Charge 1: Did deposit industrial waste in contravention of the Environment Protection Act 1970, at Murchison from 01.04.2017 to 31.08.2017, contrary to s.27A(1)(a).

The company, South Coast Plant Hire Pty Ltd, and its Director, Benjamin Hobbs, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court over the dumping of more than 6000 tonnes of industrial waste near Murchison, in northern Victoria.

The company was fined $55,000, the Director was fined $12,500 and the Magistrate ordered that they pay $6,381.00 in costs to EPA, as well as publish the details of their offending in three newspapers.

In an investigation that began with a pollution report from the City of Greater Shepparton, the court heard that EPA officers, on foot and using an aerial drone, inspected a rural property at 310 Woolshed Road, Murchison. At the property they found dumped glass of various sizes mixed with other material such as plastics, mobile phone batteries, medicine vials and other industrial waste.