WHEN Michelle moved into West Dubbo two-and-a-half years ago she had no idea she was less than two kilometres from an illegal garbage dumping ground.
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The angry resident, who would like to be known only as Michelle, said she used to run through a block of vacant land off the Newell Highway, but the stench and hazards surrounding the area had now forced her to take a different route.
"When I first moved in there was a little bit of rubbish and it was blocked by big concrete blocks and a gate off the Newell Highway," she said.
"But the gate has been smashed open and once they removed the blocks it became a free-for-all.
"It's grown 100-fold since I've moved in.
"I don't want to live in a garbage tip."
The vacant land is bordered by the Newell Highway, Rifle Range Road, Chapman Road and Blackbutt Road and is now home to household rubbish, greenwaste, building materials, abandoned cars and general garbage.
"Access to the area is easy - just drive straight in off any of those roads, dump and go," Michelle said.
"The rubbish gets spread further by animals and people that fossick and play in the area.
"The trash is further trashed after it is dumped and once a new pile starts it's just strewn everywhere."
Michelle said despite a couple of A4-sized signs warning of the fines associated with illegal dumping around the area, she would often see empty trailers leaving after an assumed illegal dump.
"I've caught out and approached people on two separate occasions and all they've said was 'well what's it to you?'" she said.
Other than the dangers the dumping ground posed to children who played in it, Michelle said she also worried about asbestos and the fire risk.
"The area is now a fire hazard," she said.
"Any spark from the many trailbikes that use the area, the fires that are lit by groups at night camping out, or cigarette butts will spread in moments - threatening houses opposite in Kintyre Estate and the adjacent properties," she said.
"It only takes a stray spark and it'll go off like wildfire, especially now in summer it'll go up.
"I'm sure there's asbestos in all the building materials too."
Week by week as the rubbish increases Michelle said word must have spread about the man-made garbage dump.
"People decide they don't want to go in there anymore so the rubbish continues to spread further and further and closer and closer to the road," she said.
Michelle said she reported the problem area to the Dubbo City Council, but her complaints remained almost unheard.
"I reported the incident to the council a while ago and the rubbish was pushed into piles," she said.
"I thought (whoever owns it) must be trying to develop it, but the piles are now unrecognisable.
"The rubbish was just added to and pushed around again."
Dubbo City Council said it would investigate the matter, but enviromental control manager Debbie Archer said illegal dumpers were often difficult to catch.
Michelle said she also reported two abandoned cars to the police, one was removed and the other was taped off, but never picked up and left to rust.
"But they would've had to have driven through the rubbish to get to the car," she said.
During one run through the area Michelle said a police officer walking a police dog asked her if the area was safe to walk through.
"I said 'I wouldn't because you don't know what you're going to find'," she said.
"We spoke about how people had dumped things there, but nothing happened about it."
Michelle said the number of different parties that were aware of the issue and had ignored it "showed pure laziness."
She urged whoever was responsible for the land to clean it up.
"If it's privately owned that person needs to secure the area and clean it up," Michelle said.
Michelle said she did not understand why people were dumping there.
"It's not too expensive to dump it. You've got to get rid of rubbish properly," she said.
"The dump is probably only 10 minutes away from their house and they're probably travelling 10 minutes to dump it anyway.
"It's disgusting- I bet they don't have to live near it."
The area was an accident waiting to happen and Michelle said "it's everyone's problem if something happens''.
"Don't complain when the place goes up in flames or someone makes an asbestos claim," she said.