A council spokesman said the Killarney waste facility at Badhams Lane was too small to accept the rubbish from the former tip and it would have to freighted to the regional waste facility at Naroghid. 

In explaining the council’s $34 million estimated cost to remove the rubbish, a spokesman said if the rubbish was found to be six metres deep, it would cost $19.5 million in gate fees alone to dump at Naroghid, 90 kilometres away.

If the amount of waste was four metres deep, the gate fees would be nearly $13 million and the overall cost close to $23 million, the spokesman said.

Moyne Shire’s regulatory and environmental services manager Robert Gibson said the tip contained about 20 years of accumulated household rubbish. 

Mr Gibson last week estimated the former tip was three hectares in size, with a surface area of about 30,000 square metres.

Based on a depth of rubbish of six metres, other costs included $840,000 for excavation, $1,890,000 for transport to Naroghid, $5,670,000 for sand to backfill the excavation site and $588,000 to revegetate and cap the site.

For four metres of waste, the estimated excavation cost is $560,000, transport $1,260,000, sand backfill $3,780,000 and site revegetation and capping $392,000. 

The council has made no commitment to shifting the rubbish from the former municipal tip but last week made known the $30 million estimate for its removal following calls from community members for the rubbish to be transported elsewhere.

The calls follow the recent spread of rubbish from the old tip on to East Beach and into the Southern Ocean after heavy seas eroded the tip’s sea frontage sand dunes.

In a bid to reduce the erosion, the council this month extended a rock sea wall in front of the affected area by 125 metres to make it 280 metres in length.

However, Port Fairy residents Ian Sutherland and Don Stewart both said the sea wall was unlikely to be a long-term solution and the rubbish would have to be eventually removed.