Asbestos removal in Moe and Newborough

Moe and Newborough were built to house the people who worked at Yallourn's power station, and a large part of them went up from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Plenty of the houses also have a past somewhere else: some came in pieces from England, and others were moved across from Yallourn when that town was pulled down. When you're working out what's in the walls, that history matters as much as the street.

All asbestos removal work is carried out by WorkSafe-licensed removalists.

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Moe: the Commission's town south of the line

Moe first grew as a place to live for people who couldn't afford to live at Yallourn, and its population went from 400 in the 1920s to 1,000 by 1939. After the war the SEC made it a dormitory town for the power industry. From 1947 to the mid 1950s the Housing Commission built 1,500 homes in Moe, mainly south of the railway line, for people coming to work at the expanding Yallourn power station, and A.V. Jennings built another 71. The town went from 2,811 people in 1947 to 13,500 in 1955 and 15,555 by 1961.

Every one of those houses is pre-1990 stock, and a home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos. If yours had a kitchen, a bathroom or a back room redone before then, that work sits in the same bracket as the original house.

Newborough: the houses that came by ship

Newborough started in the 1930s as Moe East, a few families on ten acre blocks, and took its own name in 1942. After the war the SEC needed skilled workers for the Yallourn extensions and knew it couldn't attract them without houses. It compulsorily acquired land at Newborough and ordered 300 pre-cut houses from a Nottingham firm, made in England to designs by Australian architects, shipped out and put together on site. The East Newborough houses arrived in 1950, and another 400 were ordered for North Newborough. Most were set aside for British migrants, many of them tradesmen the SEC had recruited with a promise of housing, which is how the scheme came to be called operation snail: the new arrivals were said to be bringing their houses with them.

Many of those houses have since been remade, with verandahs, new roofs and new cladding. Keep that in mind before a renovation. What you see from the street may not be the original skin, so test what's under and behind it as well as what's on top.

Yallourn houses on Newborough blocks

When the SEC pulled Yallourn down in the 1970s to get at the coal, Newborough was the place its residents preferred to relocate to. The SEC laid out subdivisions, and many families built new or moved their Yallourn house onto the new block. Avon Court is one street with many relocated Yallourn houses, still recognisable by their distinctive style.

So in Newborough the age of the subdivision doesn't always tell you the age of the house. Yallourn was built between the 1920s and the 1950s, and a house moved from there carries whatever it was built from. Date the house, not the street, and test before anyone cuts into it.

Yallourn North has a similar story. Brown Coal Mine took the new name after the war, and the SEC put in housing estates for its workforce, including 275 pre-cut houses from Nottingham; the population went from 800 just after the war to 1,457 by 1954. The same advice holds there.

Getting rid of it from Moe or Newborough

Moe and Newborough are in Latrobe City, so a homeowner's own small load goes the same way as one from anywhere in the municipality: to the Hyland Highway Landfill at Loy Yang, booked ahead and paid for first at the council's headquarters, 141 Commercial Road, Morwell. A Latrobe resident can take one cubic metre at most, in double-wrapped parcels of 20 kilograms or less. The Morwell page goes through it step by step, and the disposal page covers the other councils.

Never put it in the kerbside bin. Commercial asbestos is listed as not accepted at Hyland Highway, and once a licensed removalist has removed it EPA's transport rules apply, so a removalist's load is bound for a site licensed to take it: ask which site, and whether the tip fee is in the quote.

The order of work on an older Moe or Newborough house

Send photos through the form, and we keep your job on file and your details with us.

If you engage a licensed removalist:

Test first. A sample of each suspect material tested by a NATA-accredited laboratory, including anything behind newer cladding or under a later floor. See testing and inspection.
Get the written quote. The area in square metres, the licence class, and the site the waste is going to.
Allow for the notice. WorkSafe gets five days' notice for anything friable or bonded sheet over 10 square metres, and 24 hours for a smaller bonded job.
Wait for the clearance. Anything friable, or bonded sheet over 10 square metres, needs a clearance certificate from an independent person before your builder, roofer or plumber goes back in. See demolition with asbestos if the whole house is coming down.

GARDS, in Lloyd Street

The Valley's asbestos history isn't only about houses. GARDS, the asbestos support group, has its office at 211 Lloyd Street, Moe, and its history page records that 140,000 Latrobe Valley power station workers were exposed to asbestos between the 1920s and the 1980s. On home removal it's plain: it does not encourage anyone to do their own.

Questions people ask about this

Is my Newborough house one of the English pre-cut ones?

If it's in the East or North Newborough estates and dates from the early 1950s, it may be. The street alone won't tell you, because many have been remade with new roofs and cladding since. Either way it's pre-1990, so test before you renovate.

Our house was moved from Yallourn. How old does that make it?

As old as it was in Yallourn, not as old as the block it sits on now. Yallourn was built between the 1920s and the 1950s, so a relocated house belongs to those years, and so does whatever it was built from.

Can I drive a few wrapped sheets from Moe to Loy Yang myself?

As a Latrobe resident, up to one cubic metre, in double-wrapped 20 kilogram packages, by appointment, once you've paid at 141 Commercial Road in Morwell. The state's homeowner guidance still says removal is best performed by licensed asbestos removalists.

A storm has knocked sheets off our shed in Newborough. What now?

Keep people and pets away, and don't sweep it or hose it with high-pressure water. Take photos from a distance for the insurer. That's urgent: if the sheets are broken or storm-damaged and you need someone today, WorkSafe Victoria's directory of licensed removalists can help straight away. The storm and fire page covers what comes after.

The bathroom tiles in our 1950s Moe house are coming off. What's behind them?

In a house that age, possibly cement sheet, which is one of the places asbestos may be found in a pre-1990 house. Stop before anything else comes off, don't break the sheet to look, and get a sample tested by a NATA-accredited laboratory. See walls, ceilings, eaves and bathrooms.

What would a small job in Moe or Newborough cost?

Nobody can price it from a page. As a yardstick, Home Upkeep's 2026 Melbourne guide puts bonded sheet at $50 to $150 per square metre, and the minimum call-out is $800 to $1,500 there and around $2,000 in Service.com.au's national guide, so a few sheets cost the floor, not the rate. See the cost guide.

Where can someone with an asbestos-related illness find support locally?

GARDS has its office at 211 Lloyd Street, Moe, and its phone number is 0407 274 173.

Sources checked: October 2026

Where these facts come from

Price ranges from published guides

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