Locals in Kalgoorlie are demanding action to stop rogue truck drivers, many of them foreign “sham contractors”, from using the outback town as a dumping ground.
Residents have reported hundreds of abandoned rigs and trailers clogging up parking bays and areas around service stations on the Goldfields Highway, and say drivers are illegally dumping tyres and oil all over the Western Australian town.
Some locals told Noticer News that foreign drivers, mainly from India, were largely responsible for the dumping plague, while Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said “sham contracting” was to blame for illegal tyre dumping and improper use of rest areas.
Sham contracting refers to a now-common but illegal practice where transport companies avoid paying employee entitlements by hiring drivers – often immigrants on students visas – on individual business numbers even though they don’t own and operate their own vehicles.
“This is a national problem. Broadly, it’s referred to as sham contracting,” Mr Dumesny told ABC News.
“This is a tight margin industry, in some cases 3 to 5%. What you’re seeing in places like Kalgoorlie and Geraldton, to get their costs down, operators are using the rest areas as depots so they don’t have to lease a facility.
“They’ve got no legal compliance, disposal of oil and tyres, so all of these things are going on and it’s a complete misuse of the rest areas.”
Geraldton driver Warren Blow also blamed sham contractors and said the situation was “pretty bad”, with “bays being used as depots and service facilities”.
“They’re always full and so guys can’t use them for a fatigue stop. It’s really dangerous,” he said.
West Kalgoorlie-based heavy haulage contractor Jayson Penn accused authorities of “turning a blind eye” to the issue, and said his drivers were unable to take fatigue breaks because every truck bay within 40km was taken up, and said he saw many unregistered or unroadworthy trailers and road trains.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation told the Kalgoorlie Miner it was investigating the reports.
“The Department has authority . . . to investigate and take action on the unlawful storage and disposal of used tyres, and while abandoned vehicles are generally managed by other agencies, they may be investigated as dumped waste,” a spokesperson said.
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder acting chief executive Mal Osbourne said council was working with police and state government bodies to deal with the problem.
Rangers and community safety staff monitor and enforce compliance through warnings and infringements in relation to heavy vehicle parking, roadside trailer storage and verge issues. Where permissible, vehicles can be towed,” he said.
“Responsibility for heavy vehicle maintenance and roadworthiness lies with the State Government.
“The city shares concerns about improper disposal of vehicle-related waste. We accept tyres at the Yarri Road Refuse Facility and offer convenient reporting of issues via the Snap, Send, Solve, platform or referring matters to environmental agencies.”
The complaints come after the National Road Freight Transport Association late last called on the federal government to crack down on sham contracting, saying it was compromising road safety.
Western Australian drivers are also leaving the industry due to unsafe driving conditions they blame on unqualified foreign drivers, while there have been nationwide calls for licencing reforms to keep immigrants with insufficient driving experience off the roads.
Last year industry insiders highlighted growing concerns about overseas drivers, mainly from India, causing chaos on Australian roads, while hundreds of Indian drivers had their licences revoked in New Zealand amid a crackdown on false or altered documentation used during overseas permit conversions.
Header image: Trucks dumped in the area (supplied).
