Their story is one of a growing number of lithium-ion battery fires in Victoria.
These energy-dense, rechargeable batteries are in dozens of everyday appliances including laptops, phones, power tools, stick vacuum cleaners, portable speakers, e-cigarettes and, notably, e-bikes and scooters.
Authorities say the No.1 rule is to avoid buying a device with a rechargeable battery unless it comes from a reputable brand and seller.
The ACCC estimates that by 2026, the average household will have 33 devices powered by lithium-ion batteries.
The consumer regulator was alarmed last year that a national voluntary survey of more than 4000 Australians found 54 per cent of respondents used aftermarket chargers, 39 per cent did not know how to correctly dispose of lithium-ion batteries, and many respondents said they would leave devices unattended while charging.
Fischer says Fire Rescue Victoria is particularly concerned about the growing risks for people living in apartments where dwellings typically have one entrance and are more likely to have people storing e-bikes and scooters in smaller spaces.
For those of you worried about Electric vehicles, here is a short video by an independent organisation.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. Below is an update on the works for next week – as well as a quick update on some of our rectification and handover processes.
A reminder that next week is a short working week, we’ll be on site Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. While Thursday is ANZAC Day and there are no works on Friday or Saturday.
Overnight Works:
Tram Adjacent Works
Next week we’ve got works scheduled for Monday and Tuesday night adjacent to the southern ventilation shafts and chiller plant. These are works that are right next to the tram tracks, and as such we’ll need to complete them after the last tram goes through. We’ll also install the final sections of the pedestrian tactiles adjacent to the tram stop on the south eastern side. The tactile work will require the use of a saw to cut out the sections where the tactiles are installed – We’ll try to do this as early as possible in the sections where we aren’t adjacent to the tram tracks.
Works next week
Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance (Works until 1am)
It’s more of the same at the station entrance next week, as the ground preparation continues and the bluestone pavers are installed adjacent to the entrance. There are some final underground services being installed, while the last of the waterproofing around the lift shafts is underway. As mentioned last week, we’ll have some formwork underway adjacent to the lift shaft as well.
South African Soldiers’ Memorial construction is now making some great progress. As we move up the structure we’ll erect scaffolding to allow us to continue reconstructing the memorial stone by stone.
Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)
As promised last week, the retaining wall around the Shrine forecourt has made better progress, it will be much of the same next week with drainage installation. We’ve continued to lay tracks up Domain Road this week, with concrete poured into place as the team head eastward up Domain Road. All going well, track installation will be finished tomorrow. Tram poles will be installed next week.
The footpath adjacent to Melbourne Grammar is open at the Wadhurst entrance end, but the progress is slower at the western end near St Kilda Road. Still working our way through a few issues, and unfortunately I don’t have a forecast opening date just yet. We’re pushing to get it reopened as soon as we can.
Station Box
It’s been a while since I’ve given an update from the crew below ground. The team are busy installing signage, paving finishing off steps, and generally making the area look like a shiny new station.
I think it’s better served as a photo than an update – so attached below is a photo of the new entrance gates to the station – inside those wooden boxes are the new myki gates, getting ready for commuters to tap on and head down to the new station platform. Rest assured the final gate placing will have a bit more room between them – that configuration would be a bit of tight squeeze!
Centre Island – St Kilda Road
Southern Area:
As mentioned above, the end of the Chiller Plant works means that the team can get in next week and finish off the drainage adjacent to the tram stop, as well as the tree plots adjacent to the ventilation shafts and chiller plant.
Tree Planting
St Kilda Road Median
Once the tree pits are available adjacent to the southern ventilation and chiller plant – City of Melbourne will come through and plant trees through this area. There are currently discussions happening later this afternoon about access and timing for the planting in the median. I’ll have the outcome and plan in next weeks update, but we expect to see trees through the area in early May.
Albert Road
Similarly, there are some new trees earmarked for the Albert Road area, City of Port Phillip have advised that they are planning on plating within the next couple of weeks – I’ll provide some more detail once i’ve heard more, but you can expect to see new trees popping up around the precinct soon, in what will be a very welcome addition.
Rectification Works – Planting
As I mentioned last week, as we finish areas of the job, we conduct a walk-through the site to identify any areas that need rectification prior to us completing the job. One critical part of this is the planting. As many local residents would have noticed, a number of our areas of planting have not taken as well as we’d like. Rest assured we’re very much aware of the plants that haven’t taken to their new homes and we are absolutely going to replace them.
