Asbestos – Willow Court Tasmania

Asbestos photos

July 21, 2017 No Comments

The location of the asbestos dump site was photographed in a 1996 report and was the result of a massive job to remove as much asbestos from the wards on both sides of the Lachlan River. The exact where about of the dump site has been a mystery according to Derwent Valley Council documents, but this report locates the site with a number of photos. The low quality photocopies make it hard to identify the location without some local knowledge. The only indication is that the site was part of the old tip site which was on the south side of Glebe Road, once a site used for grazing cattle.

Can you help identify the area?

The Derwent Valley Council reported that they knew that asbestos was dumped on the site, but didn’t know where in the last plans for the area.

Site still unsafe?

September 17, 2016 2 Comments

In an updated 2016 plan, the Derwent Valley Council were informed that the old Royal Derwent Hospital site may pose significant health risks. These are asbestos within the buildings, building rubble and in an undisclosed dumping site on the property. Other issues are undeclared flood prone areas and two dump sites which it still remains unclear if biological hazards were placed.

Global, Local

New Norfolk Structure Plan (Draft)

February 16, 2016 No Comments

This is the section of the Structure Report from the Derwent Valley Council that relates to Willow Court and Royal Derwent Hospital. There are some interesting statements on the Willow Court side, in particular the “development in a ad-hoc manner” and “there is currently no overall documented vision or consistent set of objectives for Willow Court”.

As for the Royal Derwent side of the Lachlan River; “identify risks on site, including flood prone land and potential land contamination”, this would be referring to development in low areas along the Lachlan River and the the fact that there were landfill sites with “potential bio-hazard material” and also a previous unknown location of an “asbestos dumping site”. There has been concern over asbestos during the demolition process along with other building rubble.

The current zone , it would appear is for residential urban development on the Royal Derwent Hospital side of the Lachlan River which would raise concerns with the unknown location of the asbestos dump and ground contamination.

While this is a draft document there are concerns, hopefully now the Council know these they can be addressed. We will watch this space.

Click image above to see full document.