is a different planning tool to the usual state planning laws.
It is a legal agreement between the Victorian and federal governments which came into force in 2010.
This agreement was intended to protect areas of the highest conservation value in Melbourne's outer west and north, which were regions earmarked for future urban development.
RMIT University conservation scientist Sarah Bekessy said the idea at the time was to protect 36 conservation areas "into perpetuity" and create a grassland reserve in Melbourne's outer west, while allowing urban development across the rest of that region.
The MSA planned for some of these conservation areas to be publicly acquired, while others were to remain privately owned, but with conservation restrictions.
The Truganina property fell into the second category — which is why it could be privately purchased last year.
Professor Bekessy criticised the MSA model, which she said had "failed catastrophically when it comes to protecting critically endangered grasslands".
She said the clearing of the Truganina site was just one example of government failure to protect conservation areas.
She's not alone — the Victorian government was heavily criticised in a 2020 auditor-general's report for delays in purchasing properties covered by the scheme.
Environmental Justice Australia senior lawyer Bruce Lindsay was also critical of the Victorian government, for its failure to add environmental protections to these conservation areas under state planning laws.
He said when the MSA was established, there was an intention for the conservation areas to be given a second layer of protection within the Victorian Planning Scheme.
"Partly the value in doing it at both levels is that the Victorian law functioning through the planning system, provides the legal arrangements that are generally readily understood and readily recognised by developers," he said.
DELWP told the ABC this had not happened yet for the Truganina site because town planning had not occurred for that area yet.
But Dr Lindsay said the state government had had long enough to add protections to the MSA conservation areas, given that agreement was more than 10 years old.
Call for major changes to ensure 'tragedy' isn't repeated
Professor Bekessy wants the destruction of this conservation area to be a line-in-the-sand moment for governments.
"The clearing of this conservation area, whether malicious or accidental, is an absolute tragedy and should never have happened," she said.
She said the attitude towards Victoria's endangered grasslands stood in stark contrast to the celebrated prairies of the United States.
"They really embrace their prairies and they love it, they romanticise it — sadly we systematically cleared and neglected our grasslands," she said.
In the meantime, Andrew Booth will continue to make his cycling trips around Melbourne's outer west, doing his bit to protect the last of these critically endangered grasslands.
"Sites like this are very rare right across the volcanic plain, going right to the South Australian border," he said.
"If we lose these, we lose basically the most important remnants of an ecosystem."
Mr Booth hopes that one day these conservation areas will be so well protected, he'll no longer need to take to his push bike.
A spokesperson for the Victorian government noted the majority of the areas covered by the MSA had been protected under state planning schemes.
They also noted the conservation areas were protected under federal environmental laws and a clause in Victorian planning laws required a permit to remove any native vegetation.
"We know the best way to protect our native grassland habitats and the species that occupy them in Melbourne's urban environments is to continue acquiring and rehabilitating land to create the Western Grasslands Reserve," they said.
"So far, around 18 per cent of the Western Grassland Reserve has been acquired – approximately 2,630 hectares — this funded by the MSA levy which is paid by developers and therefore proceeds in line with the rate of development in the growth areas."
