Corio and Norlane were built in bulk through the 1950s and 60s, which is exactly the period when asbestos cement sheeting was standard. Get it tested before you touch it, and we will put you in touch with a licensed removalist for a quote.
Lara and Corio sit on the northern run between Geelong and the You Yangs, and a lot of the housing along that corridor went up inside the asbestos cement window. The Housing Commission started its first Corio estates in the late 1950s and finished five estates of about 2,500 houses within roughly twenty years. Next door in Norlane the same program peaked between 1951 and 1957 and had reached 2,464 Commission houses by 1976. Asbestos cement was a standard residential building material in Australia from the mid 1940s until the late 1980s, so the dates line up almost exactly.
None of that means your place definitely has asbestos in it. It means the odds are worth taking seriously, and that guessing by eye is not good enough for anyone. Nobody can identify asbestos cement by looking at it, which is why a sample has to go to a NATA accredited laboratory before you make any decisions. Ring us before you break anything and we will put you in touch with a licensed removalist.
A small sample goes to a NATA accredited laboratory, so you get a written result instead of an opinion, at published rates of roughly $88 to $160 per sample. Most houses need three to eight samples, because every material counts separately: a Corio back fence, an eaves lining and a bathroom wall sheet are three samples, not one.
Old fibro boundary fences are the most common job in the northern suburbs, and a weathered or cracked one is the version that matters. A whole fence line is well past the 10 square metre limit, so it is licensed removalist work, and published whole fence figures sit between $1,000 and $3,500.
Super Six corrugated roofing and fibro garage cladding turn up on a lot of Corio and Norlane blocks, and none of it should ever be water blasted, drilled, dry swept or walked on. Roof removal is published at $40 to $120 per square metre, with a single garage around $2,500 to $5,000 and a double around $4,000 to $8,000.
Asbestos is reportable priority waste in Victoria and can only go to a landfill authorised to receive it, never into a general skip or a council hard waste collection. Drysdale Landfill is the only site in the Barwon region on the EPA register, it takes small domestic loads up to a 6x4 trailer, and you need to ring (03) 5251 2935 before you drive over, as our disposal page explains.
Corio and Norlane were built by industry, in the decades when asbestos cement was the cheap default. Ford's Norlane complex went up between 1925 and 1942 and was extended eastwards through the war years, and by the company's fiftieth anniversary in 1953 Ford was Geelong's biggest employer with more than 5,000 workers. The Shell refinery at Corio followed in 1956. International Harvester and a phosphate works drew more families again, and the Housing Commission built the estates that housed them.
The numbers make the point on their own. Norlane's Commission program peaked between 1951 and 1957, with more than 1,200 prefabricated houses imported from Holland and France, and ran to 2,464 houses by 1976. Corio held 857 people at the 1947 census and 15,342 by 2001. Asbestos cement was in normal residential use from the mid 1940s until the late 1980s, and the total Australian ban on manufacture, supply and use only came into force on 31 December 2003.
What nobody can tell you is how many of those houses actually contain it. The national estimate is that asbestos is still present in one in three homes. There is no published figure for Geelong or the Barwon region, and anyone who quotes you one has made it up. A house built or extended before 1990 is worth checking, and that is about as far as the age of a building can take you.
Victoria's OHS Regulations cap unlicensed removal at 10 square metres of non-friable material, and at no more than one hour of removal work in any seven day period. Both caps have to hold, and the hour adds up across jobs rather than resetting each time. That is the limit the law sets for anyone doing this as work, and it is the honest reason a full fence line, a garage or a house roof goes to a licensed removalist. All three are far past both caps.
There is a nuance that most asbestos content online gets wrong. Those regulations bind employers and self-employed people at workplaces, and WorkSafe's own compliance code says they do not apply to someone removing asbestos at their own home, because a home is not a workplace. WorkSafe still recommends homeowners follow the same code. The catch matters here, in suburbs where so much of the stock began as Housing Commission housing: the moment a tradesperson, a tenant, a rental property, a business premises or a paid helper is involved, those caps stop being a recommendation and become law.
Friable material never qualifies for that exemption at any quantity and always needs a Class A removalist. The rules are also why a licensed removalist often cannot start tomorrow. The licence holder has to notify WorkSafe before the work begins, at least 24 hours out for jobs of 10 square metres or less of non-friable material, and at least five days out for anything larger. That duty sits with them, never with you.
EPA Victoria's register of landfills licensed for asbestos waste lists 26 sites across the state, and exactly one of them is in the Barwon region: Drysdale Landfill, run by the City of Greater Geelong, which takes small domestic quantities up to a 6x4 trailer load. Fees apply and the council does not publish the figure, so ring (03) 5251 2935 and ask before you load anything. No other Geelong area site appears on that register, so do not assume your nearest transfer station will take it. The Drysdale page covers that side of the region in more detail.
On price, the most useful number is the minimum job charge, published at $800 to $1,500. Nearly every residential enquiry is a small job, and that minimum is why pulling four sheets off a shed does not cost four sheets' worth. Beyond that, general removal runs $45 to $150 per square metre, a whole fence $1,000 to $3,500, a house roof $4,000 to $15,000, and a clearance certificate $165 to $250 where one is needed. Our full cost guide sets out where each of those figures comes from.
Two honest caveats on all of that. Every published Victorian figure is a Melbourne metro benchmark, because no Geelong or Barwon provider publishes rates at all, and two Melbourne suppliers price regional work separately. GST treatment also varies between providers, so ask each removalist whether their quote includes it. Prices stay indicative until somebody has looked at the actual material.
Probably old enough to be worth checking. Asbestos cement was in normal residential use from the mid 1940s until the late 1980s, and the Corio and Norlane estates were built squarely inside that window, mostly from the early 1950s onwards. Age is not a test though. The only way to know is a sample analysed by a NATA accredited laboratory.
Drysdale Landfill is the only facility in the Barwon region on EPA Victoria's register of landfills licensed to receive asbestos waste. It accepts small domestic quantities only, capped at a 6x4 trailer, fees apply, and you should ring (03) 5251 2935 first, because an authorised landfill can still decline a load or ask you to book a time. It can never go in a general skip bin or a council hard waste collection.
At your own home the OHS Regulations do not technically apply, because a home is not a workplace, but WorkSafe recommends homeowners follow the same code anyway. That code caps the work at 10 square metres of non-friable material and one hour in any seven days, and a full fence line blows past both. If the property is rented, or a tradie or a paid helper touches it, those caps are law rather than advice. Get it tested first, then get a quote.
For a home where the owner engaged the removalist directly, the duty to obtain the clearance certificate sits with the licence holder, not with you. It has to come from an independent person who is not the removalist and has no stake in the job, which is why it appears as a separate line on a quote, usually $165 to $250. A certificate is not required at all if the work involved only non-friable material and did not exceed 10 square metres in total.
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