Asbestos guides for Gippsland media and community groups

Who this page is for

• Local journalists and editors covering storms, renovations, council tip rules or older housing.
• Newsletter editors at schools, clubs, churches and sporting groups who want a short, plain item on taking fibro to the tip.
• Neighbourhood houses and community centres with a noticeboard, a rack of handouts or a working bee coming up.
• Community groups organising a clean-up, or fielding questions after a storm.
• Real estate agents and conveyancers whose buyers ask about fibro in an older house.
• Building and pest inspectors who flag possible asbestos in a report and want somewhere to send the client next.

Gippsland Asbestos Removal is a Victorian business that keeps a register of local asbestos jobs. Asbestos removal work is carried out by WorkSafe-licensed removalists. Everything on this page, like the rest of the site, is general information drawn from published rules.

Guides that are free to print and share

Three guides have a Print this page button near the top. They print without the menus and forms, and each printout ends with the address of the page it came from.

• Where to dispose of asbestos in Gippsland: council by council, which facility takes a homeowner's own load, how it has to be wrapped, and who to ring before you drive.
• What asbestos removal costs in Gippsland: the published 2026 price ranges, worked examples for a fence, a shed and a roof, and how to read a quote line by line.
• Storm and fire damaged asbestos: the first hour after sheeting is broken, burnt or blown down, the WorkSafe notice rules, and the questions to put to an insurer.

You're welcome to print any of them and share them for community use, and that includes local news reporting. Pin one on a noticeboard, hand copies out at a meeting, or quote from them in a newsletter or a news story. Keep copies unaltered, and include a link back to the page each came from, or leave its address on the printout, so a reader can always find the current version. Council fees and rules do change, so a copy printed a while ago is worth checking against the page.

Story angle: every shire takes asbestos differently

It's easy to assume the local tip will take a few sheets of fibro. In Gippsland the answer depends on the shire, which makes a practical story for any local paper or newsletter:

• Latrobe City: Hyland Highway Landfill takes a homeowner's own asbestos by appointment, double-wrapped in heavy black builders' plastic in packages of 20 kilograms or less, with the fee paid first at 141 Commercial Road, Morwell. Latrobe residents can bring up to one cubic metre.
• Baw Baw Shire: the council's transfer stations don't accept asbestos at all, and the council points residents to EPA Victoria. Baw Baw residents can take up to 120 kilograms to Hyland Highway Landfill instead.
• Bass Coast: Grantville Transfer Station and Landfill takes it Monday to Friday, from domestic properties inside the shire, with a Bass Coast rate notice to prove where it came from.
• South Gippsland: Koonwarra Landfill takes asbestos a homeowner brings in themselves, but a load moved by a licensed removalist, or from a non-residential property, is classed as commercial and refused.
• Wellington: Kilmany Resource Recovery Centre is the shire's only facility licensed for domestic asbestos, and only by prior arrangement.
• East Gippsland: Bairnsdale Landfill takes it by appointment, with 24 hours' notice.

The disposal page has the phone numbers, the wrapping rules and the weight limits for each one.

Story angle: Latrobe's pay first rule

A small item that saves readers a wasted trip: the gatehouse at Hyland Highway Landfill can't take payment. A Latrobe household books ahead, pays first at Latrobe City headquarters at 141 Commercial Road, Morwell, and brings the receipt out to the landfill.

Packages that aren't double-wrapped and kept to 20 kilograms or less are turned away, so the wrapping rule belongs in the same story. The Morwell page has the rest of the Latrobe City detail.

Story angle: why storm damaged fibro needs care

Storm season flattens fibro fences and lifts shed roofs, and the instinct is to tidy up fast. EPA Victoria's guidance is that asbestos cement in good condition is a very low risk because the fibres are bound together; breaking it is what changes that.

The state's homeowner guidance is not to sweep up asbestos debris, and not to use high-pressure water on it.

A removalist with a Class A licence is needed once sheeting has burnt and crumbles by hand, because that makes it friable; a Class B licence covers bonded sheet that is still solid.

Once a licensed removalist takes the job, the regulations let them notify WorkSafe within 24 hours of starting only where the job meets the regulation's definition of an unexpected situation. The storm and fire page sets out the first hour in order.

Story angle: why homes built before 1990 are the ones to check

The age of a house is the first question. The national asbestos safety agency's advice is that a home built or renovated before 1990 might contain asbestos.

Its use, import and export were prohibited across Australia at the end of 2003.

Latrobe City says nearly three in four homes in the municipality are likely to contain asbestos, against one in three nationally.

Looking at a sheet won't settle it: a sample sent to a NATA-accredited lab is the only way to confirm it. For an agent or an inspector, the testing and inspection page is the one to hand a buyer of an older house.

Story angle: what a homeowner may do themselves

After a storm, or before a renovation, people ask whether they can just pull the sheets off themselves. The state's homeowner guidance at asbestos.vic.gov.au says Victorian law allows homeowners and some workers to remove very small amounts of asbestos in limited circumstances, that the risks are serious, and it recommends a licensed removalist for any amount. It sets no quantity for a homeowner.

The regulations' limit of 10 square metres, and one hour in any seven days, is for tradespeople doing removal as work. The DIY rules page explains who that binds.

Story angle: what drives the cost of removal

The cost guide works from two published 2026 price guides. Home Upkeep's Melbourne guide puts bonded asbestos at about $50 to $150 a square metre, with friable material at two to four times that rate.

Minimum charges run from Home Upkeep's $800 to $1,500 up to the minimum of around $2,000 in Service.com.au's guide, which is why even a small job has a floor.

A clearance certificate from an independent person is needed after any job with friable material, or more than 10 square metres of bonded sheeting, and it is one more line on the quote.

Home Upkeep's figures are Melbourne figures. Condition, height and access, the amount of material and the distance to an accepting tip are what move a local quote, and the cost guide takes each in turn.

A ready-to-paste newsletter item

This short item can go into a newsletter as it stands:

Taking fibro to the tip? Check your shire first. Baw Baw's transfer stations don't accept asbestos at all, and in Latrobe City you pay at 141 Commercial Road, Morwell, before taking a small load to Hyland Highway Landfill by appointment. EPA Victoria's packing guideline, written under the 2009 industrial waste regulations, says to wet the sheets, break them as little as possible, wrap them in two layers of polythene about 0.2 mm thick and tape them shut. Each shire's rules: gippslandasbestosremoval.com.au/disposal/

How to get in touch

For press and community enquiries, email us at hello@gippslandasbestosremoval.com.au, whether it's about a story, a guide you'd like to share, or something on a guide that's out of date.

To credit the site, use Gippsland Asbestos Removal and gippslandasbestosremoval.com.au.

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