Brimbank Council bought the land on the corner of Nancy Street and Whiteside Avenue from Orica in 1986.

Over the years, Brimbank's Croatian community built a church and other community facilities on part of the land, but the rest was used as an off-the-lead dog park for the community.

In 2003 resident Larissa Stewart was pregnant and started walking her dog at the park after finding it advertised on the Brimbank Council's website.

"But it was in 2007 that I noticed trucks coming in and out of the park, so I made some calls to find out what was going on."

After speaking to Brimbank Council and Orica, she discovered the land was contaminated and works were finally starting to remediate the site.

"At that time they trucked out about 300cubic metres of what I believe was asbestos," she said.

The site has since been remediated.

Ms Stewart said she discovered that the council had commissioned environmental consultant Golder Associates to perform contamination assessments on the site.

In one report, presented in April 1999, the consultants wrote: "... on parts of the site and in the north east in particular, the level of contamination found exceeds relevant criteria for safe use of this area as a park without clean-up or management."

Ms Stewart said she was concerned for the health of all residents who had used the park over the years.

"I was using it for six-seven months while I was pregnant, and there are many, many residents who have used this area for years as there are not many other local parks.

"There are a lot of questions that need to be answered." Brimbank Council corporate services manager Doris Cunningham said it was unlikely anyone would become ill from using the park.

"The advice council has received from consultants that contaminants found underground posed minimum risk to the public and the risk has been even further reduced by the remediation works.