THE Minim Cove development and the East Perth Gasworks stand out as the State’s highest profile contamination locations of recent times – due to their massive clean-up costs and high level of public awareness.
Today, the exclusive properties of Minim Cove in Mosman Park and those of East Perth provide a stark contrast to the land’s earlier appearance.
In both cases the State Government paid the clean-up bill for the Swan River sites. About $17.5 million was spent in the case of the East Perth Gasworks and $16 million for Minim Cove.
Minim Cove was a joint venture between the WA Government’s LandCorp and private developer Octennial Holdings. They were confronted with a massive clean-up of mercury and heavy metals from the site, which was home to the former State Engineering and CSBP fertiliser manufacturing sites, in use between 1910 and 1969.
Removal of the contaminated soil was a contentious issue for those living in Mosman Park. In 1996 LandCorp announced that it would store much of the 242,000 cubic metres of material in a limestone pit at the McCabe Street housing development. By mid 1997 the Environmental Protection Authority had decided to remove the soil from the urban area.
Today, around 160 lots have been created while one-third of the 14-hectare site has been developed into open space.
In East Perth, one of the few remaining sites betraying the industrial past for the area is the old power station. BGC is understood to have registered an interest in turning the site into a concrete batching plant.
The cost of restoring and maintaining the building has been put at $15 million.
Scitech Discovery Centre has also been put forward as having an interest in using part of the power station site.
WA Planning and Infrastructure Minister, Alannah MacTiernan has been chairing a committee since August 2001, which is considering the future of the power site.
