By Tom Cowie
Nausea, headaches and ear pain are some of the symptoms being experienced by people living next to a Suburban Rail Loop worksite, with low-frequency vibrations produced by construction machinery identified as the culprit.
Residents in Heatherton who live close to the proposed location of stabling yards for SRL East, which will connect nearby Cheltenham to Box Hill by underground rail, say that early works on the site are making them feel unwell.
Michelle Hornstein and her neighbours say low-frequency vibrations from Suburban Rail Loop works are causing symptoms including headaches and nausea.Credit: Joe Armao
Since mid-February, locals near the site on Kingston Road have observed an odd feeling of pressure in their ears, along with spells of dizziness, which was being caused by something many initially couldn’t identify.
Resident Kylie Orchard described the sensation as similar to just before your ears pop while flying on a plane, which she first noticed around four or five weeks ago. It also came with a feeling of vertigo, she said.
“You feel kind of dizzy and like you might pass out,” she said. “Most days, I wake with a headache, it’s like I’ve got hay fever, that stuffy feeling in your head.”
Orchard didn’t realise the symptoms were a result of what was happening a few hundred metres from her home at the SRL worksite. There had been no warning she might feel this way, or any obvious intrusive noise.
However, when people in a residents group on Facebook posted about feeling the same thing, she learned that it was being caused by vibration from nearby heavy machinery.
“I felt it in my body, but only after I realised that’s what it was,” she said. “There’s a sound in my house but when I go outside, I can’t hear it. It’s really bizarre.”
Michelle Hornstein from the Kingston Residents Association said it took multiple complaints from locals reporting their symptoms for the contractor Suburban Connect to come and measure noise levels.
The tests detected a low-frequency vibration hum at 31Hz, which was coming from a roller machine compacting ground on the former landfill site to provide access for trucks.
Workers at the Suburban Rail Loop construction site in Heatherton last week.Credit: Joe Armao
“I am prone to motion sickness but I just started feeling it sitting at my desk at home working,” she said. “And then I could hear a bit of a weird noise outside, like a humming sort of noise.”
The symptoms of motion sickness – including nausea – had not abated, Hornstein said. Other residents reported needing to take pain relief every day to deal with the headaches.
“When your head’s like that, you just can’t function,” she said.
Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing on Saturday defended SRL after Australia’s peak infrastructure body suggested “exit strategies” be developed in case the multibillion-dollar project can’t be delivered.
A protest banner near the SRL construction site in Heatherton.Credit: Joe Armao
In its evaluation of the first stage of the project, released on Friday, Infrastructure Australia said it had low confidence in the Allan government’s costings for the project.
It said SRL East should not receive further federal government funding without an updated cost estimate, and said it had low confidence in the Allan government’s $35 billion figure.
The Infrastructure Australia report, provided to federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King before she released $2.2 billion for the project last month, recommends multiple tests be met before the Commonwealth provides more money.
But Shing would not commit to the government meeting those tests, including providing detailed and updated cost estimates for SRL East. She said the government would continue to work with Infrastructure Australia.
The Suburban Rail Loop is considered Victoria’s most expensive infrastructure project, with the full orbital loop around the city costed at $100 billion.
“We are on time. We are on budget. We have workers on the sites today,” Shing said on Saturday.
“We will see tunnel boring machines in the ground next year, and trains running across the network from Box Hill to Cheltenham in 2035.”
Some Heatherton residents who have made complaints about the effects of SRL construction have been offered short-term respite stays in hotels, while Suburban Connect has also tried operating the machinery at a higher frequency. However, residents say that that hasn’t improved things.
Others have also complained about dust, with workers employed by SRL washing windows of nearby homes and cars.
A Suburban Rail Loop Authority spokesperson said the agency was working closely with residents to support them during construction ahead of the launch of tunnel boring machines next year.
“While all dust, noise and vibration levels are well within the required limits, we are doing all we can to reduce impacts of the works,” the spokesperson said.
The authority said the roller was currently not in use and any future compacting would use different machines.
Residents who live closest to the site have been invited to take part in a voluntary buyback scheme. However, not everyone thinks that is a silver bullet.
“You might not get a price you agree with and it might mean you don’t get enough to stay in the area,” said Hornstein. “Some people have kids in schools or jobs nearby.”
With at least another 10 years of construction remaining, Heatherton residents are questioning the long-term benefits for them.
As well as the stabling yards, the site will also be a launching spot for tunnel boring machines to start digging in 2026.
However, a station won’t be built at that location; the closest will be several kilometres away at Cheltenham.
Silvana Anthony, another resident who experienced headaches, said her area got all the downside with none of the upside of a new public transport connection.
“Premier Jacinta Allan says things like, ‘We’ve just got to get it done for the benefit of the state’,” she said. “But it really glosses over the impacts on the community.”
An Environment Protection Authority spokesperson said the agency was aware of community concerns associated with SRL construction in the Heatherton area, including noise, dust and vibration.
“We have been in contact with SRL to ensure they are aware of those concerns and to determine what potential measures SRL plans on undertaking to monitor and control them,” the spokesperson said.
With Lachlan Abbott
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