Aussie first home buyer's new suburban purchase turns into 'disgusting' nightmare
In Craigieburn, 25 kilometres north of Melbourne's CBD, rubbish has been piling up for months at a vacant lot next to a property recently purchased by new homeowner Alexandra.
She and her neighbours say the waste issue has become so bad it often overflows onto nearby nature strips and footpaths during high winds, becoming "quite dangerous" to both pedestrians and drivers. To make matters worse, the mess frequently attracts cats, crows and maggots with locals saying it has become a health hazard due to the presence of chemicals, pet waste and rotting food.
Alexandra says she has repeatedly pleaded with the Hume City Council to take action, but was initially told they were unable to do so because the rubbish is located on private property. The Melbourne woman said she was proud to have purchased in the area but now feels as though she can't have guests around due to the unsightly mountain of waste in the area.
"And now it's like, 'Oh yeah, come, come round, but let's just display this huge disgusting rubbish dump that I've got next door'," she told A Current Affair. "It's like a tornado of rubbish just getting blown around every day. Every single day, I see a new pile of rubbish. It's gotten to the point of squalor."
It's an issue Yahoo has reported on frequently in recent months. A Victoria Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesman confirmed earlier this year that the rate of illegal waste dumping has skyrocketed across the state – something that is being felt on new suburban outskirts.
While locals are frustrated in Craigieburn, it's certainly not the only region in Melbourne currently trying to combat the problem. On the outskirts of the city, where suburbia meets farmland, shocking images supplied to Yahoo in March show building waste, such as polystyrene and plastic sheeting, dumped in the environment alongside mattresses and household rubbish.
It costs the City of Melton —adjacent to the City of Hume — $2.3 million a year to rectify. In the Shire of Moorabool, Bacchus Marsh has also recently become a dumping ground. In the southeastern suburbs, Cardinia Shire is urgently asking residents to report any illegal dumping they see. Meanwhile in Bendigo, illegally dumped household waste has "turned once-pristine parks into unsightly wastelands".
In fact, illegal dumping has become an "all too familiar story" nationwide.
Danny Gorog, CEO and founder of Snap Send Solve, said the illegal act is more than just rubbish left in the wrong place; it signals a bigger issue with waste disposal accessibility and awareness.
Video captured trash-filled trucks emptying their loads onto private property in broad daylight in April, highlighting the brazen nature of the offenders. In Tarneit, in Melbourne's west, fields of waste stretch over acres of property. It's privately owned, but it resembles a council rubbish tip.
Gorog said whether it's dumped tyres in fields or household waste dumped in laneways, "it shows we need better solutions to make proper disposal easier" and more convenient.
As for Alexandra, she wants an immediate resolution.
"It really does need to be cleaned up," she said. "We have a lot of families in our neighbourhood, young children. We're worried about our health and our safety. It's disgusting and it's disappointing."
This week, the Deputy Mayor of Hume City Council, Naim Kurt, vowed to improve the clean-up effort and "prioritise" the Craigieburn location.
Photo exposes illegal act 'surging' across Australia
Confronting photos expose $2.3 million hidden reality
Sad reasons why 'disgusting' dumping is on the rise
"Nothing grinds our goat more than dumped rubbish, and we've had a huge war on waste that we've been conducting against those doing the wrong thing in our community," he told ACA. "I agree it's not good enough ... I've spoken with officers, and I want them to be getting on top of it."
Yahoo News Australia contacted Hume City Council for an update on the situation on Tuesday.
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