The vast majority of planting on the project will become the responsibility of the local council once we’re finished (City of Melbourne and City of Port Phillip) We’re currently in discussions with both councils about handing over areas of the project where we’ve largely finished our work. We’ve got a list of things that we’re fixing prior to handing these areas over – and once we’ve struck an agreement on this handover – we’ll replace any dead plants and hand it over the respective parks team for each council, who will no doubt have greener thumbs than ours!
Have a wonderful weekend
Thanks, Rob
Friday Flashback
A quick flashback to where we were 12 months ago – with the excavation of the Albert Road entrance well and truly underway – ready to connect into the concourse.
Welcome to the end of a very soggy week in Melbourne. Despite the weather, I’m pleased to report that the crews working on St Kilda Road have made some excellent progress and we’re scheduled to be finished tomorrow and the road reopened as planned. I’ve included a progress photo below from Domain Road yesterday prior to the asphalt going in.
Is this the end for our night works on St Kilda Road?, I hear you ask.
Not quite, but we are now through the last major interventions. We’ve still got a few things to do, including one northbound lane of St Kilda Road that needs its final layer of asphalt (Adjacent to the ventilation and chillers, between to the Toorak Road tram stop pedestrian crossing and Bowen Lane) This is going to happen in early May once we’ve got the landscaping done through the centre median (I iimagine it would be 2-3 nights of work at a maximum) I’ll let you know when we have the finer details.
Southbound, we’ll also eventually need to asphalt the left turn from St Kilda Road into Domain Road prior to it reopening – no set time frame on that just yet.
Back to the one-week look ahead, and below is a snapshot of what is coming up everywhere on site.
Overnight Works:
Line Marking
Tonight is the final night of works, which will primarily be linemarking.
I’ve included line marking next week, just in case we don’t get the final lines down tonight. We’ve earmarked Monday night for this – but given where we currently are, we’re confident we’ll get it done today and tonight We’ll prioritise the St Kilda Road line marking tonight, so anything that misses out will be small stuff and won’t require any St Kilda Road closures.
Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance (Works until 1am)
With the concrete down, the paving team have wasted no time at all getting into the new surface and laying an array of bluestone through the concreted area. Those who have walked past the South African Soldiers’ memorial would have noticed that the first of the heritage blocks were lifted into place this morning (Friday) this careful process will continue over the coming weeks.
There is some minor steel fixing that will happen next to the lift shaft next week. It’s a mini-milestone – but one worth noting. This is the very final piece of the primary station structure to be constructed. For those that love seeing concrete poured – rest assured we’ll still have more to come for ancillary retaining walls and the like – but this is literally the last piece of the station puzzle.
Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)
Speaking on ancillary structures – the retaining wall around the Shrine forecourt has made some progress in between showers this week. With some drier weather forecast we should see this section move forward.
The footpath up Domain Road running alongside Melbourne Grammar has also suffered from the wet conditions, as well as the discovery of a communications cable that will need to be re-laid under the footpath. At this stage with school returning on Tuesday, we’ll ensure the access to the school is maintained, while the new communications conduit is laid down towards St Kilda Road.
I’ll have a revised opening date next week once we’ve got some progress behind us in this area – the aim is to lay some asphalt tonight along the length of this footpath with a view to reopen it as soon as we can.
Lastly, as I mentioned last week, we will open the fourth and final pedestrian crossing to the new Anzac Station tram stop tomorrow – the temporary footpath in the bike lane will also reopen, connecting the corner of Domain Road to the pedestrian crossing at Park Street.
Centre Island – St Kilda Road
Adjacent to tram stop:
The median adjacent to the tram stop has had the grass planted overnight – adding to some additional greenery to match in with the resplendent green legs of the station canopy. These areas will be available to plant trees, with tree planting being handled by the relevant local councils. I’ll provide an update next week on the expected timing of trees planting through the area.
Southern Area:
We’re expecting the mechanical electrical and plumbing work around the chiller plants to wrap up tomorrow, which will allow us to get in and complete the landscaping through these areas. There’s a final bit of drainage to go in, before we switch to irrigation and landscaping – including tree plot preparation and turf laying.
Rectification Works As we finish each area of the job and do a final inspection, there are inevitably some areas that will require touch ups, or fixes.
One such area is the kerbing in front of 400 St Kilda Road, which was knocked out of alignment shortly after installation. Next week we’ll be coming back to fix this up. To do so, we’ll run an NDD truck alongside the kerb to remove a thin strip of the garden bed, remove and reset the kerb stone, and then reinstate the strip of garden bed. We’re expecting this to kick off on Tuesday and will be complete by the end of the week.
