A lot of Ocean Grove is still older holiday housing from the fibro years, and asbestos tends to show up the week someone starts pulling one apart. Get it tested before you touch it, and call now on 0480 XXX XXX.
Ocean Grove sits on the Bellarine Peninsula, and plenty of the town is still the older holiday housing that went up while asbestos cement sheeting was ordinary building material. Those places are being renovated, extended and knocked down now, and that is usually the moment asbestos surfaces. It turns up as a wall sheet behind the plaster, an eaves lining, a shed wall, or the fence down the side that nobody looked at twice until someone took a grinder to it.
We are not a licensed removalist and we do not carry out removal ourselves. What we do is get the material identified properly at a NATA accredited laboratory, and put you in touch with licensed asbestos removalists whose WorkSafe Victoria licence number appears on every quote they give you. You contract with the removalist directly. If you have already disturbed something and you are worried about it, stop, leave it alone, and call now on 0480 XXX XXX.
You cannot tell asbestos cement from modern fibre cement by looking at it, and in a 1960s Ocean Grove shack the two often sit side by side. A sample goes to a NATA accredited laboratory, standard results come back in one to five business days, and testing runs $88 to $160 per sample.
Cracked, flaking or weathered fibro fences are common on the peninsula's older blocks, and it is the damaged sheets that matter rather than the intact ones. A full fence line is well past what anyone may do as unlicensed work, so it goes to a licensed removalist. See asbestos fence removal.
Super Six corrugated roofing, garage walls and shed cladding are the bigger jobs on an older Ocean Grove block. Never water blast, drill, dry sweep or walk on them, because that is what turns a solid sheet into loose fibres. See roof and shed removal.
Asbestos can only go to a landfill licensed to receive it, and EPA Victoria's register lists exactly one in the whole Barwon region. It is Drysdale Landfill, here on the Bellarine, and it takes small domestic quantities only. See asbestos disposal.
Asbestos cement was ordinary building material in Australian housing from the mid 1940s until the late 1980s, and the total ban on all forms of asbestos only came into force on 31 December 2003. A house built or extended before 1990 may contain it. Nationally it is estimated to still be present in one in three homes. Nobody has published a figure for Ocean Grove or the Bellarine, and we are not going to make one up.
What makes this town its own case is timing. Sea change and retirement buyers have been picking up the older, cheaper holiday houses here for years, and those houses get reworked rather than left alone. Asbestos causes nobody any trouble while a shack sits there quietly. It causes trouble the day the renovation starts, the demolition goes ahead, or a storm cracks a fence panel.
The materials worth a second look are the ones people stop noticing: flat wall and ceiling sheets, eaves linings, the backing behind a bathroom or laundry wall, corrugated roofing on a shed or garage, and fence panels. Some of it looks exactly like the fibre cement sold today, which is why guessing is a waste of everyone's time. A lab test settles it.
This is the part most asbestos content gets wrong. Victoria's OHS Regulations set the unlicensed limit at 10 square metres of non friable material in total, and no more than one hour of removal work in any seven day period. Both caps have to hold, and that hour is cumulative across jobs, not one hour per job.
Those regulations bind employers and self employed people at workplaces. WorkSafe's compliance code says they do not apply to a person removing asbestos at their own home, because a home is not regarded as a workplace, and it recommends homeowners follow the same code anyway. The caps become law the moment a tradesperson, a tenant, a rental property, a business premises or a paid helper is involved, which in a town with this many holiday rentals is worth knowing before you start.
Scale is the honest reason most of these jobs end up with a licensed removalist regardless. A full fence line, a garage or a house roof is far past 10 square metres and far past an hour. Friable asbestos, the soft crumbly kind, is never covered by the exemption at any quantity and always needs a Class A licensed removalist.
Nobody publishes pricing for Geelong or the Barwon region, so the figures here are Victorian benchmarks from Melbourne metro suppliers rather than quotes from us. The minimum job charge sits around $800 to $1,500, which is why a two sheet repair is never as cheap as people expect. A whole asbestos fence commonly runs $1,000 to $3,500, a garage or small roof $3,500 to $5,500, and a house roof $4,000 to $15,000. Prices are indicative and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask each removalist whether their quote includes GST, and see the cost guide for the rest.
Disposal is where the Bellarine is unusual, and in your favour. EPA Victoria's register of landfills licensed to accept asbestos lists exactly one site in the whole Barwon region, and it is Drysdale Landfill, on this peninsula. It takes small domestic quantities only, up to a six by four trailer, fees apply, and you need to ring (03) 5251 2935 before you turn up, because a licensed landfill can still decline a load or ask you to book a time. Asbestos can never go in a general skip or a council hard waste collection.
After a licensed removal, a clearance certificate comes from an independent person rather than from the removalist who did the work. One quirk of the Victorian rules works in a homeowner's favour: where you engaged the licence holder yourself for work at your own home, the duty to obtain that certificate sits on them, not on you. A certificate is not required where the job was non friable material under 10 square metres in total. Whatever goes back in place of what came off, a new fence, new roof sheets or new cladding, is separate work you organise with a registered builder.
Usually less than people fear. Inspectors do not take samples, so a report normally says suspected or presumed rather than confirmed, and only a laboratory can settle it. Testing runs $88 to $160 per sample, and most houses need three to eight samples, because every different material has to be tested separately. Non friable material in sound condition that nobody is about to disturb can often be left where it is.
Only to a landfill licensed to receive it. EPA Victoria's register lists one in the Barwon region, Drysdale Landfill, and it accepts small domestic quantities only, to a maximum of a six by four trailer. Fees apply, and you should call (03) 5251 2935 before you load anything, since an authorised landfill can still choose not to accept a load or may want you to book a time. It has to be wrapped in polythene about 200 microns thick, sealed with tape and carrying the asbestos warning mark before it goes anywhere.
Victorian figures put a whole fence at $1,000 to $3,500. Per sheet it is $20 to $50, but the minimum job charge of $800 to $1,500 swallows a small sheet count, so pulling four panels is not a $200 job. Those are Melbourne metro benchmarks rather than Geelong prices, because no Geelong pricing is published, and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask whether the quote includes it. A licensed removalist gives you the real number once they have seen the fence.
Yes, and it catches people out. The reason a homeowner sits outside the OHS Regulations is that their own home is not a workplace, and that reasoning stops applying once the property is rented out or anyone is paid to do the work. At that point the 10 square metre and one hour caps are law rather than guidance. Friable asbestos needs a Class A licensed removalist no matter who owns the place.
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