Licensed Asbestos Removal Australia-Wide

Asbestos removal in Australia is regulated under the model Work Health and Safety laws administered by Safe Work Australia, with day-to-day enforcement carried out by each state and territory regulator, including SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, WorkSafe WA, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe ACT, WorkSafe Tasmania and NT WorkSafe. These regulators set licensing classes, notification requirements and safe work method statement obligations for anyone removing asbestos-containing material above minor thresholds.

Homeowners can, in most states, legally remove small amounts of non-friable asbestos themselves under strict conditions, but many choose not to given the health risks and disposal complexity involved. For any friable asbestos, or non-friable removal above the relevant threshold, a licensed removalist is legally required.

Notification requirements also vary by jurisdiction. Several states require licensed removalists to notify the regulator before certain removal jobs begin, particularly larger non-friable jobs and any friable removal, and we manage these notifications as a standard part of our process so you do not need to navigate the paperwork yourself.

Asbestos is the most common hazardous building material we deal with, but it is rarely the only one on an older property. Lead paint, synthetic mineral fibre insulation, and in some cases contaminated soil or fill material can all be present in the same renovation or demolition site, and a proper hazardous materials assessment considers all of them together rather than testing for asbestos in isolation.

Because of this overlap, Delta Environmental scopes asbestos jobs as part of a broader hazardous materials assessment wherever the property's age and condition suggest it is warranted. If a pre-1990s renovation also raises lead paint or mould concerns, we identify that upfront rather than sending a second team back once work is already underway. Our lead paint removal and mould remediation services are commonly scoped alongside asbestos work for exactly this reason.

In late 2025, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a series of national recalls for coloured and craft play sand after independent testing detected trace amounts of naturally occurring tremolite and chrysotile asbestos in products supplied by several brands and sold through major retailers, including Kmart, Target, Officeworks and Woolworths, along with numerous educational supply and art stores. The discovery led to hundreds of schools and early learning centres across Australia and New Zealand temporarily closing for testing and clean-up.

Authorities described the health risk from the affected sand as low, since the fibres were not considered likely to become airborne under normal play conditions, but the recall was still treated as a serious precaution given how widely the products had been used in homes, schools and childcare settings. If you have any of the recalled coloured sand products, the safest first step is to stop using them immediately and check the current recall list on the ACCC Product Safety website, since the scope of affected products has been updated multiple times as testing continued.

Where recalled sand was used outdoors, such as in a backyard sandpit, there is a reasonable question about whether surrounding soil needs checking as well. Delta Environmental can arrange independent testing of the sand or surrounding soil and advise on safe containment and disposal if asbestos is confirmed, using the same licensed, independently verified process we apply to any other asbestos job.