General News
17 February, 2026
Former depot sites for sale
Two Hopetoun properties will soon be on the market, but with a condition: they will be offered for sale for commercial use only.
Funds acquired from the sale are to be used for future investment in Hopetoun-specific projects.
The 92 Cummings Street site was the former council depot yard for the Hopetoun operations team, before a new depot was built at 78 Hopetoun-Aerodrome Road, Hopetoun in 2014.
As a former council depot site, Western Victoria Soil Testing conducted a soil contamination assessment.
The National Environment Protection Measures (NEMP) health-based investigations (HIL) level assessment identified that the site is deemed to conform to Category D (commercial/industrial use), the least hazardous contaminated soil class.
Category D soil is classified as reportable waste, and the soil must be tested and disposed of at landfills authorised to receive it.
When reviewing the chemical findings in relation to the site’s usage, none of the samples were found to exhibit concentrations exceeding the permissible NEMP HIL-D health limits.
The second site at 74–76 Cummings Street, Hopetoun, was the former Telecom yard, which the council acquired around 1985.
It generally used this site for the storage of bitumen emulsion and road sealing stone, of which the tank and stone storage have been moved to the old Iluka storage facility on the Hopetoun West road.
As the Cummings Street site is a former council depot, a soil contamination assessment was undertaken.
When reviewing the chemical findings in relation to the site’s usage, none of the samples were found to exhibit concentrations exceeding the permissible NEPM HIL-D health limits.
To mitigate the risk of the sites being utilised for anything other than commercial and Industrial use, it is recommended that the council enact a Section 173 Agreement on the sites as a condition of sale to impose such an obligation on purchasers.
Section 173 requires the council to obtain an agreement from the purchaser that, in developing the land, it would be for the intended purpose and use only.
This has the advantage of imposing positive enforceable covenants on the purchaser, which are recorded on the title and attached to the land.
Those obligations are binding upon any successor in title of the purchaser.
They would include not using the land for any purpose other than the intended one without the council’s consent.
In conducting a comprehensive review of its Long Term Financial Plan, Yarriambiack Shire Council determined that the council must reduce expenditure and, where feasible, divert surplus assets.
The sale of the two sites was deemed surplus to the council's needs.
Councillors endorsed the Long Term Financial Plan on October 29, 2025, and subsequently released it for community consultation.
The council sought endorsement to sell the land and former depots, following community consultation in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government Act 2020.
A property valuation found the market value for 92 Cummings Street was $140,000, and the market value for 74-76 Cummings Street was $40,000, excluding GST and subject to vacant possession.