Over the last few decades it has been reported that there is an asbestos dump on the land at New Norfolk that was formerly under the control of the Royal Derwent Hospital. The asbestos was removed from the Royal Derwent Hospital/Willow Court Centre buildings after completion of a major asbestos audit. Parts of the site are still contaminated with asbestos which is mainly found in old electrical equipment such as switchboards and gaskets in the old heating system.
During the latest restoration an audit was undertaken, but the cost of removal was deemed too costly. The only way to remove these gaskets was to cut away large and heavy sections of metal pipes either side of the gasket, so as not to disturb the toxic material. Proper disposal of asbestos is costed by weight, the metal would add to the cost, so it was deemed safe while in situ.
The potential sale of the site was affected by two reported dump sites;
“While it was a large property, the Valuer-General established a value of just $500 000, taking into account heritage constraints as well as the poor state of many of the buildings. Furthermore, significant industrial contamination, including asbestos and hospital waste, existed at the site.”
The Valuer General’s 2013 report recognised that any developer would have to undertake remediation of the site at considerable cost so as to develop the area;
“However, at least $16m expense for service upgrades, sub-division, demolition of buildings and asbestos removal appeared unavoidable.”
The report goes on to mention the successful sale;
“After a two-year negotiation, sale was agreed to the Lachlan River Community Holdings Pty Ltd: a consortium of Derwent Valley Council and a private company, Mototo Business Group Pty Ltd.”
Given this report it appears that all documentation about the hospital waste site and the asbestos dump site were known to the Derwent Valley Council before, during and after the sale of the former RDH land.
To date it is believed there has been no remediation of the site, however the Gateway Estate housing development on the hill near the dump sites was approved by the Derwent Valley Council. It is unclear if the Council, as the previous owner, or the current developer undertook any safety audits or environmental reports of the land before development started to protect residents and construction personal.
In a report named “Preliminary Environmental Assessment of the Royal Derwent Hospital/Willow Court Centre” by Stoklosa Engineering PTY LIMITED dated 1996, a map shows the sites of the Hospital Waste and the Asbestos Dump Site (circled in red).
Below is another image from Google Earth which has been aligned, as much as it was possible, to the above image. The red circled area is a close proximity to the matching red circle from the above report.
An earlier report on this website raised many questions about the possible location of the dump site. A number of people suggested that the dump site was closer to the Lyell Highway, opposite Millbrook Rise. Previous stories.
In 2016 a “Structure Plan (Draft)” from the Derwent Valley Council reported; previous unknown location of an “asbestos dumping site”, even though, as the part owners of the site, the Derwent Valley Council had access to all the reports and information pertaining to the toxic dump site.
On Tuesday I visited the site and spoke with a local resident who informed me that the surveyors were working on the site in the area of the above red circle. This was believed to be in preparation for the next stage of housing development.