Asbestos: The Gift That Keeps on Giving, And the Gift No One Wants

Australia struggles to overcome the asbestos hazard. Despite the ban on its use, asbestos continues to resurface in buildings, soil, infrastructure, and redevelopment sites, often at the most inconvenient times. It is the gift that keeps on giving, except no one asked for it, and no one benefits when it reappears.

In 2026, regulators are still issuing alerts, sites are still being shut down, and workers are still being exposed, not because asbestos is new, but because it is everywhere, a legacy built into the country itself.

Asbestos is a deadly hazard that requires professional removal and disposal.

Why asbestos became so prevalent in Australia

Australia’s asbestos problem is not accidental; it is structural. For much of the twentieth century, asbestos was cheap, durable, fire-resistant, and well-suited to Australian conditions. Asbestos cement sheeting, often known as fibro, was widely used in houses, factories, schools, sheds, and commercial buildings. Manufacturers routinely fabricated roofing, wall cladding, eaves, fences, water pipes, and even backing boards for electrical metres using asbestos materials.

James Hardie and other manufacturers embedded asbestos into the national building stock at scale. Asbestos became normalised due to rapid postwar construction, a housing boom, and a limited early understanding of its health impacts. By the time the risks of asbestos exposure became undeniable, the material was already present everywhere.

One can only laugh in dismay when watching this asbestos advertisement from the United States, promoting the use of asbestos drinking pipes that deliver "clean pure water at the twist of the wrist".

Australia banned asbestos in 2003. The problem is that banning a material does not remove the millions of tonnes already installed or buried.

Asbestos had many uses, including as a roofing product.

The regulatory landscape: who is responsible for addressing the issue now?

Asbestos is managed through a layered regulatory framework. At the national level, the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency coordinates policy, research, and eradication strategy. It exists because asbestos is not just a workplace issue; it is a public health legacy issue.

Work health and safety regulators enforce duties around identification, risk management, licensing, and removal. Under WHS regulations across Australia, duty holders must identify asbestos or asbestos-containing material, maintain asbestos registers where required, and ensure only licensed removalists conduct higher-risk removal work. Disturbance without controls is a breach, even if the exposure is unintentional. I wrote several asbestos-related improvement notices back at WorkSafe.

Environmental regulators also play a critical role. State EPAs regulate asbestos waste, soil contamination, transport, disposal, and illegal dumping. Buried asbestos is not a historical curiosity; it is a regulated contaminant. I have observed instances of large-scale illegal dumping in abandoned warehouses leased for cash, followed by a messy dispute among the landlord, real estate agent, and regulatory agencies such as WorkSafe/SafeWork, EPA, and Fire Services.

Local councils are often the quiet enforcers. Planning approvals, demolition permits, waste disposal requirements, and contaminated land management frequently sit at council level, particularly for redevelopment sites. Discoveries of contamination can turn council records and aerial imagery into crucial evidence.

A site shutdown I'll never forget

I have had to manage a complete site shutdown due to an asbestos discovery, and it is the kind of moment that recalibrates your risk radar permanently.

During works, asbestos was identified in soil below the surface. Not fragments, not traces, but material significant enough to stop all activity immediately. The initial question was obvious and uncomfortable. How did it get there?

What followed was a comprehensive investigation. I interviewed local residents who had lived near the site for decades. I obtained access to historical council aerial imagery going back many years. Piece by piece, a picture formed.

The site previously had an asbestos cement roof. At some point, before modern controls and awareness (c. 1990), that roof had been removed and buried on site. The site was left without any records, flags, or warnings, leaving only a legacy risk waiting for the next disturbance.

That discovery meant isolation, engagement with regulators, environmental assessment, licensed removal, and a long road back to safe occupation. It was a sobering reminder that asbestos does not disappear when people stop talking about it. It waits.

The cost for removal: $1.1 million dollars. The shutdown results in a weekly revenue loss of approximately $250,000. The shutdown lasted for 12 weeks.

Why regulators are still issuing alerts

The relevance of asbestos is reinforced by recent regulator alerts, including a 2026 incident alert from WorkSafe Queensland following high-pressure water cleaning on an asbestos roof. The activity generated airborne asbestos fibres, potentially exposing workers and others nearby. The safety alert can be found here.

This is not obscure technical non-compliance. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of how asbestos behaves. High-pressure water does not clean asbestos safely. It degrades, releases fibres, and spreads contamination.

People who believe asbestos is a problem of the past continue to make the same mistakes that give rise to these alerts.

Understanding the past is crucial

Anyone wanting to understand how asbestos became embedded so deeply in Australia should watch Devil's Dust, the ABC series examining the James Hardie era and the human cost of asbestos manufacture and denial. It is not comfortable viewing, but it explains why Australia’s asbestos problem is uniquely severe and why the consequences are still unfolding.

The series is not just history. It is context. It explains why regulators take asbestos so seriously and why tolerance for shortcuts is effectively zero.

The uncomfortable truth

Asbestos is not rare. It is not exotic. It is not limited to old factories or derelict sites.

It is in roofs, fences, soil, walls, and places no one thought to look. Every time the ground is disturbed, a building is altered, or a structure is demolished, the question should be asked early, not after the dust is already in the air.

The gift that keeps on giving is not nostalgia. It is a disease, a disruption, and a decades-long consequence.

The only way to handle it is to assume it may be there, verify before you disturb, and treat every unexpected find as a serious event, because experience says it usually is.

If you suspect asbestos, treat it as asbestos until proven otherwise.

And beyond all of this, the nation is now grappling with the health impacts from silica dust, aka respirable crystalline silica (RCS), dubbed the "new asbestos", killing our tradies even younger than asbestos typically does. The problem is, both exist in parallel.

Look after your people’s lungs and ensure you meet every single regulatory duty for your organisation, because when the dust settles, prosecutions follow.