Rather than closing St Kilda Road and doing these works at night – we’ll instead reduce St Kilda Road to one lane and a bike lane and complete the works during daytime hours. This will mean that the works wont kick off until after peak hour traffic has passed through at approximately 9:30am.
Street Lighting
CitiPower have confirmed that the street lighting north of the station box will go on tonight – still waiting on a date for the lights south of the station box – but it should follow closely behind
I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Easter break. Works are back in full swing at Anzac Station, just a reminder that we’re kicking off our 24/7 works to reinstate the tram track connection to Domain Road – starting this Sunday night
This will also involve the all week daytime closure of the southbound lane of St Kilda Road at Dorcas Street. Below is a snapshot of what is coming up everywhere on site.
Overnight Works:
Domain Road Tram Connection Works
Below is a snapshot of the works happening from Sunday night next week – the noisiest night will be on Sunday night, with the use of profilers to remove layers of asphalt from a section of the road, similar to those used in the recent asphalting works. See below for a snapshot of the week ahead.
Just a reminder that pedestrian access along St Kilda Road adjacent to the Shrine will be closed while these works are underway
More detail is available in the construction notification:
Northbound St Kilda Road Closure (Thursday and Friday evening)
While the works are happening on the southbound lane, we’ll also finish off some works around site. Two nights will require a closure of the northbound lane of St Kilda Road between Toorak Road and Park Street.
During these works, access and egress at the Albert Road/St Kilda Road intersection will be closed from 8pm, with all access and egress via Kings Way.
Traffic controllers will be on site to assist Domain Hill residents to exit their driveway
Access for Botanica residents will be via Bowen Crescent on both nights
The following works will take place during this closure:
Albert Road Asphalting (Traffic Light Commissioning) – Thursday 11 April
You may recall Albert Road asphalting and light commissioning that was put on hold two weeks ago, as we were waiting on a delivery from Department of Transport. We’ve now scheduled this in for Thursday night next week.
Traffic Light and Electronic Speed Sign Commissioning – Thursday and Friday (11 and 12 April)
These works are not expected to be particularly disruptive, as they generally involve electrical works on existing traffic signals. The variable speed sign adjacent to the Toorak Road Tram Stop may require a mobile crane to install.
Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance (Works until 1am)
Last night we successfully poured the concrete base for the future pathway adjacent to the station entrance, this will allow bluestone paving to be placed in the forecourt area. We’ll have similar concrete pours in the future as each area is backfilled and ready for paving. To that end, we’ll be contuing with some of the waterproofing around the lift shafts next week, while pile removal is still ongoing around the back side of the lift shafts, this will be followed by some formwork (likely the week after) The heritage contractors will be out on site from Monday and prepping the concrete, followed by the craning of the first of the heritage blocks.
Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)
Over at the Shrine entrance the retaining wall build continues next week around the station entrance, along with utility connections into the station entrance happening concurrently. We are also pushing hard to reopen the footpath along Domain Road by the end of school holidays.
In a bit of positive news for the local pedestrian connectivity, we are also aiming to open the connection to the north eastern pedestrian crossing from the Anzac Station tram stop to the corner of Domain Road and St Kilda Road by the end of the week.
Centre Island – St Kilda Road
Adjacent to tram stop:
There was some new grass laid next to the tram stop on the western side last night, adding the re-greening of the area. Next week while the southbound lane of St Kilda Road is shut, we’ll see more of the same going in on the eastern side of the tram stop.
Southern Area:
Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing commissioning of the chiller plants is still ongoing, by mid-April this team should be out of the area and we get on with the irrigation and landscaping within this area, which should come together quickly.
Street Lighting
Subject to CitiPower works, we should see the street lights either side of the project switched on by the end of week or early the following week.
A couple of people have asked me if this is still happening – yes it is, it is one of the rare wins that we had. No parking in front of 412-416 strip, none in front of 390, none in front of Post Office. So I’m guessing ours will be in high demand
There will be another lane for traffic squeezed over next to the chillers – to be done around early May timeframe. Then we get our parking
The Dept of Transport came to the meeting to give us an update on the Domain Rd situation. I thought we were to be told whether or not the 58 tram would remain.
They told us that even though they had told us a year ago that community consultation was to occur, it has not yet been approved by the Minister.
So CYP / RPV are to build a new dual mode (bus and tram) stop in Domain Rd in case one day they need it. At this stage neither a bus or a tram is committed to go down Domain Rd. Yep – completely bonkers.
As you can see in the slide pack – a detailed study has been done on the safety of the tram crossing. Their conclusion is that there is no problem, but they will repaint the warning sign on the path.
