The taskforce to oversee the investigation of asbestos-contaminated parks and gardens around Sydney is a welcome response to a serious problem.

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said contract tracing of the contaminated mulch was the taskforce’s No.1 priority to ensure public safety, but the government would consider new regulations to head off future incidents, including criminal sanctions.

“This is the largest investigation the Environment Protection Authority has undertaken in recent decades,” Sharpe said. “The complex criminal investigation involves multiple lines of inquiry. We should not be having asbestos in any of these products. It is illegal to do so.”

Liverpool West Public School was forced to close.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The discovery of contamination spread like wildfire across Sydney after asbestos was found in landscaping mulch brought in to beautify parkland built above the new Rozelle Interchange last month. The mulch was scattered in 10 areas of the parkland and nearby garden beds. Discovery of the potentially fatal substance was confirmed by Transport for NSW, and the Environmental Protection Authority started checking other sites.

More than 200 locations were tested, and in rapid succession, three sites along the Bankstown rail line were subsequently found to be contaminated, including a garden at the Telopea stop of the Parramatta Light Rail project. Asbestos was also discovered in recycled mulch in a garden bed at Liverpool West Public School on Sunday and Campbelltown Hospital on Monday as part of the EPA investigation. Some 22 sites were found to be contaminated. The EPA also found that potentially contaminated mulch made its way down the supply chain to private homes.

Following the initial Rozelle discovery, the City of Sydney was urged a month ago to test its 400 or so municipal parks for asbestos but declined to do so after being wrongly assured by a contractor that its mulch did not come from the affected supplier. Once the mistake was realised, the council tested Victoria Park at Broadway, Belmore Park near Central Station and Harmony Park. The subsequent discovery of asbestos led to the fencing off of several open spaces, including Victoria Park, resulting in the cancellation of this Sunday’s Fair Day, the opening event of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Testing in Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills and Pope Paul VI Reserve in Glebe did not detect any asbestos.

The EPA investigation had one big lead: The authority investigated multiple suppliers, but the company that supplied the mulch used at Rozelle, Greenlife Resource Recovery, has been linked to all 22 sites across Sydney found so far with asbestos-tainted mulch.