By Violet Li
The maintenance of a Casey Council property in Tooradin is causing fire hazards and ecological concerns, locals say, as the rear of the property has been overgrown with thick vegetation.
Located at 56-58 South Gippsland Highway, the approximately one-acre block of land is nestled between Tooradin Recreation Reserve and residential areas, including basketball courts.
Edward Owen, who owns one of the houses next door, has long been worried about the lack of maintenance of the rear of the land before he eventually wrote a complaint letter to Casey Council in October stating his concerns.
“The rear of [the] council property is overgrown with thick vegetation, including dead blackberries, tea trees, long grass, and reeds, which is a severe fire hazard, and it has developed into vermin harbourage for rats, snake infestation, mosquito breeding together with an accumulation of rubbish and paper,” he wrote.
“Rubbish and stagnant water due to low-lying ground and poor drainage water is below the drainage pits due to adjacent land being filled over time.
“Cyclone wire fence is in poor condition, old rusty shipping container also creating harbourage for rats and snakes.”
Mr Owen said he had to hire a snake catcher last year in August after snakes had been seen on his property causing unease.
He noted that the potential risks from the land could harm the children who were always playing at the basketball courts only metres away.
He continued to point out the illegal burning of rubbish only metres from the long grass he had observed.
Casey Council forwarded Mr Owen’s complaint to the head of open space and city greening to follow up, who called him nearly 10 days later saying they had cleaned up the rubbish.
Mr Owen said he could still see rubbish around the site, and he was disappointed that the council did not hand him over to the fire department.
“They may just clean up once,” he said.
“They’re going their own way. They’re not coordinating with the fire officers. They’re not coordinating with the engineer.
“It’s a fire hazard. The whole of this is a fire hazard. If someone throws a match here, and a bit of wind would get the fire going. It would take all those houses there.”
At the time of visiting by Star News on Wednesday 28 February, the rear of the property was still covered with thick vegetation and rubbish was visible. A burnt log was also present next to the land.
Casey manager infrastructure and open space Mardi Cuthbert said an unfortunate oversight had resulted in the site not being included in the council’s regular maintenance schedule, and as such it had not been regularly maintained.
“Our bushland team has now attended to the grass and blackberries at the site. We are also in the process of establishing a long-term maintenance and service plan that meets our open space standards,” she said.
“The City of Casey endeavours to maintain all of our open spaces in line with our emergency and fire prevention standards, however without reviewing the specific request, we cannot comment on who or why it wasn’t referred to the emergency management team.”
