One of many pieces of asbestos found on and near the banks of a creek at Bellevue Ave, Gaythorne where the deadly material was dumped. Picture: Annette Dew Source: News Limited
THE potentially deadly asbestos waste dumped at a suburban creek which Brisbane City Council was unable to find after two visits has been located.
“Well, they didn’t look very hard,’’ Asbestos Related Disease Support Society Queensland vice-president Andrew Ramsay said.
He visited the site adjacent to a former asbestos factory in northside Gaythorne with society general manager Amanda Richards and they were shocked by the contaminated debris falling from the creek bank and scattered around the surrounding parkland.
“It’s pretty scary really,’’ Ms Richards said. “The risk of exposure for people from here is huge.’’
Tests commissioned by The Courier-Mail last week on samples of broken cement sheets confirmed they contained white, brown and blue asbestos – the most deadly type.
“If it was a workplace, it would be closed down,’’ Ms Richards said, adding that she would contact Workplace Health and Safety officials.
Ms Richards and Mr Ramsay said the area should be immediately closed to public access and warning signs erected. “You can see truckloads of asbestos have been dumped here.’’
The waste came from the Wunderlich “Durabestos’’ fibre cement factory which operated from 1937 to 1983.
Andrew Ramsay at the creek in Bellevue Ave: “Well, they (council) didn’t look very hard.” Picture: Annette Dew
Last week, after being notified of the test results, council field service chairman David McLachlan said they were aware of the site’s history and knew that pieces of asbestos sometimes worked their way to the surface, but a check by council officials had been unable to identify any material which might contain asbestos.
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However a council spokeswoman said they had still failed to find the material after a second visit last week.
After a meeting with the independent expert who conducted the tests at the creek yesterday, Mr McLachlan said material “suspected to be asbestos” had been found on the council land after being exposed by erosion.
“Council has taken immediate action to secure this area so the materials can be removed by asbestos removal contractors at the next available opportunity,” he said.
Asbestos auditors Mark and Tom Rentoul find asbestos debris along a creek that bisects Bellevue Avenue near the old Wunderlich asbestos factory. Picture: Claudia Baxter
He said there was also asbestos material identified on several private properties and property owners were being contacted.
Queensland Government health protection unit executive director Sophie Dwyer, who wants the site made safe, said she would send her own representative to examine the site.
Ms Dwyer is heading an inter-agency panel investigating the rates of asbestos-linked deaths and illnesses among residents in areas around the old Wunderlich plant and a former James Hardie factory in Newstead.
Community forums will be held this week to update the public on the probe, answer questions and gather information.
Other tests, commissioned by this newspaper, found five out of six houses near the Gaythorne factory have asbestos dust contamination in the roof spaces.
Long-time residents and former residents remember clouds of dust from the plant cloaking houses over the decades it was in use and children playing in piles of waste and with scrap materials taken from the factory.
The forums will be held at the Gaythorne RSL at 7pm tonight and the Waterloo Hotel, Fortitude Valley, at 4pm tomorrow.
Dozens of people have rung the Queensland Health hotline 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84) about the issue.
The old Wunderlich asbestos factory. Picture: Darren England Source: News Corp Australia