Mountain Rivers Bakehouse

Open home today 11:30-12:00

Relaxed Country Lifestyle Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, you'll find this charming 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom country cottage. Situated on a large approx 1177m2 allotment offering plenty of room for outdoor activities and boasting a stunning backdrop of farmland and bush, this is the perfect place to call home. Stay...

The fight continues. Unfortunately, the VCAT process is largely confidential until a decision is made. Rest assured we are speaking with solicitors regarding Council and what has transpired so far.

I urge anyone who has had dealings with the Baw Baw Shire planning department and has felt they have not followed the process and there has been corruption and/or bias in decisions made, to file a report with IBAC (Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Committee). Especially if it has had an impact on your business for merely calling them out.

The community must stand together and hold our local council and elected officials accountable for their actions. It is our collective responsibility to ensure transparency, fairness, and efficiency in their decision-making processes so that the interests of the community are properly represented and protected.

We will not be going away.

We have decided to do things a little differently than we originally planned. We are still moving forward. We’ve just skipped a step.

Our bakery plan was always to provide fabulous food from our traditional wood fired oven in Erica, and expand that business across Victoria with a mobile food van. As the bakery grew, we envisaged showcasing our products throughout the State, promoting our beautiful area as we travelled.

With the bakery on hold, we have jumped straight to the mobile food van AND WE OPEN THIS WEEKEND.

While the bricks and mortar of our dream is yet to be realised, this winter we will be offering delicious treats to visitors to Mt Baw Baw, St Gwinear and Walhalla from the Erica Acorn.

You will find the Erica Acorn parked right next to the bakery in Erica.

OPEN TOMORROW
Located between the Ski Hire and Bakery in Erica, Victoria.
4pm - 7pm
Friday 9th June
Fish, Burgers, Chips, Hot Jam donuts and Coffee

'L' Plates on, so be nice 😉

Our apologies for not posting sooner, but we really needed to take a breath and have a break from this negative crap.

Fortunately, with the snow season now here, there are lots of positive things that we are focussing on and new projects to be started.

Can't really explain what happened at VCAT last week. It is quite confusing.

The VCAT member was very critical of the Council adding weight to our IBAC submission.
Of the three people trying to decide what's heritage and what's not, none of them had any idea. So now more reports to be done (read more $$$$'s).

Thank you to everyone for your overwhelming support. Once we get a clearer picture of what this last VCAT appearance actually means, we'll let you know.

Next step in the VCAT process tomorrow.
All VCAT listings are on the website - https://www.vcat.vic.gov.au/upcoming-hearings
A quick search for the Bakehouse address - 7 School Road and voila, you might see a name.

Hope everyone has a fabulous day tomorrow ❤️

We commiserate and identify with Mr Gauci’s difficulty with the incompetent planning dept of Baw Baw Shire. As do so many others.

We feel for anyone who needs to deal with the Baw Baw Shire planning department, but maybe, just maybe, now it has happened to one of their own counsellors they will stop with the gaslighting responses that they are merely administering the rules from the state government and admit that there is in fact bias and incompetence in the planning department that needs to be addressed urgently.

Supporting a community is not just blowing your own trumpet when Council money has been spent. It’s about enabling your community to be able to grow and making sure the processes are accessible for all, especially small businesses.

27 months, 8 different planners, over 100 emails with less than a 10% response rate from Council, contracting a professional planner that subcontracts to Council and we are now being taken to VCAT by the ex-planning manager. The response we get from our local representative is ‘we just like to complain on Facebook’ and ‘it’s a Council bashing exercise’. We will take this opportunity to thank our local community and all the people that have messaged, rung, the 4,000 who have signed and shared our petition, written support letters and chatted in the street. This is what is keeping us going, our town needs this.

It is a hard fight, our mental health has taken a huge hit, but we will be fine. The stories we have heard from others are horrifying. No wonder developers and builders refuse any contract when they hear it is within Baw Baw Shire. The incompetence, bullying and the non-existent customer service is known Statewide.

Good luck Mr Gauci. We will follow the investigation with interest. Hopefully there will be a positive outcome for us all.

WE NEED YOUR HELP - https://chng.it/kLWfSbCTkp

EDIT - Thank you all so, so much. We have been totally overwhelmed with the support. I may have had a little teary least night reading all comments on the petition 🥲🫶.. We will continue to fight.
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One step forward, two steps back. We finally got through Council (although there are some little speed humps to get over), we are now being taken to VCAT by someone that is not local to the area, to stop the bakery being built. This person was the principal planner at the Baw Baw Shire when we first started this process and yes, we will be taking that further.

Our solicitors have suggested a petition to show the support of the community and we really do believe that the community, OUR community really does support this idea. If we could ask for five minutes to add your name and address to demonstrate that you support this development in Erica, we would be forever grateful. Even if you dont live in the area but believe this building needs to be developed, please click on the link and sign - https://chng.it/kLWfSbCTkp

If you have any historic link to the old bakery, please message us.

We thank you all, again for your continued support. We won’t give up as we believe this will be amazing for our community

Today, we engaged a lawyer to commence legal action against Baw Baw Shire Council. It is ridiculous that this is the only way to get the Shire to do their job.

Enough of being bullied and being made feel like it is our fault. We have provided more than they have asked of us and even engaged the same business that Baw Baw Shire employ, to write the application. There is nothing more we can do.

We have again been reminded that Baw Baw shire are in support of the project. With reports of other projects being approved in the recommended time frame, while we struggle to get any sort of communication from Council within a 6 week period, we are left wondering if they are really this incompetent, or are we being lied to and someone within Council is actively stopping progress and development in Erica.

Not that I think the release of the Andrew Wegener review would have any effect on the Baw Baw Shire planning department to get things done, but we thought it about time for an update.

The last conversation we had with a planner (planner no 4), took 3 emails and 2 phone calls over a two-week period to speak with anyone. I asked for an approximate timeline of when we would have a decision, as it was already 3 months past the statutory required timeframe. She laughed, and said ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a lot longer because we are understaffed’. Council is supportive, despite the two objections received and we cannot do anymore to get them to do their job, unless we go to VCAT. I cannot comprehend how a department that was $700K over budget for a 6mth period, can still laugh at their constituents and say they are understaffed.

Shortly after speaking to this planner, we received an email stating that they had left (admittedly a few red flags that this was about to happen), and we had been allocated a new planner. Not six weeks after that email, we received the ‘Stakeholders Update’ email, which is a list of everyone in the Planning Department. Unsurprisingly, our planner is not listed. We can only assume we are up to planner number 6 and have not been told.

It is now at a point where anyone would question investing any money in the region when Baw Baw shire is responsible for issuing permits or giving permission to trade. The risk of completing the project, having it sit there for 6 months (or 6 years) because Council needs to rubber stamp something and we can’t trade, will send us bankrupt. At this point they have proved time and time again, not to trust them to simply do their job.

Meanwhile a bakery in another shire has just received funding under the Regional Tourism Investment fund, which we have been unable to apply for without planning approval and has now closed. This was a dollar for dollar incentive to develop regional businesses and would have seen at least $500 000 invested in our town on the development, before considering our goal of 5 full time equivalent jobs which is now increasingly looking unlikely.

In the meantime, we continue to pay our rates for a property that we cannot use.