Asbestos removal in Warragul, Drouin and West Gippsland

Warragul and Drouin are growing fast on the edge of Melbourne, but the older streets and the farms around them were built in the asbestos cement decades. Fibro cottages, super six dairies, fenced side yards. A licensed removalist who covers Baw Baw, when you engage one, measures up in person and handles the disposal, which matters here because no council facility in the shire takes asbestos.

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

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The housing and farm buildings you'll find here

The centres of Warragul and Drouin have weatherboard and brick veneer houses from the 1950s to 1980s with the usual fibro eaves, wet-area linings and shed roofs, alongside the new estates where little of this applies. Trafalgar, Yarragon, Neerim South, Longwarry and Nilma have older cottages, some fully fibro-clad.

Out of town it's dairy country. Dairies, hay sheds, machinery sheds and workers' cottages built between the 1940s and 1980s commonly carry super six roofing and fibro walls, sometimes several hundred square metres on one farm. See farm and commercial.

Disposal in Baw Baw Shire

Baw Baw's transfer stations do not accept asbestos, and the council refers residents to EPA Victoria. A homeowner with a small load can ring Latrobe City about Hyland Highway Landfill, which takes Baw Baw residents' domestic asbestos, up to 120 kilograms, at a fee per 20 kilogram package, by appointment. Every other load, and any load removed by a licensed removalist or from a farm, goes to an EPA-licensed facility. Ask any removalist which licensed site their load is going to, and whether the tip fee is inside the quote.

Asbestos removal Warragul and Drouin: how a licensed job runs

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

If you engage a licensed removalist:

Written quote with the licence class, the WorkSafe notification, the disposal destination and the clearance.
WorkSafe is notified before the job starts: at least five days ahead for friable material or more than 10 square metres of bonded sheeting, at least 24 hours ahead for a smaller bonded job.
Wet, whole, wrapped, loaded once. On a farm, staged around milking or harvest if needed.
A clearance certificate from an independent person where the job needs one (friable, or over 10 square metres), then your roofer, fencer or builder.

Common West Gippsland jobs

Dairy and machinery shed roofs at scale, quoted per square metre or per sheet.
Fibro cottages being renovated or demolished on the older lots as the towns grow.
Side fences in the older Warragul and Drouin streets.
Storm damage: old sheds lose sheets. See storm and fire damage.
Pipe lagging and old heater flues, which need a Class A crew.

Getting the yard or the farm ready

Clear a path from the job to where a truck can park, move anything you want to keep out of a shed the day before, and keep animals away. On a farm, tell the crew about power lines over the shed, where the water is, and whether the track will take a truck after rain. On a dairy, the crew plans around milking.

What a proper quote includes

Area measured, not guessed. Fixings inspected. Condition of the sheets, and how much has weathered to the point where it crumbles by hand, which is handled as friable. Where the waste is going, which in Baw Baw almost always means an EPA-licensed facility rather than a council transfer station. What's going back on, and whether the roofer or fencer is booked. And the licence class the job needs, with the name of the person who holds it. A single number on a text message isn't a quote.

Growth towns, old bones

Warragul and Drouin have doubled in size, and the new estates are post-ban stock, unlikely to have any. The demand comes from the older centre: cottages on big blocks being renovated, subdivided or replaced, and the farms on the edge being sold into lifestyle lots with an old dairy still standing. If you're buying one, a pre-purchase asbestos inspection puts the number in the offer. See testing and inspection.

No Baw Baw tip takes asbestos: what that means on a Saturday morning

Baw Baw Shire's own words are that asbestos is not accepted at its transfer stations, and the 2026-27 transfer station guide lists asbestos-containing material under the things to take up with the EPA on 1300 372 842. That covers Lardner, Trafalgar, Neerim South and Erica; none will take a wrapped sheet, however small. A national disposal map still lists a Baw Baw entry; it's out of date, the shire takes none.

