The Newport Lakes parkrun has had to cancel its 8th birthday celebrations this weekend after the discovery of asbestos in the reserve.
Event director Tim Binstead said this Saturday’s anniversary parkrun event was abruptly cancelled on Thursday afternoon after Hobsons Bay council erected barriers around a section of the park where material containing asbestos had earlier been detected.
“After discussions with the Hobson Bay council today (Friday, August 22), they said they’re working with their environmental consultants to best manage the situation and are hopeful the barriers will only be temporary and could be removed as early as next week sometime which would be great,” said Mr Binstead, who added that the only other time they’d had to cancel the parkrun since starting it in 2017, was during Covid.
While initially reported to have been found in the arboretum section of the reserve, Hobsons Bay council said the asbestos containing material was actually uncovered in a garden bed on the north-western lawn.
“The product identified is non-friable asbestos, which the specialist has assessed as low risk to human health,” said a spokesperson for Hobsons Bay council.
“Clean-up works are planned to be completed by mid-next week.”
Hobsons Bay council was alerted to the discovery of asbestos at Newport Lakes Reserve by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) which said it became aware of possible contamination there earlier this month.
“As council is the relevant authority in these circumstances, we contacted them and they took quick action to isolate the identified area, and as a further precaution, an area surrounding it,” said an EPA spokesperson in a statement.
Newport Lakes Reserve was one of the 14 reserves, parks and playgrounds across Hobsons Bay that were found to have been contaminated with asbestos early last year.
The EPA spokesperson said early indications were that this latest discovery wasn’t linked to those cases in April 2024 where traces of asbestos where found in mulch.
“Council investigations show the asbestos does not appear to have been introduced to the site in a recycled product like mulch or other material, and the risk to human health is low.”
