Asbestos removal in Traralgon, Churchill, Tyers and nearby towns

Why the towns are grouped this way

Two things decide what an asbestos job looks like here: when the houses were built, and where the waste is allowed to go. The pages follow those lines. Traralgon is one story, from railway cottages to APM estates to brick veneer. Churchill is another: a planned town, all brick, built from 1965. The northern towns share a 1970s acreage boom. The southern localities share a bushfire.

Together these places held about 37,000 people at the 2021 Census. More than 26,900 of them live in Traralgon itself. The rest, by the Census localities: Churchill 4,924, Hazelwood North 1,552, Glengarry 1,113, Toongabbie 1,085, Tyers 893, Traralgon South 553 and Callignee 391. Outside Traralgon and Churchill, nearly every home is a separate house on its own block, and few are rented.

Traralgon, and the Traralgon East mix-up

The town covers the old centre, the APM and Housing Commission estates from the 1940s and 50s, the Loy Yang-era brick veneers of the 1970s and 80s, and the new estates on the northern and eastern edges. Traralgon homes by era walks through each.

One trap for anyone looking up figures. The Census counts "Traralgon East" as a separate locality: 1,780 people on the rural-residential fringe east of town, 99 per cent detached houses. It isn't the older east side of the town proper, which sits inside Traralgon's own numbers. If you live in the older east side, the Traralgon housing guide is the one you want.

For council business in town, Latrobe City's Traralgon Service Centre is at 34 to 38 Kay Street. The council's asbestos page names the Morwell headquarters as the place to pay for disposal, so check with council before you take an asbestos payment to Kay Street.

Churchill

Planned by the Housing Commission in 1964 for power workers, with the first families moving in late in 1965. The houses were built entirely in brick. Brick walls still leave the eaves, wet areas, floors, garages and fences to check. Churchill also has the district's highest share of renters, close to three in ten homes. See the Churchill page.

Tyers, Glengarry and Toongabbie

Old farming towns that grew in the 1970s as power and mill workers moved onto new subdivisions and small acreages. Out here the question is often about a shed as much as the house. Toongabbie straddles two councils, which changes where a homeowner's own load can go, and it has two dozen houses moved from Yallourn between 1976 and 1981. See Tyers, Glengarry and Toongabbie.

Traralgon South, Callignee, Hazelwood North and Loy Yang

Acreage and hill country south of town. The original Traralgon South township was bought up for the Loy Yang project, and a new Traralgon South grew further down the creek valley. The 2009 Churchill fire burned through here, and nearly all of Callignee's 60-odd homes were lost. Loy Yang itself is the power station and the council landfill, with only a handful of residents. See Traralgon South, Callignee and Hazelwood North.

Where the waste goes depends on your council

Almost the whole district is Latrobe City, and a Latrobe resident's own small load of asbestos can go to the Hyland Highway Landfill at Loy Yang, by appointment, once it's paid for at the council office in Morwell. The disposal page has the steps.

The exception is Toongabbie. Parts of that locality east and north of the township fall in Wellington Shire, and a Wellington resident isn't a Latrobe resident for the landfill fee. Wellington's facility for domestic asbestos is Kilmany, by prior arrangement on 1300 366 244.

None of that applies to a licensed job. A removalist's load is commercial waste. It goes to an EPA-licensed facility the removalist arranges, and the destination should be named in the quote. And in Latrobe City, the hard waste collection doesn't take asbestos.

Three events worth knowing about

Weather and fire have hit this district hard within living memory.

• February 2009. The Churchill fire burned through Callignee, Traralgon South, Hazelwood North and the hills beyond, destroying 145 houses.
• June 2021. The Traralgon Creek rose nearly five metres overnight and more than 200 homes were told to evacuate. Streets near the creek, George Street and Berry Street among them, flooded.
• February 2024. A severe storm hit Gippsland on 13 February and Traralgon was among the towns affected. The state's community newsletter afterwards warned that debris could include asbestos fragments and should be avoided.

Damaged sheet is a different job from sheet in good condition. The storm, flood and fire damage page covers what to do first and what to leave alone.

What the town status means

Each place in the list shows either a confirmed removalist or "guide only, for now". 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. A confirmed removalist's name and WorkSafe licence number appear in the footer of every page only once signed.

The guide pages stay up either way. The housing history, the tip rules and the licence rules are the same whether or not a removalist has signed on for that town, and they're worth knowing before anyone quotes.