Clean-up efforts from the 2019-20 Victorian bushfires have finished, with 736 properties in East Gippsland and the state’s north-east cleared of destroyed and damaged buildings.
In total, the 2020 Clean-up Program demolished, cleared and disposed of more than 2500 individual structures on 547 properties in East Gippsland Shire, 183 properties in Towong Shire, and five properties in Alpine Shire.
Around 75,000 tonnes of bushfire waste was removed in the process.
Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville said the 2020 clean-up differed previous bushfire events in Victoria, with far greater numbers of rural and isolated properties containing multiple destroyed and damaged structures – all of them classified as asbestos contaminated.
Properties in East Gippsland produced an average of almost nine truckloads of asbestos-contaminated bushfire waste, and tip trucks travelled over 1.2 million kilometres to and from waste facilities to dispose of it safely and securely.
All stored waste is tracked and will be monitored for a significant period of time.
The Clean-up Program was joint funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments, and was provide free of charge to all property owners, regardless of insurance status.