By Rachael Dexter
Activists and a Greens MP have blocked construction workers from accessing public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner north, vowing to continue obstructing them and their machinery all week to prevent the state government’s demolition plan.
About 40 people on Monday rallied outside 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne – one of the first towers slated for demolition under the state’s high-rise redevelopment program – after residents received notice on Sunday that work to assess concrete in empty apartments would begin this week.
Protesters outside the housing tower at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne on Monday.Credit: Rachael Dexter
Relocations have been under way at both the North Melbourne and Flemington housing estates for at least six months, but a number of residents are resisting relocation or claim to not have been offered a suitable alternative nearby.
A works notice issued to the remaining residents on Friday – seen by The Age – said workers would arrive at the site from Monday morning “in high-vis vests and hazmat suits” to “carry out concrete investigations in empty apartments”.
Residents were warned of loud noise from power tools and that parts of the building would be blocked for periods, but they would still be able to access their apartments.
Another notice issued to residents at the nearby Flemington Estate on Racecourse Road flagged that survey and geotechnical work would begin on Wednesday. Workers are expected to close one access road into the estate and begin drilling for soil samples.
Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri (centre in glasses) was among the protesters.Credit: Rachael Dexter
A tenant from the North Melbourne towers, who wrote to state agency Homes Victoria on behalf of the remaining residents at both estates, said the decision to proceed with work while people were still living in the building was not only inconsiderate but “condescending, degrading, unethical”. They did not want to be named out of fear of affecting their family’s relocation prospects.
They urged the state to “postpone all non-essential investigations and early works until the relocation process is complete and all residents have vacated”.
“Commencing works while residents remain in their homes is premature, inappropriate, and deeply disrespectful,” the tenant wrote in the letter, seen by The Age.
“We are still living in this building. Regardless of how many residents remain, this is our home, not a construction site.
The building is the first housing tower slated for demolition under the state government’s plan.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“The presence of workers in hazmat suits, disruptive noise, restricted access and diminished privacy in the name of redevelopment planning sends a clear message that the wellbeing and dignity of the remaining residents are being ignored.
“We feel our personal space and the sanctity of our homes have been trespassed. The relocation process has not concluded, and many of us are still adjusting.”
Despite the letter, construction workers arrived at 33 Alfred Street on Monday morning and were met by about 40 protesters, including Victorian Greens MP Gabrielle De Vietri, former Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam and Jordan van den Lamb, a housing activist and Senate candidate for the Victorian Socialists (and known on social media as purplepingers).
The workers left the site shortly after arriving and seeing the protesters. But according to the works notices, works were to occur on Tuesday morning and for the rest of the week.
Discussing plans to picket the sites for the rest of the week, de Vietri drew parallels to the campaign against the East West Link project.
“[We were] turning up every morning when the drill rigs arrived, and they were just doing testing work as well,” she said.
“We showed them that they were not going to get a single thing achieved on that project, and that the community would turn out in numbers every single time they tried.”
Ratnam said the protest was not about stopping housing but preventing the demolition and what she called “privatisation” of the estates.
Activists want to see the towers remain and oppose the government plan, under which 44 high-rise public estates across Melbourne will be razed, leased to private companies for 40 years and rebuilt with 1000 more rental units than are currently there. But no traditional public housing will be rebuilt.
Instead, the sites will host a mix of community housing, comprising properties aimed at people on the housing waiting list that are owned, developed and maintained by not-for-profit organisations rather than the state.
The land and buildings are designated to revert to state ownership in four decades.
Housing Minister Harriet Shing slammed De Vietri and Ratnam over the protest.
“No demolition works are scheduled while people are living in the towers,” she said.
“It’s a disgrace that yet again the Greens are prepared to say and do just about anything to create fear and confusion.”
“While we’re getting on with delivering modern and accessible homes for people on the social housing register, the Greens continue to spend their time spreading misinformation and creating fear without offering actual solutions.”
A spokeswoman for Homes Victoria said “some preliminary work” was completed on Monday, and that “we are planning to start investigative tests soon”, but did not clarify whether works would proceed on Tuesday nor how many tenants remained in the buildings.
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