Penola Bypass
Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:46 pm
I didn't realize this bypass proposal (probably not in this exact form) has been around since 1951!
Winemaker Treasury Wine Estates in fight against Penola bypass road through its vineyard
Winemaker Treasury Wine Estates in fight against Penola bypass road through its vineyard
MEREDITH BOOTH From: The Advertiser October 25, 2010 5:50PM
WYNNS' wines owner Treasury Wine Estates is spending a "significant'' amount on a five-week advertising campaign against a planned $21 million Penola bypass road through one of its vineyards in the Coonawarra wine region.
Kicking off its campaign last weekend with a full page ad in News Limited's The Weekend Australian, Treasury likens the Council's planned road through ``terra rossa'' soil vineyards as ``viticultural destruction''.
Treasury, owned by Foster's Group, expects the campaign to run in national, South Australian and regional newspapers and online media for at least five weeks leading up to Wattle Range Council elections on November 13, a spokeswoman said.
It is urging all council candidates to ``thoroughly review all heavy vehicle bypass alternatives''.
Wattle Range Council chief executive Frank Brennan said the bypass road, which would start 1.5km north of Penola and rejoin the Riddoch Highway 1.5km south of Penola, was needed to remove 550 trucks a day travelling through Penola's main street.
Heavy vehicle traffic was expected to increase to 700 a day if a Penola pulp mill development goes ahead, he said.
Local, State and Federal governments are expected to pitch in a combined $21 million to build the road.
Mr Brennan said the bypass, first mentioned at the council in 1951, has been the subject of two legal challenges in the Supreme of South Australia, one from winemakers Foster's Group and Parker Estate which successfully blocked the Council's push to build the road last year and a second by Penola and District Residents and Ratepayers Association which found in favour of the Council, Mr Brennan said.
The ratepayer action is now subject to an appeal.
About 20ha of Treasury Wine Estates-owned vineyards would be cut diagonally by the planned road with the impact on 20-year-old vines bearing grapes used for the company's Wynns Coonawarra Estate chardonnay and Wynns black label cabernet sauvignon wines, the spokeswoman said.