This was what was reported on the front page of The Canberra Times on this day in 1990. A spill of potentially explosive and toxic chemicals on Newcastle Street, Fyshwick, exposed serious deficiencies in ACT legislation and procedures for dealing with the carriage of dangerous chemicals.

It took two hours for the ACT Fire Brigade to identify the chemicals concerned and to get advice on how to dispose of them. The spill occurred when five drums rolled off the back of a semi-trailer as it was turning into Newcastle Street from Gladstone Street.

Buildings, including those of The Canberra Times and the ANZ Bank were evacuated.

The ACT Fire Brigade found that one of the chemicals was sodium nitrate. The chemical causes respiratory problems if inhaled and can irritate the skin and eyes.

Finding out the chemical composition of the contents of the other containers proved difficult. The drums were labelled with "hazchem" and UN numbers.

However, neither of those two systems provided the accurate chemical breakdown of the contents of the hazardous chemicals.

See https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120884537