Altona- Minus Mobil Oil Refinery?

[nads]

Ive been reading articles on the possible closure of the Mobil Oil Refinery in Altona.

Altona is better known for the oil refinery than for its location (bayside suburb close to shopping centres, city and freeway).

What are your thoughts on the impact the refinery closure would have on the perceptions of Altona as a suburb to invest in? Do you think that the closure might improve Altona's image, even slightly, or do you think Altona has a long way to go before it shakes off its industrial/smelly tag?

 

[Garry K]

Hi nads

First in will be the winner.

Even Williamstown was no mans land - now look. And lots of commision homes along the forshore and now prime real estate.

All I can say is

........ go nads!!!!!!!!


Garry

 

[Mrs Bird]

Hi everyone,

Nads,

Absolutely agree with GarryK. You are on the right track.

There are million $ homes there. That should tell you something.
Make sure you buy on the beach side of the railway line.

Where did you hear about the refinery being closed down?

Mrs Bird

 

[Peter Parker]

Agreed. Took the train to Geelong yesterday and saw acres of underused/unused prime waterfront and near waterfront land not too far from CBD.

All they need is to remove the grotty sheds, rubbish and plant some trees and it could become the Brighton Beach of the west!

Peter

 

[bundy1964]

JMHO if they clean up the site you should be on a winner, if the plant is mothballed as is planed for Port Stanvac in SA it may not be so good

bundy

 

[nads]

Mrs Bird,

I first heard about the possible closure after reading a copy of the local paper (my fiance is from Sunshine). They were interviewing people on the street about what they thought of the housing boom in the western suburbs of Melbourne. One woman said something along the lines of "with the closure of the Mobil oil refinery, people's perceptions of Altona will improve...blah blah" and alarm bells rang.
So I did a search on yahoo and found a few articles with mention about the possibility of Mobil closing down Altona. Apparently the site needs major upgrading to the value of $200M, and at the moment Mobil is struggling.
There's also rumour going around about the possible closure of Toyota's Altona plant.

But yeah who knows what they would do with the site after closure......

Im just trying to convince my fiance that Altona ain't that bad! (He reckons the suburb stinks from the beach/seaweed)...

 

[sbe]

Toyota are currently upgrading their facility. Don't think they're going anywhere fast..

 

[tubs]

I wouldnt count on the Mobil refinery closing down soon. I have heard that this is a fairly unlikely scenario at the moment.

 

[BKH]

Whilst there is the threat of Mobil closure there are also the threats of other chemical refining works in the area, predominantly in Kororoit Creek Road. Mobil will cause the effect to snowball.

What impact on Altona, initally some but Altona is being discovered. There has been other comments in the Forum. Altona is changing and the shopping centre in Pier Street is evolving to cater for the new (and richer) residents. Keep an eye on Altona. It is truely a bayside suburb, with little through traffic that will boom when other Melbourne suburbs are now overpriced. Oh how I wished I had bought in Altona 2 years ago.

 

[manny]

I must say that I agree with tubs, I can't see Mobil closing shop in the near future... it sounds more like a bluff (which caught the local paper headlines) to get the Council's & Local govt's attention which could only benefit them with subsidies/incentives to remain open (as they employ many local residents)... Just my thought of the matter...

Cheers,

MannyB.

 

[peteb]

Closing down the Mobil plant is not an option for them at the moment, they spent a fortune recently putting in a new catalytic cracker and some other plant upgrades which goes against this runour. Also if they did close it down their land would require some serious clensing due to the leaded fuel that has been on the site for more years than I have been on this earth ..... most of this info came from a person who knows quite a lot about mobil and their plant at altona.

 

[nads]

Thanks PeteB, and thank your source of information

Guess it was just local gossip that ended up in the papers

 

[peteb]

this guy I know provides via air liquide a huge amount of liquid gas to them, they have a direct pipe into the plant hence he knows a bit about what goes on and what is going on there so I value what he says (he is about 60 years old too so he's seen a lot there).