Stawell is renowned for hosting the richest foot race in Australia, but now it also has the contentious title of being home to what is possibly the largest tyre dump in the country.
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An estimated nine million tyres litter the site in Horsham Road and now Northern Grampians Shire Council, the state government and environmental authorities have joined forces to ensure their long-awaited removal.
Motorway Tyres shut in 2008, leaving a mound of tyres that has only grown in the last five years thanks to illegal dumping at the site.
Northern Grampians Shire Council Mayor, Cr Wayne Rice has confirmed council is close to a resolution that would see the safe and suitable removal of the tyres early next year.
"This is something we have been well aware of for a number of years and it is going to cost $3 million to remove the tyres and we don't want that cost to fall on to the ratepayers," he said.
Cr Rice has had discussions with several state government ministers including Hugh Delahunty, David Hodgett and Nick Kotsiras about the best way to deal with the dumping ground.
For its part a state government spokesperson said it takes stockpiling of tyres very seriously and is working with Victorian agencies to address some of the gaps.
"To ensure strong and sustainable compliance and enforcement, the existing regulatory regime is being reviewed to decide the best possible regulatory options for dealing with stockpiling.
"Across the environmental portfolio work is underway to support the end of life tyre market. The Victorian Government's intention is to ensure that Victoria develops viable markets to recover and process tyres."
One of the markets could well be established in Stawell with manufacturing company Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) on the cusp of gaining approval to build a plant adjacent to the current site.
Chief executive Craig Dunn said his company has been in consultation with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and council about constructing a plant in Stawell.
He said GDT has secured land adjacent to the site of the Horsham Road stockpile.
"We are interested in recycling those tyres and with some form of assistance we have the technology to be able to turn the rubber into carbon, oil and steel," he said.
The establishment of the plant would be the first of its kind in Victoria and could act as the central processing plant for the disposal of tyres from across the region.
"We are confident once in operation we would have enough demand to make the plant commercially viable beyond the full removal of the tyres in Stawell.
"Council have been more than helpful and supportive to make the whole project work."
The business would employ nine to ten staff and create ancillary services in the town. Mr Dunn said it would take four - five years alone to remove the large amount of tyres built up in Stawell.
GDT is a green technology company based in Melbourne. GDT has developed a proprietary destructive distillation technology which is capable of recycling end of life car and truck tyres into saleable commodities of carbon, oil and steel.
The GDT technology is known as "Destructive Distillation" and uses controlled heat to reduce whole tyres to their constituent elements which then reform into oils which are distilled and collected.
The process is entirely emission free.
A commercial scale plant consists of six modules comprising two processing tubes and all the ancillary equipment and is capable of processing 19,000 tonnes of tyres per year. This represents approximately three percent of the tyres produced in Australia annually.
The GDT process is currently the only process available in Australia that remanufactures the rubber content of the tyres into a different energy form. Other processes merely change the shape and/or appearance of the rubber.
Northern Grampians Shire Council Director Marketing and Community Jim Nolan said the extent of the stockpile may have come as a surprise to many, but residents shouldn't be alarmed.
"Anyone who may find that it is a bit bigger than they thought should be reassured by the fact council is very conscious of finding a long term solution to dealing with the stockpile."
EPA Victoria's Senior Media Advisor Tanya O'Shea said the Stawell problem is representative of a tyre stockpiling issue that has become big state-wide.
"Victoria does not regulate tyre storage facilities via its environmental licensing system. However, tyre stockpiling is a big problem in Victoria," she said.
"Operators engaging in stockpiling are receiving an unfair market advantage through avoiding the true cost of tyre management.
"We've got joint inspections with fire services to deal with potentially high-risk sites. The sweep will include fire services and other authorities and is imminent."
Cr Rice said on the back of its positive negotiations it had been able to assist the Moira Shire Council to deal with a large tyre pile of its own that recently caught fire creating additional problems.
Problems this council, the state government and environmental authorities are all keen to avoid happening in Stawell.