The Yarra Trams head of operations (Kate Blackwood) said she was taking the matter very seriously. She noted that trams should only be doing 15 kmph on that section and that Yarra Trams carry out speed checks across their entire network. She could not confirm if they had checked speeds on that section and she admitted she had not been on site – but she is taking it very seriously.
We should get our parking bays out the front by mid-May.
Apologies this email is only going out today – connection issues on Friday meant it didn’t go out. Content is now updated below.
I hope everyone enjoyed the gentle sounds of F1 cars flying around Albert Park this weekend. Last week’s big milestone is that St Kilda Road is now reopen in two lanes in each direction.
There are still some small sections that did not get completed (see below), but regardless – a huge milestone for the project and a big thanks to everyone for their patience during the works.
Overnight Works Next Week
Line Marking
This week we will have some line markers out painting the road. Thankfully these are much quieter works and we wouldn’t expect any disturbance.
Concrete Pour
This Wednesday night (27 March) we’ve got a big concrete pour happening in Albert Road Reserve around the station entrance. A section of these works will require a concrete pump to sit on St Kilda Road adjacent to the tram stop – this means we’ll need to close St Killda Road on Wednesday night to complete these works.
St Kilda Road will be closed northbound at Toorak, meaning Botanica’s St Kilda Road Driveway will be accessible via Bowen Crescent from 8pm.
Entry into Albert Road will be via Kings Way only. Egress from Albert Road onto St Kilda Road will remain open while this is underway.
All works will be at the Anzac Tram stop and there are no works besides linemarking at the Toorak Road end of site through to Bowen Lane
Albert Road Traffic Light commissioning The one piece of work that couldn’t be completed last week was the commissioning of the traffic lights at Albert Road. This is due to the incorrect signal technology being provided.
If you’ve walked the pedestrian crossing at the top of Albert Road you’ll see it’s the only section without brand new asphalt. On Tuesday 26 March we’ll close Albert Road and St Kilda Road northbound overnight to asphalt this final section and commission the new traffic lights.
St Kilda Road will be closed northbound at Toorak, meaning Botanica’s St Kilda Road Driveway will be accessible via Bowen Crescent from 8pm.
Entry and exit from to Albert Road will be via Kings Way only. Traffic controllers will be on hand to assist Domain Hill residents to exit their driveway.
All works will be at the top of Albert Road and there are no works besides linemarking at the Toorak Road end of site through to Bowen Lane
Median Planting
There are some tricky spots is in the median between Albert Reserve and the Anzac Tram stop that need to have turf laid – we’ll have to come back at some point during the evening and lay some turf.
While we’re doing the concrete pour on Wednesday night, we’ll also pop in and lay that turf.
The tree plots through this area are already prepared and will be planted after April.
Domain Road
As outlined in the March construction notice, we’ll continue to do footpath works overnight further up Domain Road. This doesn’t include high-impact activities like hammering.
Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance (Works until 1am)
The familiar blue sheeting that is the waterproofing was laid on top of the station concourse roof at Albert Road Reserve entrance last week. Over the weekend we’ve backfilled the surface and get ready to pour the concrete that will form the base for the station concourse bluestone paving. The preparation work for these concrete pours is already well advanced on the northern end of the station entrance. Next to the station entrance, the South African Soldiers Memorial continues to grow in height as the formwork for the central obelisk is formed and poured. This week we should see the first of the original stonework installed.
St Kilda Road Footpath Works – Bowen Lane to Albert Road
The footpath connecting Bowen Lane around the Albert Road opened last week. Our thanks to everyone for the patience while we finished these works, particular thanks to the residents of The Domain building who had their pedestrian access curtailed during the works.
Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works
The reopening of St Kilda Road to two lanes in each direction also means Bowen Crescent is open from St Kilda Road. Again, thanks to everyone for your patience while this closure is in place. I appreciate that it means a round-the-block detour to Kings Way to access driveways at the top parking level of The Botanica as well as the laneway parking access for apartments at 416, 416A, 418 St Kilda Road.
Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)
At the entrance adjacent to the Shrine of Remembrance, we are in full swing with the installation of services under Domain Road and the future station entrance forecourt. Like Albert Road Reserve entrance, this area will take shape very quickly once the in-ground works are complete. What isn’t taking shape quickly is the drainage works on the footpath along Domain Road. We were targeting a 5 week closure of this area – but with the amount of in-ground services, it looks like we’re going to overshoot this mark.
