No transfer station in Colac Otway Shire is licensed to take asbestos, and nearly every price you will find online is a Melbourne one. Here is what that means for a Colac fence, roof or farm shed, and what to do before you touch it.
Colac sits far enough west of Geelong that asbestos gets handled differently here, and the awkward part starts with the tip. Plenty of the town's houses, and most of the older farm buildings around Colac Otway, went up while asbestos cement was the cheapest sheet on the market. It was standard in Australian residential building from the mid-1940s until the late 1980s, and homes built up until 1990 routinely used it. Fibro walls and eaves, corrugated sheeting on a dairy or a machinery shed, a grey fence line along the boundary.
We are not a removalist and we hold no licence. What we do is get the material tested and put you in touch with licensed asbestos removalists working in this area, and their WorkSafe Victoria licence number appears on every quote. You contract with them directly, so the price and the timing sit between you and them. If the sample comes back negative, and that does happen, you have spent the cost of a lab test instead of a removal.
The sample is analysed by a NATA-accredited laboratory, so being in Colac rather than Geelong barely matters for this step. Most houses need three to eight samples, because a fence, an eaves lining and a bathroom sheet count as three materials, not one.
Old boundary fences, dairies, hay sheds and workshops around Colac were commonly clad in asbestos cement. A full fence line or a whole shed is well past both of the limits the law sets for unlicensed removal work, which is the honest reason those jobs go to a licensed removalist.
Corrugated asbestos cement roofing is still on plenty of houses, garages and sheds out this way, and decades of weather leave it brittle. Storm damage is the usual reason a roof suddenly becomes urgent, and nobody should be walking on it to take a look.
Asbestos cannot go in a kerbside bin, a hard waste collection or the local transfer station, and Colac Otway Shire has no site licensed to receive it. When a licensed removalist does the work, the waste leaves with them, which is the simplest answer for most people.
Colac is a working town in dairy and cropping country on the Princes Highway, with the Otways behind it and the Warrnambool line running through. It built sheds to match, and most of them went up in the decades when asbestos cement was the standard cheap sheet. On a farm the cladding usually outlives the job it was put up for, so a 1960s dairy ends up as a storage shed and the sheeting stays where it is.
The housing follows the same pattern. Asbestos cement was used in Australian residential building from the mid-1940s until the late 1980s, which covers a good part of the older streets in town, and there is no reliable way to tell by looking at it. That is the whole argument for a lab test rather than a guess, and it is why the first thing we say to anyone is to get it tested before they touch it. You can read how that works on our asbestos testing page.
One thing catches people out here more than it does in town. The ten square metre and one hour in seven days limits in Victoria's OHS Regulations bind employers and self-employed people at workplaces, and a home is not a workplace, so they do not apply to a homeowner working on their own house. WorkSafe recommends following the same code anyway. The moment the building is part of a working farm, or the place is rented out, or someone is being paid to help, those caps are law.
The shire's transfer stations at Alvie, Birregurra and Apollo Bay publish what they accept, and it comes to general rubbish, hard rubbish, recycling and organic waste. Asbestos is not on that list, it does not appear in the shire's waste disposal charges, and none of the three sites is on EPA Victoria's register of landfills licensed for asbestos waste. The shire's own asbestos advice is to ring the council and ask for an Environmental Health Officer, or to read the Victorian asbestos information website.
There is exactly one site in the whole Barwon region on that EPA register, and it is Drysdale Landfill, run by the City of Greater Geelong. It takes small domestic quantities only, capped at a 6x4 trailer, and fees apply, although the fee is not published anywhere we could verify. Ring (03) 5251 2935 before you load anything, because a licensed landfill can still turn a load away and some want a call ahead so staff are ready for it.
The other authorised site within reach is Ballarat Regional Landfill at Smythesdale, which takes asbestos by appointment only, Thursdays between 10am and 12pm, on 03 5342 8540. Its gate fee is not published either. Either way EPA's packaging rules still apply: wrapped in polythene about 200 microns thick, sealed with tape, and carrying the asbestos warning mark before it moves anywhere. More detail on all of that sits on our asbestos disposal page.
Nobody publishes Geelong or Barwon pricing for this work. Every Victorian figure we use comes from a Melbourne supplier's rate card or published guide, and at least two of those suppliers quote work outside metro Melbourne separately, so treat them as benchmarks rather than a price for Colac. Prices are indicative and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask each removalist whether their quote includes GST.
The most useful number is the minimum job charge, which Victorian sources put at $800 to $1,500. Small jobs are priced off the call-out rather than the sheet count, so a few broken sheets on a shed wall lands closer to a bigger patch than people expect. Beyond that, whole fences run $1,000 to $3,500, a shed $1,300 to $3,000, a single garage $2,500 to $5,000 and a double garage $4,000 to $8,000. Roofing runs $40 to $120 per square metre, a full house roof $4,000 to $15,000, and a lab sample $88 to $160.
None of those is our quote, and we do not price on a removalist's behalf. Ask what the travel adds when you get a quote out here, and ask whether a clearance certificate is included, since Victorian sources put that at $165 to $250 and it has to come from someone independent of the removalist. Replacement is a separate job: a new fence, a re-clad or a re-roof is work for a registered builder, not for the removalist and not for us. The full picture is on our asbestos removal cost page.
No. Those stations list general rubbish, hard rubbish, recycling and organics, asbestos is not among them, and none of them appears on EPA Victoria's register of landfills licensed for asbestos waste. The nearest site on that register is Drysdale Landfill near Geelong, which takes small domestic loads up to a 6x4 trailer for a fee it does not publish. Ring them on (03) 5251 2935 before you go, and never put asbestos in a kerbside bin or a hard waste collection.
The ten square metre and one hour in seven days limits in Victoria's OHS Regulations apply to employers and self-employed people at workplaces, not to a homeowner working on their own home, because a home is not regarded as a workplace. WorkSafe still recommends homeowners follow the same compliance code, and a full fence line is well past both figures. If the property is rented, if the fence is part of a working farm, or if you are paying someone to help, those caps are law and the work needs a licensed removalist. Friable material always needs a Class A removalist, at any quantity.
Removalists do travel for this work, and the sensible thing is to ask what the travel adds before you agree to anything. Two of the Victorian suppliers behind the figures we publish quote work outside metro Melbourne separately, so a Melbourne rate card is a starting point rather than your number. Call 0480 XXX XXX and we will put you in touch with licensed asbestos removalists who cover this area, and you deal with them directly from there.
The sample is analysed by a NATA-accredited laboratory, and that is the part of this that does not care where you live. Published Victorian and national rates run $88 to $160 per sample, and most houses need three to eight samples, because every different material has to be tested separately. Standard turnaround is one to five business days, with a surcharge of 25 to 50 per cent if you need a result inside 24 to 48 hours. Testing is cheap next to removal, and it is the right first step whether you are in town, out at Beeac or over towards Birregurra.
Free quotes from licensed removalists. Tell us what you've found and we'll put you in touch.
