Hume council has tracked down and prosecuted a Queensland company that dumped more than a tonne of waste at Craigieburn.
Council investigators spent four months tracing receipts and batch numbers on boxes, trawling through closed circuit footage and cold-calling a farmer in Queensland before they discovered the culprit behind one of the council’s worst cases of rubbish dumping.
The Queensland-based waste transporter GMG03 Haulage has been fined a total of $4750 for illegal dumping and was ordered by Broadmeadows Magistrates Court to pay $4548 in clean-up and legal costs.
Hume mayor Adem Atmaca said the council had been “relentless” in its investigations into the dumping of 1.23 tonnes of rubbish in Gasoline Way, Craigieburn on May 1 last year.
He said council offices sent to the site found six 1000-litre containers filled with a brown liquid, flattened cardboard boxes, a large hessian sack filled with more bags and a pile of solid waste.
Cr Atmaca said the case, held before the court on March 4, should send a clear message to anyone who thinks that they can travel up or down the Hume Freeway to dispose of rubbish.
“We have the ways and the means to investigate those who abandon rubbish in Hume, and this council will utilise covert and hi-tech methods to bring offenders to justice” he said. “Wilful dumpers ultimately cost our ratepayers money and we’ll act on behalf of our residents with rigour and determination.”
Cr Atmaca said discarded weighbridge receipts became a crucial piece of evidence in the council’s case, eventually proving that GMG03 Haulage’s driver had not emptied his full load at a quarry in Queensland.
“The rest of the waste ended up more than 1500 kilometres away in Craigieburn and the driver probably thought that would be the end of it,” Cr Atmaca said.
In the first three months of this year, council staff have retrieved 943 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish. A number of recently discarded items are under investigation, including items from a Chinese restaurant, molasses, dead animals, building materials and household furniture.
Rubbish dumpers face fines of $289 for small items and up to $6000 if the matter reaches court. Individuals who dispose of contaminated fill material, tyres, manufacturing, construction or demolition waste may be fined up to $610,700 or sentenced to seven years’ jail.
Corporations face fines of up to $1.2 million.
