Victoria Park cricket pitch poisoned

Dubbo City Council advised tests had confirmed abnormally high toxicity in the soil of the cricket pitches at the sportsground's No. 1 Oval.

It announced remedial action yesterday estimated to cost between $30,000 and $40,000.

The still unidentified chemical appeared to be plant-specific, council parks and landcare services director Murray Wood said.

"It's retarding the growth of plants, it's highly unlikely to be hazardous to people," he said.

It had been reported to police and the council's insurer and was being treated as vandalism by the council.

"It's targeted the turf pitches, not the rest of the field," Mr Wood said.

"I've never seen something as deliberate as this, trying to inflict the maximum damage on the space.

"The level of accuracy and determination is not only disappointing, it's upsetting for staff and the Dubbo District Cricket Association."

He said the suspected deliberate action had caused disruption to the regular cricket season and significant cost to the council.

With the confirmation from the tests, the council announced yesterday it was forced to excavate and replace the centre wicket square.

"There are several important events coming up in the new year including an inaugural junior Cricket NSW representative tournament and it is important to quickly get the pitches back to a high standard," Mr Wood said.

The director said all five pitches in the square would be excavated to a depth of about 250mm, the soil removed and replaced with a new pitch soil and couch turf before Christmas.

Mr Wood said that while it was not certain exactly what chemicals had been used, tests had shown it was not glyphosate - the active ingredient in Roundup - or another common group of chemicals.

"Greenkeeping staff first observed there was a problem with the wickets following the standard renovations of all wickets on the Victoria Park and Lady Cutler ovals," Mr Wood said.

"Preliminary soil tests ruled out pests or disease and the new turf that was laid on three pitches also failed to take root.

"The roots of the new turf were in fact growing away from the pitch soil and dying off indicating toxic material was present in the soil.

"This was scientifically confirmed by laboratory tests which state the soil toxicity is above generally accepted levels for garden soil."

Work to replace the centre square would start on Monday (24 November) and was expected to be completed before the end of December at a cost between $30,000 and $40,000, the council advised.

"The Dubbo Cricket Association has been cooperative and understanding in difficult circumstances," Mr Wood said.

"Alterative arrangements have been made to play night cricket at Number 3 Oval and Number 1 Oval will be ready for when cricket returns after Christmas."