Hertha Road, Innaloo, was the location of a former rubbish dump. The now City of Stirling Council and Administration offices including Stirling Gardens, the Freeway and the surrounding open space areas, was previously a landfill site. Waste Management is a core duty of Local Government and a service that ratepayers value highly. Efficient operations now include rehabilitation of wetlands and drainage, monitoring for heavy metals and toxicity from previous tip sites, and moving to recycling depots, tip shops and reuse.
These images capture an era during the 1960s when the technology was on the verge of transitioning. Waste management practices in the nineteenth and twentieth century ranged from people burying items in their backyards, a night soil cart making the rounds through the small lanes that surrounded houses, or the 'dustman' collecting door to door. Wherever people live, there is waste to be managed. 'Dump diggers' is the term for collectors who are often hunting for old glass bottles or porcelain dolls at old tip sites, finding value in the things the past has left behind.
