A council in Melbourne's west knew it could be making up to 50 people homeless when it ordered them to leave an affordable housing estate last year – and contemplated not offering them any assistance at all.
Internal council documents, obtained by the ABC, have also revealed Hobsons Bay City Council hoped its eviction notices would stop residents from being able to lawfully live in their homes.
Known as Techno Park, the estate comprises scores of units and office space spread across four complexes in Melbourne's industrial west.
Some rent and others own their homes, but all were blindsided when the council ordered them to immediately leave in May 2023, citing the area's industrial zoning and a safety issue linked to a nearby set of Mobil fuel storage tanks.
The notices triggered local backlash and kickstarted a grassroots campaign for the close-knit community to stay. The council extended its eviction deadline in the wake of a change to state planning law earlier this year.
Now, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information (FOI) process have revealed disparities between the council's public statements about the evictions and what it privately knew about them.
Weeks after it sent the notices, for example, the council wrote to residents saying it had been unaware of the extent of residential housing at the estate.
But this internal council memo, dated about six months before the evictions, carries a different message.
"Council's actions may result in 40 to 50 persons currently residing in Technopark being displaced," the document said.
"Council will have a choice as to what assistance (if any) it may wish to offer these persons."
"I think that speaks for itself. It's pretty cold," resident John O'Hagan said, after reading the material.
"They knew what they were doing, despite their denials after the event, that they didn't know many people were living here."
"It was premeditated."
An earlier ABC story revealed the eviction notices were the result of a secretive campaign called Operation Pegasus, believed to be named after the petrol giant's logo.
The ABC can only report this story because it disputed the heavily redacted FOI release that story was based on, which saw additional information released.
Council was attempting to quash rights
The newly released information has also shed light on why the council decided to evict the residents.
At the heart of the issue is a complicated zoning dispute arising from the entanglement of industry and residences in Melbourne's west.
The estate – a cluster of two-storey buildings organised around well-tended community gardens – was a migrant hostel before being sold and converted into office space and residential accommodation in the late 1980s.
Residents, generally from lower socio-economic backgrounds, have lived in the estate over various periods in the decades since, lured by below-market rates and believing their tenancies were lawful.
One real estate listing, seen by the ABC, advertises a unit as a potential investment property.
To their east, within a stone's throw of some doorsteps, sit the fuel storage tanks, now being emptied and cleaned as Mobil scales down its operations in Altona.
The eviction action appears to have been spurred by an October 2022 odour complaint a Techno Park resident made about the tanks.
In response, emails released under FOI show, Mobil pressed the council about the extent of residential living in the neighbourhood.
"I am more concerned regarding the apparent prevalence of residential accommodation that seems to be present in that area, which being zoned Industrial 1 I would have thought would have prohibited this," the Mobil staffer's email read.
"This has implications regarding our risk profiles that we use for safety case and [Environmental Protection Agency] assessments as well as potential future issues with planning applications and ongoing community interaction with the terminal operations."
A council officer later confirmed the matter had been referred to its planning investigations team.
About six months later, residents were mailed council notices directing them to stop living in their homes, claiming the accommodation was both unlawful in the industrial-zoned area and potentially unsafe due to the tanks.
Residents were referred to support groups, and some were understood to have left, but many resisted.
"As we keep saying, we don't need homelessness services because we've got homes," Mr O'Hagan said.
The unredacted documents suggest the council wasn't obliged to evict the residents, with an October 2022 memo confirming the council had "various options" to "progress investigation/enforcement" of the issue.
Then, shortly before the eviction notices were mailed, council CEO Aaron van Egmond emailed the former mayor with details of the council's approach and the reasoning behind it.
"To provide a holistic approach and ensure any risk of property owners lodging an existing use rights claim … council is writing to every landowner and tenant (over 80 properties)," the email said.
"Council's letter will effectively extinguish the potential for any future existing use right claim."
In April this year, the council advised residents its eviction action was halted.
The decision came after a change to state planning law unveiled in February this year, which essentially invalidated the council's eviction notices.
The reasons why are complicated, but the change means residents can apply for "existing use rights" if their property has previously been used as a home for any 15-year period.
Before this, that 15-year period had to be immediately before the existing use rights claim. In that scenario, as indicated in Mr van Egmond's email, the council's notices would have put a stop to any future claims.
The revelation opens the question of whether almost 18 months of housing uncertainty could have been avoided.
"That is just so startling to me," Lara Week, who has lived in the estate for four years, said.
"It's a scandal."
Council says eviction 'pause' allows time for residents to make their case
The council did not respond directly to questions about why it pursued the evictions, instead reaffirming the evictions were halted.
"This pause allows time to apply for a certificate of compliance, which is the way people living at Techno Park can make an application to Council with supporting evidence to seek to formally establish their residential existing use rights," a spokesperson said.
"Council remains committed to providing a safe living and working environment for all its residents.
"It is taking all appropriate steps to ensure the health and safety of the Hobsons Bay community including the people living at Techno Park."
The council has since consulted with Mobil and health and safety bodies about the potential for existing use rights claims.
It's warned residents that establishing those rights does not guarantee their properties are safe.
The planning law change has left residents racing to find a decade-and-a-half's worth of proof of residential living — wedding invites, doctor's notes, personal letters — in a task Ms Week described as enormous.
"Then it will be up to the council to determine whether or not they consider that sufficient," she said.
"Weirdly, it's the same people who have been determined to get us out of our homes who are now in the position of deciding whether or not we can say."
Residents have been granted until October 1 to make those claims.
