Parkland for Box Hill — not 10-storey towers on contaminated land.

The Box Hill Brickworks site is seven hectares of state-significant land — making bricks since the late 1800s, contaminated by a century of industrial use, heritage-protected for the structures that survive. In October 2025, Whitehorse Council resolved to support public acquisition of the site. The state has not matched that resolution.

The current private redevelopment proposal would put thousands of new apartments across multiple 10-storey towers on that same contaminated ground — inside an SRL precinct where ministerial planning powers can override Council and community.

• Move on day one to put public acquisition of the Brickworks site on the Parliamentary record.
• Fund acquisition AND remediation as a state-led project, with Commonwealth co-funding sought.
• Commission a full feasibility and cost-benefit analysis of the parkland option, published in full.
• Independent contamination testing, fully published — before any zoning or sale decision proceeds.
• Heritage protection of the surviving brickworks structures locked in by statutory listing.

I am not making premature dollar commitments on behalf of the state. I am committing to ensure the parkland option is on the table, properly costed, with a published business case — so that the choice between towers and public open space is made in daylight, by people who have to live with it.

Once the towers go up, this conversation is over for the next century. We are not getting that land back. We are not un-pouring the foundations. We are not un-locking the contamination plume under a residential building.

Connected campaign: Accountable Development & Integrity →