Sydney venue of Taylor Swift concert to be tested for asbestos

Taylor Swift’s Era Tour underway in Australia
Sydney venue to be tested for asbestos
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Fans with tickets to Taylor Swift’s highly-anticipated Sydney concert are holding their breath as the venue is set to be tested for asbestos.

Hundreds of thousands of fans of the pop superstar will descend on Sydney Olympic Park next week for the Australian leg of her Eras Tour – touted as one of the biggest concert tours of all time.

But an asbestos scare in NSW has led Sydney Olympic Park authorities to confirm they will be testing mulch used on a median strip on a divided road at the complex.

It follows widespread contamination of garden mulch across the state.

The mulch at Sydney Olympic Park was confirmed to have come from a supply chain currently under investigation.

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said authorities were looking into the mulch and an initial test found no asbestos but a backup test was being conducted as a precaution.

‘We are testing samples but, regardless, we can remove the mulch and remediate in time for Taylor Swift to perform,’ Ms Sharpe said.

‘This will not stop Taylor Swift performing in Sydney.’

It follows NSW’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday announcing a criminal investigation would be conducted into whether foul play was involved in the asbestos contamination of garden mulch used throughout Sydney.

More than 70 garden beds and parks are being tested across the city.

There have been 25 confirmed locations to contain the deadly material, with St John of God Hospital in North Richmond, Kellyville Woolworths and a Transport for NSW park at Wiley Park being added to the confirmed contamination site list.

Multiple schools have also been identified for precautionary testing.

Southwest Sydney based mulch supplier Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility (GRRF) recycles wooden pallets into the garden product which was linked to the material which was found at multiple contaminated sites.

But GRRF’s lawyer Ross Fox said a test of the remaining stockpile of mulch at the operations centre returned a negative result. the EPA visited their operations centre and inspected their remaining stockpile of mulch.