Who we are, and how an enquiry travels

Who we are

VFXMAGIC, a Victorian company, runs the site. It covers eight towns: Traralgon, Churchill, Tyers, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Traralgon South, Callignee and Hazelwood North, with the council landfill out at Loy Yang. At the 2021 Census that was about 37,000 people, close to 27,000 of them in Traralgon itself, and most living in separate houses. They share a council for the most part, that tip, and a housing history built on the railway, the paper mill and the power stations.

It started with a search. Look up an asbestos removalist in Traralgon and you get templated franchise pages, directory listings, and a local Facebook group thread about finding one. None of the pages we checked sets out the Hyland Highway steps, where you book and pay in Morwell before you drive out, or mentions the council's $69 home removal kit. So we wrote those things down, town by town, and built a registration system: your enquiry is logged by town, and only passed to a licensed removalist once one is confirmed for it and you've replied yes, never before. We'd rather say that plainly now than let a reader assume a crew is already standing by when none is.

How your enquiry travels

• You send the form. It takes a name and number, the town, a description of the material, a rough size, how soon you need it, and any photos.
• We see it first, and it's handled according to your town's status on the areas page. A town marked confirmed is one where a licensed removalist has signed with us; registrants there who reply yes to our message are passed to that removalist. Every town reads "guide only, for now" until that happens, and we tell you that straight.
• No licensed removalist covers Traralgon through this site yet. Your enquiry is logged as a registration of interest. Tick the box and we'll let you know once one is confirmed for your town; your details move across only if you reply yes to that message. Need someone sooner, use WorkSafe Victoria's directory.
• Once a removalist takes on the job, they put the price they've decided on in writing and you decide in your own time. Enquiring through this site costs nothing; ask any removalist you engage whether they charge to inspect or take a sample.

The privacy page says what's kept and for how long.

How a removalist gets to cover a town

A removalist's name doesn't go on a town until two things are checked.

• The licence. WorkSafe Victoria keeps a public directory of licensed asbestos removalists, and we check the class and number we're given against it. The registered name must be the same business that would quote you, and the class has to fit the work. Class B is for bonded sheeting: fences, roofs, eaves, wall linings. Class A is needed for friable material, from old pipe lagging to fire-damaged sheet that now crumbles, and a Class A holder can take on Class B jobs as well.
• The ground. A removalist is confirmed town by town, for the places they'll actually drive to. The areas page lists the eight towns, Traralgon, Churchill, Tyers, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Traralgon South, Callignee and Hazelwood North, and shows a status beside each. So Traralgon can read confirmed while Toongabbie, about 20 kilometres north-east, doesn't yet.

Once that's in place for a town, the removalist's business name and licence number go into the site footer. Look them up yourself before anyone sets foot on your property.

Check the licence yourself

Don't take the word "licensed" on trust, including when you read it here. WorkSafe Victoria's register is public and takes a couple of minutes. Search the business name or the number on your quote, check the name matches, and check the class covers what's on your property. A Class B quote for burnt or crumbling sheet is the wrong licence at any price. If the name isn't on the register, ask why before anyone comes out. It costs nothing and takes less time than reading this page, so do it before any job starts, confirmed or not.

Why the guides read the way they do

Facts come from public sources; where we're reading the town's history rather than quoting a survey, we say so. The sources are Latrobe City's own pages and the fact sheets and who-does-what guide it hosts for the Latrobe Valley Asbestos Taskforce; WorkSafe Victoria, the Victorian regulations and asbestos.vic.gov.au for licences, notice and clearance; EPA Victoria for transport and disposal; Consumer Affairs Victoria on selling; the Fences Act and the state's fencing guidance on shared fences; the ABS Census for population and housing; the council's heritage study, Victorian Places, the Traralgon and District Historical Society and Wikipedia's Churchill entry for the town's history; the Australian Asbestos Network for when fibro peaked nationally; the ABC for the Energy Brix waste; FloodList, the ABC and the Latrobe Valley Express for the 2021 flood; Victorian Places, the Community Bushfire Connection's history of the 2009 Churchill fire and a Victorian bushfire heritage account and Wikipedia for the fire; the Latrobe Valley Express and the state's community newsletter for the 2024 storm; the Insurance Council of Australia on claims; GARDS for support; and the Home Upkeep, Service.com.au and Asbestos Australia Removalist cost guides for 2026 price ranges. Where a fact we'd like isn't published, such as a fair price for a lab test, we say so and tell you who to ask, rather than guessing.

Council fees and landfill rules change, usually from 1 July, so the guides are rechecked against the council's pages. If you spot something out of date, tell us through the form and we'll fix it.

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