Inner Sydney park closed as dangerous friable asbestos found in garden bed mulch

Harmony Park in Surry Hills. The park will be closed after friable asbestos was found in mulch at the site. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

The New South Wales government plans to increase fines for “companies that do the wrong thing” after an inner city Sydney park was closed when friable asbestos was found in mulch at the site.

The premier, Chris Minns, said on Tuesday that the discovery of asbestos in parks, schools and hospitals over the past month was “completely unacceptable”.

“We cannot have a situation where major public facilities like this and schools and parks have asbestos in them,” he said. “The government is prepared to take action.”

The premier said the Environment Protection Authority was investigating supply chains and a potential mass recall of recycled mulch.

The City of Sydney on Monday night announced it had been contacted by the EPA last week and told its suppliers may have received contaminated mulch.

The council tested Victoria Park at Broadway, Belmore Park near Central Station, Harmony Park and Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills and Pope Paul VI Reserve in Glebe.

Friable asbestos was found in mulch at Harmony Park. People and dogs were seen walking at the park until 8.30am on Tuesday with no official indication that they should keep away. Temporary fencing was later installed around the park.

“This park will be fenced off and temporarily closed. Signs will be installed and the site cleaned,” a council spokesperson said.

Minns said councils and the EPA needed to be doing a better job communicating with each other.

“This is not about casting blame,” he said.

“This is about making sure that contact tracing continues. We can identify sites where asbestos might be found, we make sure that compliance action is taken against companies that are doing the wrong thing.”

Bonded asbestos, which poses a lower immediate danger, was found in mulch at Victoria and Belmore parks. Fences and signs will be installed around the affected areas while the material is cleaned up.

The mulch was used in garden beds and under trees, not in playgrounds, the council stressed.

Bonded asbestos is considered lower risk than friable asbestos because it is mixed with a hard material such as concrete so hazardous particles are less likely to become airborne.

“No asbestos has been detected at Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills or Pope Paul VI Reserve in Glebe,” the City of Sydney spokesperson said. “Testing will continue at other parks in our local area.”

The latest discoveries come after a primary school in Sydney’s south-west was shut and part of a hospital closed-off to the public after asbestos was found in garden mulch.

The EPA on Sunday confirmed the material had been found in mulch at Liverpool West public school, which was followed by the discovery of the contaminant in mulch at Campbelltown hospital on Monday.

The environmental watchdog said it identified the school as a priority site for testing after learning the mulch used there was supplied by Greenlife Resource Recovery – the same company that supplied mulch to Rozelle parklands.

The Minns government will look at increasing fines for operators and the EPA is investigating a potential mass recall of recycled mulch products with Fair Trading and the ACCC.

Minns said the EPA was also gearing up to defend orders it previously made against Greenlife.

“I want to make it clear the EPA will be defending their orders made against that company,” the premier said on Tuesday.

“We’re really concerned that that particular kind of [friable] asbestos, not the bonded asbestos, that kind of asbestos being found in a park in Sydney is deeply worrying.”

The discovery of bonded asbestos in the park on top of the Rozelle interchange in January prompted a broad investigation by the EPA and the NSW government, which has detected the contaminant at other sites across Sydney, as well as the south coast.