Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Wastewater management

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (19:26): (1471) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Water, and it concerns 11 Barbara Avenue in the Ashwood electorate, in Glen Iris specifically, and it relates to the sewage spills that occurred there on 25 November in 2024. I quote from one my constituents:

… raw sewerage spilling out of a drain inspection point at the side of the house on 11 Barbara Ave, Glen Iris. The sewerage ran alongside the house, partly under the house, onto the front lawn and then onto Barbara Ave and downhill along the whole street towards Beryls St.

Then it falls away steeply to the west towards Beryl Street. So the liquids ran along the whole length of the street. The sewage spillage had nothing to do with the family in question. The sewage continued to spill until the afternoon of 28 November. There was no attempt by Yarra Valley Water to clean up the spillage, and there was a second spillage between 6 and 7 December 2024. It says in the notes that I have been provided that a second raw sewage spillage occurred, and again, there was no immediate attempt to clear this up. Then a third raw sewage spill occurred on 15 December.

I mean, this is a Third World status approach. This is actually something that should not be occurring in this way. Yarra Valley Water, the family say, failed to provide sewerage services to residents on three occasions lasting almost two days and nights and then almost 24 hours on the second time and several hours on the third occasion. The first spillage continued for quite some time and was apparently caused by a construction blockage of a sewer on Toorak Road. The second and third occurred because Yarra Valley Water failed to implement effective measures to prevent the spillage reoccurring. There appears to be a faulty sewerage plant. I might add this is the sort of area where we are going to see six storeys and other massive growth in these areas with the planning changes. There is clearly a public health danger, and Bojan Pajic and Gary Sayer are the family in question. What I seek from the minister is an investigation into why Melbourne Water has so comprehensively failed to deal with this issue, and there is clearly a public health issue. Our sewers are often old and not able to cope, and yet the government wants to put thousands of new houses in these areas without any upgraded facilities.