IN a major political intervention, the NSW government is set to compulsorily acquire the former Pasminco smelter land still in the hands of the company's administrator, Ferrier Hodgson.
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The decision, announced in parliament on Tuesday by the Coalition's Property Minister, Melinda Pavey, follows the recent failures of three big deals on the site.
READ MORE: The full story by Max McKinney & Donna Page
Swedish multinational IKEA, major US retailer Costco and Sydney developer Green Capital Group had all been negotiating with Ferrier's over Boolaroo property purchases, but none was able to reach agreement.
Ferrier's became Pasminco's administrator in 2001 and the smelter was shut 16 years ago next month, in September 2003.
It took a decade for the land to be remediated for re-use, but beyond a Bunnings store and the small, 70-lot Bunderra housing estate, the site stands largely empty.
A century of operation left the smelter site heavily polluted.
Top soil was scraped away and replaced, and almost 2 million cubic metres of contaminated material buried in a lined cell covering 20 hectares of the original 191-hectare site.
The government's purchase will end an impasse between Ferriers and the Department of Planning over a trust fund the department had wanted, to cover the costs of maintaining the cell.
The government's Waste Assets Management Corporation will be responsible for environmental matters - regulated by the EPA - while the land sales will be handled by the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation.
The corporation is experienced at selling surplus - and often contaminated - government land, and should be able to accelerate development at Boolaroo.
This, in turn, could revive support for the road bridge over the nearby railway line at the heart of the Lake Macquarie Transport Interchange.
While yesterday's announcement does not solve the problem of surrounding household contamination and the costs being borne by private property owners, it does show the government has been listening to the lobbying effort led by Lake Macquarie Independent MP Greg Piper.
Proper remediation of household land must remain the ultimate goal, but the government's purchase should signal real progress in a saga that has taken far too long to conclude.
A revitalised Boolaroo site would be in contrast to the BHP steelworks land, now an under-used legacy of our industrial past.
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