Two fence sheets are already off and stacked beside the shed, it is nine at night, and you are on your phone trying to work out whether you were allowed to do that. That is how this question usually reaches us. Not from someone planning a job, from someone who has already started one and has gone quiet about it.
So, can I remove asbestos myself in Victoria? The rule everybody quotes at you, the 10 square metre rule, is real. It just does not say what most websites say it says. Plenty of the asbestos advice that ranks in Australian search was written for New South Wales, and Victoria runs its own Occupational Health and Safety Act and its own regulations. The wording here is different, and so is the answer.
What follows is the Victorian position as WorkSafe states it, how far 10 square metres goes on an actual fence or garage roof, what the job costs when you hand it over, and the one place in the Barwon region the waste can legally end up.
The short answer, and why so much of the internet gets it wrong
The 10 square metre limit lives in Victoria’s OHS Regulations, regulation 250. Those regulations bind employers and self-employed people at workplaces. WorkSafe’s own compliance code, at paragraph 34, says that when someone removes asbestos at domestic premises that are their own home, the regulations do not apply, “because the home is not regarded as a workplace”.
That is the sentence most DIY articles skip, and skipping it produces a claim that is simply wrong: that a homeowner commits an offence by taking down more than 10 square metres at their own place.
Here is the accurate version. The 10 square metre and one hour figures are the limits the law sets for anyone doing this as work. WorkSafe recommends homeowners follow the same code at home. And the moment a tradesperson, a tenant, a rental property, business premises or a paid helper is involved, those caps stop being a recommendation and become law.
Asbestos Victoria’s homeowner removal page puts the practical view plainly: removal work is best performed by licensed removalists, who are trained to do it safely.
None of that tells you whether the sheet in your hands is asbestos in the first place, and you cannot tell by eye. Ring us on (03) 5550 4817 or send a photo through the contact form, and we can take a sample and have it analysed by a NATA-accredited laboratory before you go any further. Testing is the cheap step. Everything else on this page costs more.
What the 10 square metre rule actually says
Two caps, and both of them have to hold:
- the area of non-friable asbestos cement material to be removed does not exceed 10 square metres in total, and
- no more than one hour of asbestos removal work is performed in total in any seven day period.
The hour is the part people miss. It is cumulative across jobs inside that seven days, not an hour per job, so you cannot do a bit each weekend and treat every session as a fresh start.
Friable material is never covered by the exemption, at any quantity. Friable means it can be crumbled by hand when dry: pipe lagging, some old insulation, fire damaged or badly degraded sheeting, and asbestos contaminated dust. That work is Class A licensed work, full stop. Non-friable material in sound condition, which covers most fibro cladding, fences, Super Six roofing and eaves linings, is Class B. If you are not sure which one you are looking at, our guide to friable and non-friable asbestos walks through the difference.
The same 10 square metre figure turns up twice more in the regulations, which is worth knowing before you read a quote. A clearance certificate is not required where the work involved only non-friable material not exceeding 10 square metres in total. And a licence holder has to notify WorkSafe before starting: 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 notice period is the honest reason a licensed crew cannot start tomorrow morning, and it is a fair reason to be sceptical of anyone who says they can.
One genuinely good piece of news for homeowners. Where the removal is at domestic premises and the homeowner engaged the licence holder, the duty to obtain the clearance certificate sits with the removalist, not with you.
How far 10 square metres goes on a real Geelong job
Not far. A boundary fence line, a garage roof or a full set of eaves is past the area cap and past the hour long before you have finished setting up.
The figures below are Melbourne metro benchmarks published by Victorian suppliers, because nobody publishes Geelong or Barwon specific rates. Two of those suppliers price regional work separately, so treat these as the shape of the market rather than a quote. Prices are indicative and GST treatment varies between providers, so ask each removalist whether their quote includes GST.
| Job | Inside the 10 sqm and one hour caps? | Melbourne metro benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Two or three cracked fence sheets | Possibly on area, rarely on time | $20 to $50 per sheet, but a minimum job charge of $800 to $1,500 applies |
| A full back boundary fence | No | $1,000 to $3,500 for the whole fence |
| Garage or small roof | No | $3,500 to $5,500 |
| Whole house roof | No | $4,000 to $15,000, or $40 to $120 per square metre |
| Full set of eaves | No | $1,500 to $2,500 |
| Backyard shed | No | $1,300 to $3,000 |
| Anything friable | Never | Class A licensed removalist only, no exemption at any quantity |
The minimum job charge is the number that surprises people most, and it is the one worth carrying around. Small jobs are not cheap, because the setup, the wrapping, the tip run and the paperwork are much the same whether the crew lifts four sheets or forty. There is more on how quotes get built in our asbestos removal cost guide and in the longer cost breakdown for Geelong and the Barwon region.
When removing asbestos yourself stops being your call
Three situations come up constantly around Geelong, and each one lands differently.
A 1960s fibro fence line along a back boundary in Norlane. It runs the width of the block, so it is well past 10 square metres and well past an hour. At home, on your own, you are outside the regulations but a long way outside what the compliance code recommends. Bring in a mate you are paying, or a landscaper, or a fencing contractor, and it becomes work at a workplace, and the caps apply for real. Whole fence removals sit at $1,000 to $3,500 on the Victorian benchmarks above. The replacement fence is a separate conversation with a registered builder or fencing contractor, never part of a removal quote. Our asbestos fence removal page covers what a neighbour can be asked to share under the Fences Act.
