GASP, also known as Group for Action against Sewage Pollution, formed in Weston to campaign for action to curb the stench of the Weston Creek sewage treatment works, as reported on the front page of The Canberra Times, on this day 50 years ago.
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At the time, a gradual removal of the works was scheduled to begin in 1976 and due to be completed by 1981.
The president of GASP, Mr Frank Boddy said that the situation was intolerable.
Windows would have to be kept closed from dusk to dawn up to two weeks a month and all day up to three days a month.
"Removal of the treatment works should have preceded the development of Weston Creek, not the other way around. It is wrong to move people into a foul-smelling and unhealthy area and to auction land without warning about the stench," Mr Boddy said.
GASP would begin a campaign to warn people not to buy land in the area.
A petition was called for the works to be removed within three years instead of the 10, pointing out the ineffectiveness of previous efforts to quell the stench.
See https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110344669