We had originally planned to reopen the footpath, before closing it at a later date to apply the final asphalt surface. The delay to the inground services means that we’ll finish the services and just roll straight into the completion works for the footpath. This will mean that we’ll have it re-opened in time for school returning on the 15 April. Apologies that the detour via Bromby Street/Domain Road will remain in place for a while longer.
St Kilda Road Footpath Works – Bromby Street to Toorak Road
All our light pole works are done through this area and we’ve passed the area on to CitiPower. They’ll connect the poles to the mains network and will advise separately.
Centre Island – St Kilda Road
Southern Area:
Drainage continues to be the focus within the central island, It will be some minor drainage works around the southern ventilation shafts in March, before we head in to the landscaping, and ultimately the tree planting next month.
Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop
As mentioned above, we’ll need to come back and lay some grass through this area.
Enjoy the rest of the week – next week’s update will back to Fridays!
Some of you have seen and commented positively on this sign.
Unfortunately CYP workers decided to remove it this morning. I have no idea why – they even seem to have stopped and taken a selfie of themselves with the sign they had just removed. Very odd
I hope that the various visitors (and non visitors) do not get hit.
Welcome to the stakeholder lookahead on a sparkling Friday afternoon.
Lets jump right into the lookahead for construction next week in the precinct:
Overnight Works Lookahead
We’re progressing well on our works to return St Kilda Road to two lanes in each direction.
Last night we got a the initial layer of asphalt down on the south bound lane, while also standing two of the three light poles between Bromby and Toorak Road
Tonight we’ll be working in both the southbound lanes and the northbound lanes.
We’ll also have the final NDD works taking place tonight.
As always I’ve got a night-by-night snapshot below – And I’ll advise if this changes significantly.
Concrete Pour
Tonight we’ll have a concrete pour for the barrier kerb between the road and the tram tracks – it’s not a big pour, but we’ll need to do it while traffic is not running to ensure that we can get the pump and trucks in place. This will be done at the start of the road closure.
Chiller Plant Commissioning
The electrical work within the southernmost chiller plant is will be completed during this evenings shift.
Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance (Works until 1am)
The South African Soldiers Memorial remains the feature piece of works at the moment, with the concrete formwork happening now for where the central obelisk go. Some of the stone will be coming out of storage next week and making its way to site.
The last of the lifts on the Albert Road Reserve side are finishing their internal commissioning, in what is a great milestone. The pile breakout around the perimeter of the entrance is still happening, there wasn’t much action this week, but it will resume next week.
St Kilda Road Footpath Works – Bowen Lane to Albert Road
The 20th March remains a target date for us to reopen this pathway. The lost day to rain this week didn’t help us, but we’re still well on track to complete this area ahead of the original timeframe. I’ve attached a photo of some of the handiwork of the team, who were in there grouting areas this morning.
Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works
Yesterday we laid the asphalt in front of 412 St Kilda Road, while a tad further up in front of 416 St Kilda Road, the sucker trucks are still on their extended farewell tour for this part of the site. As I mentioned above, we should have the NDD works finished this evening, at which point the drainage crews will be able to slot the new drainage connection in amongst the myriad of services in this area.
We’ll aim to have this installed early next week, before backfilling, completing the asphalting, and then removing the site fencing and reopening Bowen Crescent left turn off
This should all be done by the end of next week.
Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)
I’d estimate Domain Road has now shrunk by around 7% – as we’ve now completely demolished the roadway between St Kilda Road and Edmund Herring Oval. The good news is that we’ll soon start building it back up again, including installing the new tram track connection from St Kilda Road into Domain Road and building a new tram stop.
As I mentioned last week, we’ve begun the excavation and ground preparation for the station forecourt at the entrance adjacent to the Shrine of Remembrance. The footpath closure along Domain Road remains in place for the time being.
St Kilda Road Footpath Works – Bromby Street to Toorak Road
We’ve got one more light pole to install tonight (Closest to Toorak Road) After which we will hand them over to CitiPower to connect them into their network. CitiPower will advise of what works they need to do, and when they need to do them.
Centre Island – St Kilda Road
Southern Area:
Drainage continues to be the focus within the central island, It will be some minor drainage works around the southern ventilation shafts in March, before we head in to the landscaping, and ultimately the tree planting next month.
Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop
The new retaining wall adjacent to the tram stop will be poured tonight. We’ll then asphalt this final section of St Kilda Road (See below) before coming back at a later date to landscape and prepare for tree planting.
Station Fit out
Downstairs in the station fitout space, we are nearing the end of the electrical connection work on the concourse level – it might not sound like much – but there are a maze of cable trays and kilometres of cables installed down on oncourse and platform level, so this represents quite a significant achievements.
The Botanica 
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