Did Liberal leader Jess Wilson make a $20 million promise on Sunday she knew she’d never have to keep?

Wilson spoke at a rally at the Surrey Dive boatshed in front of a crowd Whitehorse council estimated at about 1,500 people. The gathering was in support of transforming the former Box Hill Brickworks site into parkland, and to that end Wilson said if elected in November, she’d sling Whitehorse council $20 million to remediate the site.

But there was a caveat. For council to get the $20 million, it had to first own the seven-hectare plot.

Two things stand in the way of that becoming a reality.

First, according to the state government, it would cost about $200 million for Whitehorse council to buy and decontaminate the site.

Second, even if council had that kind of spare dough in the kitty - it does not - the developer who owns the land appears to have no interest in selling, and is not even engaging with the council.

Whitehorse Council has accumulated more than $70 million from residential development through its open space development levy. It hasn’t explained how it would find the $200 million.

Developers can now prepare a master plan under the amended planning scheme, with the Planning Minister, rather than Whitehorse Council, making the decision.

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At least seven workers died building the Silvan Dam — crushed in tunnel collapses, thrown from ponies, buried in earth slides — to create the structure that now supplies drinking water to more than half of Melbourne.

Construction ran from 1926 to 1932, with an aerial ropeway built from Mount Evelyn railway station to the reservoir site.

Stretching about five kilometres, the ropeway carried sand and cement in buckets to the wall site.

The dam is 43 metres deep and has a total capacity of about 40,500 megalitres. A megalitre is one million litres.

The first recorded death was in September 1927, when 20-year-old Italian migrant Angelo Condello was thrown from a pony into a tree, suffering fatal skull and neck injuries.

In September 1928, 40-year-old Luigi Longo died after being buried in an earth collapse. Six months later, 28-year-old Salvatore Migliorino was killed by falling timber.

In April 1929, 70-year-old worker Henry Glen died in a tunnel collapse, about 86 feet below the surface.

In June 1930, what became known as the “Silvan tunnel tragedy” occurred. Three men died and two escaped after a tunnel collapsed about 120 feet underground.

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Yarra Ranges Shire Council says a state Coalition pledge to force councils into weekly rubbish removal could lead to cuts to other services.

In a statement released on Monday August 10, Opposition leader Jess Wilson said if elected in November, a Coalition government would direct all Victorian councils to collect general rubbish bins weekly.

Wilson also announced a Coalition government would review the state’s landfill levy and place council waste charges under the existing 2.75 percent rate cap.

Yarra Ranges council director of planning and sustainable futures Kath McClusky said the council is “extremely concerned” about the impact this proposed change would have – including an increase on annual waste collection costs of up to about $3 million.

Reverting to weekly collections would raise costs for councils, but the rate cap would limit how quickly those costs could be passed on to households, leaving a question mark over who absorbs the gap.

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Question 1: I was born in Melbourne in 1861. I became one of Australia's most internationally famous performers. My stage name was inspired by an Australian city. I spent much of my later life at a large estate in Melbourne's east.

Question 2: I attended Camberwell High School. My big break came when I joined the cast of one of Australia’s most well-known soap operas. .

Question 3: I helped change the way Australians thought about what a home could look like. I became closely associated with mudbrick architecture.

I designed hundreds of homes, many of them in Melbourne's north-east. A reserve in Eltham is named after me.

Question 4: I was born in Ferntree Gully in July 1997. I spent most of my childhood in Lilydale and discovered my love for boxing in Melbourne’s east. I have since won a number of medals in boxing competitions, including in the Summer Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

Question 5: I was born in Melbourne in August 1972. I grew up in Balwyn North and attended North Balwyn Primary School, Balwyn High School and Yeshivah College.

I have developed a large body of work as a documentarian, satirist, radio personality and author, with my works mixing comedy with social commentary on issues like religion and racism.