By Adam Carey
Asbestos is feared to have been found on a freshly redeveloped school oval in Melbourne’s outer east after state railway corporation VicTrack used the site as a temporary car park.
An oval on the site that is home to both Upwey High School and Upwey Primary School was used as a construction site and spillover public car park for months last year while VicTrack built a multi-deck car park at nearby Belgrave train station.
The grounds of Upwey High School and Primary School are believed to be contaminated with asbestos. Credit: NearMap
The oval has just been rebuilt but remains under VicTrack’s control and is out of bounds until further notice, Upwey High School assistant principal Debbie Martine told families on Tuesday night.
“As you might recall, the oval was re-built to facilitate the construction of an overflow car park during delivery of the new multi-level car park at Belgrave station,” Martine said in a note to families.
“We have now been informed that potential asbestos-containing debris and other materials have recently been discovered on the oval.”
Martine said access to the oval would continue to be restricted, with a licensed occupational hygienist attending the site to test the materials.
“As a precaution, we have chosen to keep affected areas fenced off from students while further testing is undertaken,” she wrote.
The car park at Belgrave station opened to commuters in December, but the oval had not yet been returned to the government school.
The 640-space car park is part of the Allan government’s Car Parks for Commuters program, which involves building 11,000 new spaces, and was VicTrack’s biggest construction project to date, the authority said.
“The car park has been quite a challenging site, with rail tracks on one side and a steep hill on the other. To get around that, we built the structure in stages,” VicTrack senior project manager Gurinder Singh said upon completion of the project in January.
The source of the suspected asbestos is not yet known. VicTrack has been contacted for comment.
The high school’s warning to the community comes after asbestos-contaminated mulch was found at dozens of public parks and schools in NSW and Queensland last month, prompting a major testing and clean-up effort there that is expected to take several months to complete.
The contamination outbreak in NSW and Queensland prompted Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority to initiate inspections of local mulch providers.
“We are carrying out a targeted program of spot inspections to ensure Victorian mulch producers have effective systems in place to prevent contamination from occurring,” the EPA said.
“While we place strict conditions on industry and conduct regular inspections, we take the potential risk of asbestos contamination very seriously.”
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was widely used for construction in Australia before its phase-out from the late 1980s, culminating in a nationwide ban in 2003. The Cancer Council says exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing cancers of the lung, ovary and larynx as well as mesothelioma.
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