1 hour ago
1
For the first Christmas in three years, the residents at Techno Park Drive don’t have the threat of eviction looming over them.
In a final victory against Hobsons Bay City Council, the tight-knit Williamstown community at the storied estate have won the permanent legal right to remain in their homes.
Residents of Techno Park Drive in Williamstown celebrate being permanently saved from eviction.Credit: Jason South
The council confirmed the final approvals for “existing use rights” for two remaining residential blocks on Monday, officially ending a harrowing, 2½-year mass eviction battle first publicised by The Age.
Up to 100 people – including working families, refugees and elderly residents – faced displacement after the council abruptly enforced a 37-year-old industrial zoning rule in May 2023. The estate, which includes several apartment blocks built after World War II, sits adjacent to an ExxonMobil fuel storage site.
Loading
Resident organiser Lara Week described the final approval as “gobsmacking” and a “huge relief”.
“It’s taken an enormous toll on people’s lives,” Week said. “But actually working together in this way … has been such a gift. We have these incredible, deep, trusting relationships between people ... I couldn’t imagine anywhere better to live now.”
After a major community campaign to ‘Save Techno Park’, the Allan government quietly introduced a new state planning law in February 2024 which explicitly provided “existing use rights” to properties that had functioned as homes for a continuous 15-year period – undermining the council’s plans.
But residents from each unit still had to provide evidence of continuous use to be finally granted the certificate of compliance – a process which reached completion on Monday.
FOI documents revealed the council had devised a secretive enforcement campaign dubbed “Operation Pegasus” – after Mobil’s logo – and sought to “effectively extinguish” the residents’ legal claims, knowing the action would displace at least 50 people, including children.
“The council said that they were obliged to evict everyone, and we found out quickly that that wasn’t true,” Week said.
Asked about the cost and political decision to proceed with enforcement, a council spokesperson said it was acting on “planning requirements as they existed at the time” and that its administrative duty is “accommodated for within its annual budget”.
Week noted that the fuel tanks originally cited by the council as the primary safety risk were all but empty when the eviction campaign began. “Right now, they’ve been demolishing them … and have said that they’re never using that land for fuel storage again,” she said.
Mobil issued a brief statement saying it would “work with the relevant regulators to update our Safety Case and management processes” to reflect the “actual” usage of the land.
Councillor Daria Kellander, a long-time supporter of the residents, celebrated the news, posting on social media: “After being made to feel like a criminal just for standing up for these guys … this moment means the world to me. I’m proud of the residents, proud of the fight, and so grateful we finally got here.”
Techno Park residents will now hold a celebration and dedicate efforts to supporting residents of two nearby public housing towers in Williamstown due for demolition.
Week said the lesson from the ordeal was “what is possible when people stand up for one another ... and say, ‘No, we won’t accept decisions from our governments that harm people’.”
She credited the success to community support, noting that apart from Kellander, “all these elected people we approached said there was nothing that they could do”.
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has been approached for comment.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Most Viewed in Politics
Loading
