Glenn and Tiffany moved to an idyllic $625,000 farm to start a blissful new life but got a huge shock when they discovered what was next door. Now they’ve gone to war

A tree-swapping couple insist their rural lifestyle will be destroyed by a quarry opening up 350 meters from their home, despite assurances it will only be dug for a week or two a year.

Glenn Todd and Tiffany Harrison moved from Coburg in Melbourne’s north to Carrajung in Victoria’s east 19 months ago in search of a peaceful bush idyll.

A week before Christmas, Mr Todd was ‘devastated’ to discover that an application for planning permission to build a quarry on nearby land had been placed on a sign outside their $625,000 estate.

“We moved here to get away from trucks, noise and all that stuff,” Mr. Todd said. “Now we’ll have it taped to our door.”

Radial Timbers, which operates more than 40 plantations in the Gippsland area, wants to build a ‘small’ quarry so it can extract and grind gravel to maintain forest roads.

The proposed quarry is located approximately halfway between the hamlets of Carrajung and Carrajung Lower, 27 km south-east of Traralgon and 165 km south-east of Melbourne.

The quarry would cover 2.5 hectares of 10.66 hectares, including a storage facility for the stone and sometimes a mobile crushing plant.

Within days of learning of the plan, Mr. Todd had issued a press release, set up a Facebook page and launched a website to demand the proposal be halted.

Mr Todd, who designs websites and is a part-time sculptor, described finding the planning permission notice in his original media statement on December 24.

“Both Glenn and Tiffany were due to visit family in NSW over the holiday period, but fortunately Glenn was home to care for their new puppies and a small flock of sheep,” the release said.

The 47-year-old was then quoted as saying: ‘We wouldn’t have even known this was happening until we got back.’

Ms Harrison, who planned to set up a small-scale farming business, was also quoted.

‘How is it possible that a project like this can be built so close to a family home?’ the 36-year-old asked.

“We really love our local community. We would be very sorry if we were to consider leaving, but we cannot imagine our lives with this dusty, noisy project.”

Mr Todd reiterated: “We both work hard and like many Australians struggle to make ends meet. But we intend to object and fight the industrialization of our front yard.”

Radial Timbers owner Chris McEvoy told Daily Mail Australia the quarry proposal had been in the works for three years and was “kind of a non-event”.

He had been in regular contact with the previous owner of Mr Todd and Mrs Harrison’s farm – who had no objections to the plan – but did not realize that person had sold the land.

Mr Todd and Ms Harrison had made their concerns public without understanding the small scale of the operation, Mr McEvoy said.

“They haven’t contacted anyone or seen what it’s about,” he said. “It’s such a small, tiny thing. It is not a commercial quarry, it is for personal use, it cannot be sold.

‘We might use it once every two years. It literally looks like a gravel pit. We’re not putting in any infrastructure or anything else.’

The planning proposal submitted to Wellington Shire Council stated that the quarry would be dug in terraced ‘benches’ to a depth of 5 meters on a hillside.

This would operate on a ‘campaign basis’ for a maximum of a few weeks per year, during which a mobile crushing plant would be used to grind the stone into gravel.

“It’s to supplement our own roads and the only reason we did it was because we were struggling to get supplies from commercial quarries,” Mr McEvoy said.

‘We had some stone on this property, so we thought we could take advantage of that. That’s all it is. It’s actually something so small-scale.

“If it became something bigger or grander, they could chase me until the cows come home if they wanted to, because we’re not going to do that.”

According to the planning proposal, the quarry’s location in a gully had been ‘carefully considered to ensure it is shielded from public view’ and had ‘negligible views of adjacent properties’.

Mr McEvoy said that since he became aware of Mr Todd and Mrs Harrison’s concerns, he had tried to reassure them that the quarry did not have to disrupt their lives.

“Even with the mobile crushing plant, it’s not worth getting into unless we get a two-year supply,” he said.

“So we get it for a week, get a two-year supply, and then it wouldn’t even work for another two years.

“This is what I was trying to tell them. We can work around them when they go on holiday and then actually do it.’

Mr Todd countered that the crushing plant, when operating, would be 350 meters from the couple’s property and that there would be a truck entrance within 40 meters of their home.

He was suffering from a respiratory illness that had improved since moving to the country, and he did not want to ‘live next to an industrial estate’.

“The whole thing is going to look very ugly,” he said. ‘Then there’s the sound. It’s peaceful and quiet here, but that won’t be the case.

‘Where the trucks come in is literally at our gate. These are heavy trucks, they’re loading gravel, so they get dust.”

The couple live in a three-bedroom cottage, which Mr Todd describes as a ‘no-nonsense sort of house in the country’, on 2.6 hectares of mainly pasture.

“My partner is considering setting up a vegetable garden to practice sustainable farming,” Mr Todd said. “I’m a sculptor and I’m cleaning out sheds for a workshop.”

Mr Todd believed that having a quarry so close to the property would ‘financially ruin’ the couple.

“We wouldn’t be able to leave,” he said. “It is clear that we cannot sell our property for what we paid for it.

“Even the thought of moving is not what we want, but even if we wanted to, it’s not possible.”

Mr McEvoy said there is no reason for the couple to worry about their future on the farm being destroyed by the quarry.

“They’re still a little concerned because they’re obviously in the area,” he said.

“So I’m not saying they won’t object, but I have a pretty clear conscience and there won’t be any controversy about it.

“We can work with them to make sure it doesn’t have any impact on their lifestyle, whether they own property or otherwise.”