Asbestos fears for power station site

ASBESTOS concerns have emerged over a derelict North Geelong power station flagged as a possible marine storage site.
The abandoned plant – host to graffiti featuring Nazi slogans, violence and sexual images amid shattered glass and sharp twisted metal – is unsecured and ignored by authorities.
The family of a former power station worker, Murray Sunderland, added further question marks over the site this week when they said he died of asbestosis in the 1980s.
They believed that up to four other workers also died of asbestosis after being exposure to fibres while working on pipe systems at the plant.
Gordon Sunderland said his brother worked at the plant replacing hot water pipes insulated with a substance he believed to have contained asbestos.
“They couldn’t align it directly because my brother was a smoker, so there was no comeback, but a couple of other guys passed away from the same disease, asbestosis,” Mr Sunderland told the Independent.
Cousin Geoff Anderson raised concerns the plant might still be riddled with asbestos.
Any potential development would need check carefully with the potentially deadly material, he said.
Security fencing around the power station has been torn down and metal security grids around the building cut apart, while unsecured holes inside pose danger for the unwary.
The facility operated between 1954 and 1970 as the largest steam power station in provincial Victoria after Yallourn.
Geelong councillor Eddy Kontelj recently revealed talks between City Hall and an unnamed party about a dry-storage facility for marine craft.