Date of offence
Between 29 Aug 2014 and 29 Aug 2014
Type of offence

Contravene requirements of Clean Up Notice at Campbellfield on 29.08.2014, contrary to s.62A(3).

Background of offence

The company’s premises at 29-31 Halley Crescent, Campbellfield is not licensed to accept industrial waste of any kind, however EPA started receiving complaints in March 2014 that stockpiles of fill material at the site had the potential to contaminate adjoining wetlands.

When EPA inspected the site in April 2014, it found two large piles containing industrial waste, such as timber, bricks, plastics, concrete and glass and that the stockpile was about 40 metres long, 15 metres wide and five metres tall.

EPA issued the company with a Clean-Up Notice requiring all industrial waste be removed from the site by 29 August 2014.

However, continued inspections at the site throughout the year found that no waste had been removed and that the stockpile had now stretched to 80 metres long.

Further inspections in February 2015 – ten months after the first visit - found that the waste stockpile had continued to grow and was now so large that it covered almost the entire site.

Remedial action taken by EPA
Clean Up Notice
Date of court hearing
8 June 2017
Date of court order
8 June 2017
Court magistrate
P S Dunn
Court location
Broadmeadows
Proceeding number
H10425451

Court orders made

With conviction, fined $15,000 and ordered pursuant to s.67AC:

  1. To carry out a specified project as detailed below for the restoration or enhancement of the environment in a public place or for a public benefit, by paying the total sum of $20,000.00 to the Merri Creek Management Committee (Merri).
  2. The payment must be used solely to carry out the following project:

Merri Creek – Upstream, Downstream: Pollution moves through the environment

Merri will deliver education and engagement activities to local communities in Campbellfield and Thomastown around Merri Creek (the Creek) on litter and waste issues.

They will provide local school and community groups with tours of the Creek catchment and then coordinate a learning exchange symposium about waste pollution and the protection of waterways.

They will also organise guided educational excursions of the Creek and a community event to clean up the Creek.

  1. Within thirty (30) days of making the payment of $20,000, the Accused must provide the Solicitor to the EPA with proof of the payment.
  2. The Accused is prohibited from referring to this payment without reference also being made to these proceedings.
  3. Pursuant to s 67AC(2)(a) of the Act, the Accused is ordered to publicise the offence, its consequences, and any penalties imposed or orders made by this Court by publishing a notice about these proceedings.
  4. The notice must contain the Accused’s and the EPA’s corporate logos and be:

(a)  In the wording specified in clause 8 below and must not be supplemented by additional text;

(b)  Published within 30 days of the date of this Court Order in the Editorial section or the front part of the Early General News section of the following newspapers:

(i)     The Hume Leader; and

(ii)    The Age or the Australian Financial Review.

(c)   of a minimum size of 12 cm by 3 columns; and

(d)  surrounded by a continuous black border.

  1. The Accused must provide the Solicitor to the EPA with a copy of each published notice within seven days of its publication.
  2. [The wording of the notice was specified].
Costs: $12,210.45

Reviewed 13 March 2020