By Councillor Bernadette Thomas
Remember the Tottenham/West Footscray industrial fire in 2018? Who could forget the black plume of smoke that emanated from the site across multiple suburbs, the smell that lingered for days, and the impact on our beloved Stony Creek.
I’ve been thinking about air quality a lot lately – I live on a busy road which experiences heavy truck volumes each day – as I move about the municipality on foot or on my bike. Residents of the Inner West, including Maribyrnong, are exposed to high levels of air pollution, a ‘cocktail of pollutants’, from industrial processes and heavy vehicle transport. As a result, our community is at higher risk of physical, respiratory, and mental health impacts.
The Maribyrnong community has been advocating for change to air quality for decades – from the Coode Island Fire Reference Group, MTAG (Maribyrnong Truck Action Group), Save Willy Road, the Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance (ATWA), the Inner West Air Quality Reference Group, and the newly formed Air Quality Network. These groups work tirelessly advocating to Government – regulators and legislators – and industry, to introduce the changes we need to make our communities safer places to live and breathe. We also have local groups working on making our City greener – Friends of Stony Creek, Friends of Cruikshank Park, Friends of Newells Paddock, and the Friends of the Maribyrnong River Valley; a much needed antidote to our constant air quality issues.
Council has endorsed the Air Quality in Melbourne’s Inner West report produced by the Inner West Air Quality Reference Group, and is in the process of putting together its own Air Quality Improvement Plan ahead of a response from the State Government.
We are planning to release the draft document for community comment in 2022. Poor air quality affects us all – our students who walk to school and study along polluted transport corridors, walkers and bike riders, those living adjacent to industrial areas, and those who have experienced the effects of industrial fires. Please share your ideas and experiences with us next year so we can get this right.
