By NICOLE VALICEK
HOBSONS Bay City Council will spend $1 million to reclaim, rehabilitate and landscape the JC Madigan Reserve in Newport for the community.
Last week the council received the environmental audit on the reserve in Mason St, Newport and referred $1 million in the 2014-15 budget for its restoration and landscaping.
A budget of $170,000 had previously been allocated in the 2013-14 budget for the design, tender and commencement of the construction phase.
The site was used for in-ground fuel storage tanks by the Federal Government and from 1974 to 1982 as a landfill by the City of Williamstown.
In 1984, the site was filled and converted to grassed open space.
Following some subsidence, a high perimeter fence with signage to warn the public of the issues at the reserve was installed in 2005.
The council has an approved a Rehabilitation Management Plan that guides how the site is managed
now and how it will be rehabilitated in due course.
The works will include compacting the site and capping it with at least 400 millimetres of clay and 100mm of top soil before landscaping the reserve and returning it to public use.
Director Works and Assets Phillip McDonald last week told the council that the site does contain asbestos, which is mostly evidenced when it rains, but the large pieces were picked up on occasions.
“There’s not that much. We do pick it up on regular occasions,” he said.
Mr McDonald said in his opinion the site would not be ideal for a community garden, but the important thing was to return the site for community use.
“It’s important we return the site to community use and allow people to use it for passive recreation purposes rather than a community garden, that’s my view.”
Transition Hobsons Bay spokesperson Jenny Mitchell said the group was thrilled that the Jack Madigan Reserve will be cleaned up and restored to a community asset.
“There are many competing demands on ratepayers’ money and it’s pleasing that the council has prioritised funding for the Reserve,” she said.
She said a Tansition Hobsons Bay survey by local residents revealed they were keen to see comfortable seating, community gardens and a children’s play area on the reserve.
But after reading the environmental audit the group think future uses of the reserve will be limited by its zoning of Open Space.
“The council has committed itself to consulting with local residents in designing the reserve and it will be interesting to see what options for future use are possible within that zoning.”
In June 2013, Transition Hobsons Bay and the local Newport community called for contaminants to be removed from the reserve and for the land to be reinstated for recreational use.
Hobsons Bay Mayor Angela Altair said the $1 million council commitment was evidence the council is as “keen as anyone” to rehabilitate the piece of land.
