Raised levels of arsenic and the pesticide dieldrin have been found at the Tuggeranong Homestead site warranting further testing, the ACT Government has announced.
The Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, said tests had been carried out near the sheep-dip area, which was part of the homestead site, but not in the parcels on which development was proposed.
However, Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead member Rebecca Lamb said yesterday that the dip site was uphill from one of the parcels and that arsenic travels with water. She asked whether a clean up would cost more than the redevelopment was worth. She called for the release of detailed results. Freshly dipped sheep would have contaminated the whole 31-hectare site, she said.
Mr Wood said the initial results indicated the contamination was highly localised. He would do whatever necessary under the guidelines set down by the Australian ad New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council to make the site safe.
The levels in the initial test “”were such that further investigation was warranted.”
The site has been the subject of heated debate on heritage and environmental grounds. Charles Bean moved to the homestead in 1919 and wrote the Anzac volumes of the Official History of the Great War there.
The site bounded by Johnson and Ashley Drives and Tuggeranong Creek, has been divided by the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee into four bits: one for 150 houses along Johnson Drive, one for 100 houses in the north-west corner, an entertainment-leisure-accommodation zone which includes the homestead and half the total land and an area of urban open space.
Bill Wood said the Government was allowing residential on the site to generate funds to ensure the homestead was restored. Critics say the heritage value of the Homestead will be compromised by the suburban encroachment.