Land co-owned by accused murderer Ron Medich has served as an illegal dumping ground for 65,000 tonnes of waste, some contaminated with asbestos.
Tenants of the once-wealthy property developer and his brother Roy added repeatedly to the dump at Badgerys Creek in Sydney's west since it was discovered in 2015, the Environmental Protection Authority found.
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Deadlines to introduce safety precautions and clear the site have been missed. When Fairfax Media accepted an invitation to visit on Sunday, a large mound bore a sign saying "Asbestos Keep Away" but the protective plastic sheeting had blown off.
Estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if rezoned, the land has split the brothers in an ongoing court case about the right to sell it. The 344-hectare block has also previously featured in corruption inquiries and as part of an alleged blackmail attempt on Mr Medich by the murdered businessman Michael McGurk.
Roy Medich was sitting in the NSW Supreme Court on April 13 when the jury in his brother's murder trial was dismissed, unable to decide if he had ordered the contract killing of Mr McGurk.
The Medich brothers split their property businesses after they sold the Leichhardt Norton Plaza shopping centre in 2007 for $112 million. However, they continue to share an interest in the rural property 1953-2109 Elizabeth Drive, which Roy has promoted as a potential "Green Business Park" with "no significant conservation issues".
In March 2015, EPA inspectors discovered more than 1000 cubic metres of waste on the site including road fill, concrete, crushed sandstone and soil.
Inspectors said they found much more waste including glass fines in August the same year, then more again that December, including several fragments confirmed as asbestos.
![An aerial shot of the dump site taken in December 2015.](/web/20170424055358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/q/m/h/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvpu9f.png/1492945006973.jpg)
The EPA said it was still investigating "potential non-compliances" but would not comment on how much waste had been cleared. Fairfax Media, not permitted to take photographs, observed a series of high mounds.
"I'm not talking about anything to do with anything," Ron Medich said.
![Ron Medich faces a possible retrial over the murder of Michael McGurk after a jury could not reach a verdict.](/web/20170424055358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/f/3/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvpu9f.png/1492945006973.jpg)
Roy Medich, who manages the property, said he and his brother had no idea their tenants were dumping until the EPA alerted them. He said he was working closely with authorities and writing "many legal letters" to the dumpers, his tenant Michael Vicary and Mr Vicary's subtenant Luke Cauchi.
Mr Cauchi, the sole director of Crush and Haul Pty Ltd, was fined $37,500 but said he was the "meat in the sandwich" who bore no responsibility for the dump.
"I was the one that was wrongly fined," Mr Cauchi said, referring repeatedly to "the real story" without elaborating.
The EPA has ordered Mr Cauchi to take the waste to a legal dump, such as the SUEZ landfill just hundreds of metres away, which could cost him millions of dollars in tip fees and levies.
Michael Vicary, who still rents to Mr Cauchi, said the waste "hasn't harmed the environment or anybody or anything." He claimed it was stored originally as road fill for a site nearby and the asbestos amounts would have been "miniscule".
While Mr Vicary dumped himself and was found likely to have committed pollution offences, he has not been fined.
Eighteen months after the dump site was first discovered, inspectors ordered him to clear a 200-tonne illegal compost of chicken manure near a dam. Overflow from the dam runs into a creek that feeds the Hawkesbury River, the EPA reported. Mr Vicary said he was acting like every other farmer.
Meanwhile, the Medich brothers have fought since 2013 over the right to sell the land, a former CSIRO site bought for $3.5 million, a bargain in 1997.
In 2013, Roy launched a legal bid to have the land sold by a trustee, arguing his brother's notoriety effectively ruled out rezoning but Ron wanted his stake separated.
The matter returns to court in the first week of May, when Mr Medich will also appear in court facing a possible retrial over the contract killing of Mr McGurk, his former business partner, who was shot dead in 2009.
A parliamentary inquiry and another by the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigated allegations that Mr McGurk had tried to blackmail Mr Medich for millions after obtaining a tape of him discussing corrupt land rezonings.
The tape captured Mr Medich boasting he had bribed the director-general of planning, Sam Haddad. But neither inquiry made a corruption finding, accepting instead that Mr Medich had overstated his influence.
Do you know more? patrick.begley@fairfaxmedia.com.au