Places/beaconsfieldquarry.html
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Beaconsfield Quarry
All of the following text is from Delphine Jamet's streetkidindustries.com site. Go there for the photographs.
The old Beaconsfield Quarry has been abandoned and vacant since as long ago as 1990. Once a limestone quarry, mining stopped in 1978 and the 10.77ha site is now occasionally filled with the City of Fremantle’s rubble and industrial waste.
Surprisingly located in close proximity to houses, schools and a church, not much has changed since June 1990 when the Moltoni Corporation first lodged an application to redevelop the site over a 25-year period. They wanted to fill the land’s big hole with waste material, using a crushing and recycling plant that would be built onsite. In addition, a briquette manufacturing plant would also use organic waste for garden refuse. This would see bio-fuel products made from animal waste such as cow and horse manures as well as plants, as an alternative to non-renewable fossil fuels.
Public opposition was strong, as was the many issues raised by the Environmental Protection Authority. Excessive traffic to and from the site, noise generated from the filling and crushing operations, fill materials contaminating air and ground water supply, just to name a few, were expressed in opposition to the plans.
The development application was amended to a maximum seven year period, in lieu of the originally stated 25 year term. Plans for the briquette plant was scrapped, traffic was minimised and would avoid surrounding residential streets, a silenced loader would be utilised as part of operations with a solid fence to decrease noise pollution and areas that weren’t being actively filled would be filled with quick growing grass and regularly watered to maximise dust control.
At the end of the seven year period when the site was filled and level with the surrounding streets, a housing estate would be built on the site.
Moltoni Corporation
The Moltoni Corporation was established in 1975 with entity names of:
• The Trustee for Moltoni Family Trust (15 July 2008 – current)
• The Moltoni Family Trust (09 April 2000 – 15 July 2008)
Their business names have included:
• Fyansford Waste Disposal & Recycling Centre (26 September 2012 – 03 August 2014)
• Mainline Demolition (02 October 2008 – 16 August 2016)
• Fyansford Green (04 August 2008 – 20 January 2021)
• Salentina Ridge (10 February 2004 – 23 June 2018)
• Windshaker Ridge (21 February 2003 – 03 April 2006)
• Beaconridge Estate Development (24 January 2003 - 06 March 2006)
• Moltoni Environmental Solutions (09 April 2000 – 12 April 2004)
Trading names have included:
• Moltoni Corporation Pty Ltd (18 October 2000 – current)
• The Moltoni Family Trust (17 October 2000 – 18 October 2000)
• Character Brick Co (09 April 2000 – 17 October 2000)
• The Moltoni Family Trust (17 October 2000 – current)
• Character Brick Co (25 April 2000 – 17 October 2000)
With little education in how trading names works, it seems to me strange that The Moltoni Family Trust is listed as being registered for a day, although a second listing is also included in the Australian Business Register. The same can be said for Character Brick Co.
Moltoni Troubles
Whilst work had begun redeveloping a site known as Salentina Ridge, purchased from the City of Fremantle in 2001, Moltoni Corporation “went bust in 2011 under a sea of debt”. They were subsequently bought out by Ironbridge Property, owned by Bull Carmody, who was initially investigated after Consumer Protection received more than 33 formal complaints since 2009 for failing to deliver “incentive package obligations” at The Tuarts Estate. This related to house and land packages sold by Ironbridge Property but many home owners never had their promised fences and gardens installed. Whilst these contractual obligations had not yet been fulfilled, the Economics and Industry Standing Committee commented in an inquiry that “payments exceeding $1.8 million were made from the company… to satisfy the personal tax liabilities of the directors and their daughter”.
Peter Moltoni appears to have been a key player in the Moltoni Corporation, although to what extent it’s hard to know. An accountant who was described as being at the top of his profession with his own accounting firm M Squared & Associates, he was also the president of the Tax Institute.
He became involved with Pankaj Oswal’s (who was well known for the failed $70 million Taj on the Swan mansion) and Vikas Rambal’s $600 million Burrup Fertiliser ammonia plant on the North West Shelf. Despite a series of money laundering events with his contact (or friend) Michael Cahill, they blackmailed Oswal for $50 million). An audit by the Australian Tax Office resulted in Moltoni owing the ATO $33 million, soon followed with a filing of bankruptcy with debts exceeding $36 million.
Local Structure Plan
In October 2011, the City of Fremantle in joint collaboration with LandCorp, created a Local Structure Plan for the site. Comprised of three blocks of land, the City of Fremantle, Main Roads Western Australia and the Western Australian Planning Commission all owned a block each. It is difficult to determine when they came into possession of land.
I had a flick through the 32-page document looking for quick answers but everything seemed so long-winded, such as how many properties would be created in this development project. I couldn’t be bothered counting the blocks of land the amalgamation of the three properties would create, when I ran out of patience.
A further Structure Plan (2019), which appears to have been “approved,” mentions an estimated population of 935 people will be residing in this area covered by the Beaconsfield Quarry and I don’t bother wasting anymore time through yet another long-winded document, although I would imagine the key information would be easier to find if it is a final document, or at least close to it.
An article posted on Fremantle Herald Interactive website appears to suggest that the quarry development site has been incorporated into plans made for the Heart of Beaconsfield, without referring to that project name.
For now, the site pretty much looks the same as it has for the past 30 or 40 years.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 July, 2019 and hosted at freotopia.org/places/beaconsfieldquarry.html (it was last updated on 6 November, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.