A Super Six garage roof in Corio that has started to crack. This one changes the risk picture, because weathered and broken sheeting is the problem, not sheeting that is sound and painted. Roof sheets must never be water blasted, dry swept, drilled or walked on. A garage or small roof runs $3,500 to $5,500, and roofs generally run $40 to $120 per square metre. Edge protection or scaffolding gets added where the pitch or the height calls for it, which a licensed crew will price after looking at the site.
Eaves on a 1970s brick veneer in Belmont, found mid kitchen renovation. Here the trigger is the tradespeople. Your builder, sparky or plumber is at a workplace the moment they are on the tools at your place, so the caps bind them, and most will not touch it at all until there is a lab result in front of them. A full set of eaves is $1,500 to $2,500.
If you rent the place out, the same logic applies with more force. A rental property is a workplace for anyone who works there, and a tenant is not a homeowner doing their own place.
Call (03) 5550 4817 with the address and a description of what you are looking at, or send photos through the contact form, and we will put you in touch with a licensed removalist for a written quote. Their WorkSafe Victoria licence number appears on it. You contract with them directly.
What DIY asbestos removal actually saves, once you add it up
Less than people expect, and that is before anything goes wrong.
Testing sits at $88 to $160 per sample. Most houses need three to eight samples, because every different material has to be tested separately. A fence, an eaves lining and a bathroom wall sheet are three samples, not one. Larger properties run to eight or twelve. A full house inspection with sampling is $395 to $900 on the Victorian rate cards.
Standard laboratory turnaround is one to five business days, with a 25 to 50 per cent surcharge if you want a result inside 24 to 48 hours. Some labs charge a flat fee per sample with no volume discount and others drop the price from the second sample onward, so the number of samples changes the maths differently depending on who you use. Our asbestos testing page explains what the report actually tells you.
Then the consumables. Polythene sheeting around 200 micron thick, adhesive tape, disposable coveralls, a suitable respirator, and a way to keep the material wet and intact while it comes down. Then the tip run, in a vehicle you are prepared to line with two layers of plastic. Then the risk that a sheet snaps, which is the scenario nobody budgets for.
Against all that, the minimum job charge of $800 to $1,500 for a licensed crew starts to look less like a premium and more like the floor price of doing it properly. General removal runs $45 to $150 per square metre once a job is big enough to be priced that way.
Where the waste goes if you remove asbestos yourself
This is where Barwon homeowners hit a wall, and it is worth knowing before you load a trailer.
Exactly one facility in the region is authorised by EPA Victoria to receive asbestos: Drysdale Landfill, operated by the City of Greater Geelong under licence OL000072476. Small domestic quantities only, with a maximum of a 6x4 trailer. Ring them first on (03) 5251 2935, because EPA guidance is to contact the landfill before you transport and deliver household asbestos, and an authorised landfill can still decline a load or ask you to book a time. Fees apply. The Drysdale gate fee is not published anywhere we could verify, so ask when you ring. For comparison only, other Victorian councils charge between $100 and $376 per tonne, and none of those are Geelong figures.
Every transfer station in Surf Coast Shire refuses asbestos outright, Anglesea, Winchelsea, Torquay and Lorne included. Colac Otway Shire publishes no asbestos option at all. No commercial receiver serves the Geelong area. So a Torquay, Anglesea, Lorne or Colac homeowner has one legal destination, and it is on the Bellarine.
Packaging is not optional either. Polythene sheeting around 200 micron, sealed with tape. Dust and friable material in double bags, filled no more than half full and kept under 30 kg. Every package carries the asbestos warning mark, roughly 75 mm by 90 mm. Asbestos never goes in a general skip, and it never goes out with a council hard waste collection. The detail sits on our asbestos disposal page and in our guide to disposal across the Barwon region.
WorkSafe’s compliance code for removing asbestos in workplaces is the document sitting behind all of this, and it is worth reading before you decide either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it illegal to remove asbestos myself in Victoria?
At your own home the OHS Regulations do not apply, because a home is not regarded as a workplace, so the 10 square metre and one hour caps are not being enforced against you personally. WorkSafe still recommends that homeowners follow the same compliance code. The caps become law as soon as a tradesperson, a tenant, a rental property, business premises or a paid helper is part of the picture, and friable material always needs a Class A licensed removalist.
How much asbestos is 10 square metres?
Less than most people picture. A back boundary fence line, a single garage roof or a full set of eaves is comfortably past it, and past the one hour cap as well. A couple of cracked sheets might fall inside the area limit, but the hour is cumulative across any seven day period, so a job spread over several weekends still counts as one running total.
Do I need a clearance certificate for a small job?
Not where the work involved only non-friable material not exceeding 10 square metres in total. Above that a clearance certificate is required, and it has to come from an independent person, which means it cannot be the removalist who did the work. Where a homeowner engages a licensed removalist at domestic premises, the duty to obtain that certificate sits with the licence holder rather than with you.
Can I put asbestos sheets in a skip bin or council hard rubbish?
No. Asbestos waste is classified as reportable priority waste and may only go to a landfill authorised to receive it, which in this region means Drysdale Landfill and nowhere else. It cannot go in a general waste skip, and it cannot go out with a hard waste collection. Asbestos specific bins do exist, priced as a hire fee plus a separate tipping fee charged by weight, with the bin lined and the material bagged before anything goes in.