By Adam Carey
A school community in Melbourne’s outer east has blown the whistle over the dangerous condition of its oval after state railway authority VicTrack left the playing surface littered with shards of glass, broken tiles, brick, stones and asbestos.
Upwey Primary School students have been denied access to their oval for the past 2½ years and have been urged by VicTrack to stay off the oval until the surface is rectified, but their parents and carers have been given no date for when that will happen.
Parent Luke Geddes (centre) and members of Upwey Primary School’s community at the oval.Credit: Simon Schluter
The rail authority took control of the school’s two ovals in late 2021 and paved one into a car park, with a commitment to refurbish the other oval. But it remains a rubble-strewn no-go zone, with students forced to crowd together on concrete surfaces to play sport.
“It’s either incompetence or it’s negligence,” said parent Luke Geddes, who is part of a group of 10 parents who have published detailed information on what they say is a long-term failure by multiple authorities to take responsibility for the problem.
Rubble on the Upwey Primary School oval.
“It’s been a big Ring a Ring o’ Rosie of passing the buck,” Geddes said. “I don’t care who is responsible, it is what it is, we just want the kids to have an oval.”
VicTrack occupied the school’s two ovals for use as temporary car parking while it built a new commuter car park at nearby Belgrave train station, an arrangement negotiated by the Victorian School Building Authority.
Thirty months on, Belgrave station’s new multi-deck car park is built, but Upwey Primary’s oval remains under the occupation of VicTrack, despite having been refurbished.
Inspections of its surface by parents have found extensive industrial debris, with shards of glass, tile, brick and concrete rubble still littering the turf, which is also patchy and infested with weeds despite having been reseeded multiple times. Seven fragments of bonded asbestos were also found in March, prompting an Environment Protection Authority investigation.
Appeals to VicTrack have been met with an apology and an insistence to stay off the oval until it is fixed, but no timeline for its reopening.
“We understand your concerns about the time it has taken for the school oval to be available for use by students,” the authority said in an April 19 email to the parents’ group.
“We are aware that there are ongoing issues with the oval that mean it is not able to be used by students ... Until these rectification works are complete and the oval is handed over to the schools, it remains under VicTrack’s management. We therefore request that members of the public do not access the oval at this time.”
Principal Rebecca Honeysett also wrote to all school parents on May 30, confirming that a hygienist had cleared the oval of asbestos.
“With respect to other debris such as glass, VicTrack is now working to rectify oval quality issues before handing the oval back to our school,” Honeysett wrote, adding that an independent consultant had been engaged to ensure the playing field was fit for purpose.
The parents’ group wants VicTrack’s contractor, Adco, to repair the oval surface and for VicTrack and the school building authority to review their practices “to prevent other schools from being put through similarly disruptive and distressing experiences”.
The school never sought to have its oval refurbished but agreed to give it up temporarily at VicTrack’s request.
The Department of Education referred questions to VicTrack. A VicTrack spokesperson said the agency was working with the building authority, so the oval could be handed back to the school in time for the start of term three in July.
“The current works include removing any residual stones, levelling, top dressing and returfing some parts of the oval,” the spokesperson said.
VicTrack said storms over summer affected the construction of the oval by moving some of the topsoil and exposing stones and other debris.
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