3 April 2025 · Australian News · Uncategorized
There’s something rotten in Hampton Park, and it’s not just the landfill.
The proposed waste transfer station at 290 Hallam Road is shaping up to be one of the most controversial planning decisions Casey has seen in years. For good reason too. This isn’t just a matter of logistics and infrastructure. It’s about people, power, and the stench of backroom decisions rubber-stamped before elected councillors could even weigh in.
This new waste hub, courtesy of Veolia, is slated to handle over 550,000 tonnes of putrescible and inert waste every year, just a few hundred metres from homes, families, and schools. That’s not just inconsiderate. It’s negligent.
The City of Casey approved the planning permit under delegation. This means no community consultation, no council vote, and no transparency. Residents were left in the dark, and when they finally caught wind of the project, more than 1,400 of them signed a petition demanding it be scrapped.
Let’s be clear: this is not a case of a community opposing progress. It’s a case of progress bulldozing the community.
The EPA, meanwhile, continues its development licence assessment. But let’s not pretend this is a clean slate. Veolia, the same company pushing this project, is under active civil litigation by the EPA for mismanagement at the very same site. That alone should raise red flags. Yet here we are, hurtling toward approval like it’s just another day in the bureaucracy.
In August last year, the EPA updated its own separation guidelines, now recommending a 500-metre buffer for odour-generating facilities. This proposal falls well short. Veolia, instead of adjusting the plan, submitted a “risk assessment” to argue they’ll contain the smell.
Forgive the residents if they’re not reassured. After all, this isn’t their first rodeo with landfill odour, truck traffic, and dust blowing across their back fences.
And now, there’s another layer of risk that no amount of risk assessments can deodorise: lithium-ion battery fires. These batteries, found in everything from phones to power tools, are increasingly responsible for devastating fires in transfer stations. One slip-up, one overlooked battery, and we’re talking about chemical firestorms meters away from residential streets. But hey, that’s a risk the community’s supposed to live with, right?
Here’s the part the State Government doesn’t want to talk about: responsible waste solutions already exist, and they’re operating without the fanfare or fallout.
Services like Perfect Bin Hire offer skip hire and waste collection across Melbourne with far less environmental and social cost, and without shoving industrial infrastructure in the faces of local families. Residents aren’t rejecting the need for waste management. They’re rejecting bad planning and zero accountability.
The people of Hampton Park are tired. Tired of being ignored. Tired of bearing the brunt of decisions made behind closed doors. Tired of being treated like the dumping ground of metropolitan Melbourne.
Casey councillors, to their credit, are now pushing back. They’re calling for the Planning Minister to intervene and for the EPA to actually meet with residents before rubber-stamping anything. But the question remains: why was this allowed to get so far in the first place?
If the EPA wants to prove it serves the public, not just the process, it needs to shut this proposal down. It needs to send a message, not just to Veolia, but to every developer who thinks they can get away with cutting corners while people’s health and homes hang in the balance.
Until then, this community will keep fighting. Loudly. And unapologetically.
Because if you won’t protect your own neighbourhood from becoming a toxic wasteland, who will?