The Victorian Government's announcement in 1997 that the Coode Island Chemical storage facility would not be relocated left residents and environment groups in Melbourne's inner west shocked and angry. The decision was based on the Government finding that Point Lillias was unsuitable as a site for relocation and a new Workcover report saying that Coode Island is now safe.
The 1991 fires at Coode sent a plume of toxic smoke over the city and southern suburbs, ironically not Melbourne's west where the facility is located. Following the fires both sides of Government agreed that Coode Island must be relocated. Before the state election in 1992 Jeff Kennett promised that Coode would be gone within six months of his party winning office. The State Government's about face makes a mockery of these earlier promises and their statements that Coode's location was totally unacceptable to the people of Melbourne due to safety issues.
The Government's decision came after a three year study that investigated the environmental impacts of relocating Coode Island to Point Lillias. This site however had already been deemed unsuitable by the Coode Island Review Panel in 1992 because of its RAMSAR (international treaty on migratory birds) protected wetlands, lack of an existing port facility, close proximity to Avalon Airport, important aboriginal heritage values and its provision of feeding grounds for the endangered orange bellied parrot.
HazMAG has been campaigning for Coode Island's relocation since before the 1991 fires. HAZMAG along with other major environment groups such as Environment Victoria, The Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth believe that West Point Wilson is still the only site that offers the least environmental impact for Coode's relocation.
This site however, which was earmarked for Coode's relocation, was given to the then Federal Labor Government as a site for a naval armaments complex in a deal done behind closed doors without any public input or consultation.
The State Government, in announcing its decision not to move Coode, said that its decision was in part due to Coode now being considered safe after a $19 million upgrade. However, the final report of the Coode Island Review Panel said that massive changes would be required to upgrade the site to make it conform to acceptable safety standards. The estimated cost of such an upgrade in 1992 was $120 million. The panel found that to fully achieve ideal buffers zones around the site the acquisition of a large number of houses and a hotel to the west of the site would be required. It also found that the number of workplaces to the north and west of the site would have to be controlled and kept to a minimum.
HAZMAG feels that this claim of Coode now being safe, after only $19 million being spent, very difficult to believe. Furthermore, the option of retaining Coode at its present site was not recommended by the Panel because of factors such as a lack of transport safety. It found that despite longer distances involved, sites at Point Wilson offered significantly lower transport risk than Coode Island. Currently many of the truck movements from Coode take place through residential streets of Footscray and Yarraville.
Concerns have also been raised in regard to fighting another fire at Coode. The road access to Coode Island is poor and the nearest fire station is at Droop street Footscray. The minimum time it would take for the MFB (Melbourne Fire Brigade) to arrive is 7.7 minutes on last estimates. Since 1991, staffing levels throughout the service have fallen by 329 of which 272 are fire service personnel, those charged with responding to an incident. The president of the United Firefighters Union, Peter Marshall, said at a press conference on the 4th of July 1997, that he had serious concerns as to whether the MFB could adequately respond to another fire at Coode Island.
HazMAG continues to campaign for relocation. The East Coast Armaments Complex proposed for Point Wilson has still not commenced construction as at June 1999. It is rumoured that the facility will not be constructed in Victoria and may not be needed if a naval armaments facility is constructed in southern NSW. HazMAG is waiting for confirmation on this suggestion from the Defence Department.