So a homeowner here has two real options:

Drive it to Latrobe. Hyland Highway Landfill at 64 Bartons Lane, Loy Yang, takes domestic asbestos from Baw Baw residents by appointment: up to 120 kilograms, in 20 kilogram packages, charged per package. Pay first at the Latrobe City office, 141 Commercial Road, Morwell, then show the receipt at the gatehouse. Ring first.
Let a licensed removalist take it. For anything past a few sheets this is the normal answer; a Baw Baw quote should name the disposal destination.

Questions about the house itself go to the council's Public Health team on 5624 2411.

Warragul and Drouin by decade, not by estate

No source names which Warragul or Drouin estates went up when, so this page won't invent one. The census does the job. Warragul had 3,536 people in 1947, 6,405 in 1961, 8,170 in 1986 and 13,081 by 2011; 19,856 at the 2021 census. Drouin was 1,638 in 1947, 3,942 in 1981, 4,455 in 1991 and 9,686 by 2011; 15,287 at the 2021 census. Read that as three bands:

Built or renovated before 1990. The slow decades, when both towns roughly doubled. Weatherboard and brick veneer, fibro eaves, fibro behind the bathroom tiles, a sleepout or garage, a super six shed. Assume it may contain asbestos.
1990 to 2003. Post-1990 stock, so unlikely, but the national ban took effect on 31 December 2003, so test before you cut.
After 2010. The big Drouin estates, hundreds of blocks sold from 2010 on, and their Warragul equivalents. Post-1990 stock, so unlikely, but the national ban is 2003, so test before you cut. The one to watch is the farmhouse, dairy or shed that was on the land before the subdivision.

Out of town the farm is the biggest load in the shire, and a farm that employs anyone is a workplace: the waste is commercial and the licence rules bind everyone who touches a dairy roof. Burning the old shed or pushing it into the gully is disposal at an unauthorised place, which the regulations prohibit.

The 13 February 2024 storm damaged the Drouin and Trafalgar recreation reserves. When a shed loses its super six in a blow, don't pick up the pieces; photograph, ring the insurer; if the material is broken, burnt or storm-damaged and you need someone today, WorkSafe Victoria's directory of licensed removalists can help straight away.

Drouin, Trafalgar and Yarragon

If you searched asbestos removal Drouin rather than Warragul, nothing changes: the two towns are ten minutes apart, so a removalist signed on for one would reasonably also cover the other, plus Trafalgar, Yarragon, Longwarry and the farms in between. The newer estates on the Drouin side rarely have fibro; the older streets near the station and the dairy sheds out of town often do.

Questions people ask about this

Is a removalist available yet for Neerim South, Noojee and the hills?

Register your job and it goes on file for the West Gippsland hill towns. Access up a steep track is still worth mentioning, for whoever eventually quotes.

Can I take a few fence sheets to the Trafalgar transfer station?

No. Baw Baw's transfer stations don't accept asbestos. A small wrapped domestic load can go to Latrobe's Hyland Highway Landfill by appointment, at a fee per package. For a whole fence, the removalist takes the waste.

Is a farm shed treated differently?

For disposal, yes: it's commercial waste and can't go to a council facility. For removal, the same licence rules apply either way.

The national asbestos map shows a Baw Baw disposal entry. Can I use that?

No. The council's current page says asbestos is not accepted at its transfer stations. The nearest facility for a Baw Baw homeowner's load is Latrobe's Hyland Highway Landfill at Loy Yang, by appointment, up to 120 kilograms, charged per 20 kilogram package. Ring first.

Do I split the cost of removing an asbestos fence with the neighbour?

Under the Fences Act, removal of the old fence is fencing works, normally shared after a written fencing notice with the quote and the split, though no official source confirms the contribution covers licensed asbestos removal. They have 30 days to respond. If it's argued, the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria is the place.

Do I need a building permit to knock down the old shed?

A freestanding non-masonry shed under 40 square metres is exempt from a building permit for demolition under the Building Regulations, provided it isn't heritage-listed and doesn't affect public safety. Anything bigger, or a house, needs a permit from a building surveyor. The asbestos comes off under licence first either way.

Sources checked: October 2026

Where these facts come from

1. Tell us what and where

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2. On file, by town

Your job and photos stay on file with us.

3. Read up meanwhile

The guides cover cost, tip rules and the DIY rules.