National Asbestos Awareness Week is 24-30 November 2025
Today marks the start of National Asbestos Awareness Week 2025 and in the wake of the recent scare of asbestos being identified in children’s play sand, now more than ever, parents need to understand that with asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) remaining in 1-in-3 Aussie homes, if these materials are not managed safely, they can pose a significant health risk to families.
There’s no doubting Australia’s passion for renovating. We love the challenge! But what many don’t know is that they could be risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones (including their children) if they fail to respect asbestos risks and ensure asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) are managed safely.
It’s heartbreaking that around 4,000 Australians die needlessly every year from avoidable asbestos-related diseases – that’s three times the national road toll. With 51% of current mesothelioma deaths directly linked to home renovations, the number of Australians who will lose their lives is predicted to rise if we don’t get serious about asbestos awareness and how to manage this potentially deadly material safely.
To protect ourselves and our families, it’s vital that we stop playing renovation roulette and start playing it safe by ensuring we understand the risks, know the sorts of ACMs to look for and what to do to ensure this silent ‘serial killer’ is managed safely. What homeowners need to know is that asbestos wasn’t only used in the manufacture of flat and corrugated sheeting materials. It was used in the manufacture of more than 3,000 building and decorator products that remain lurking in one third of homes including brick, weatherboard, clad homes and apartments. It was used everywhere!
ACMs were commonly used in wet areas such as bathrooms, kitchens and laundries but this potentially deadly fibre could be in places renovators might not expect. It could be lurking under carpets, linoleum, vinyl and ceramic floor and wall tiles, external and internal walls, ceilings, eaves, roofs and fences. Asbestos could be in any residential property, in any town or city across Australia if the home was built before 1990 and in any commercial property constructed before 2004.
Make no mistake, renovating, demolishing or maintaining properties that contains asbestos can be lethal if ACMs are disturbed and invisible asbestos fibres become airborne and are inhaled. So before taking up tools, learn how to manage asbestos safely by visiting asbestosawareness.com.au to access a range of free information for tradies, rural and commercial property owners, and homeowners including checklists and the Asbestos in Homes: A Guide to Identification, Testing and Removal Video.
Visit asbestosawareness.com.au to learn how to identify, test and safely manage asbestos because it could save your life or the life of a loved one.
Remember, when it comes to asbestos, Don’t cut it! Don’t drill it! Don’t drop it! Don’t sand it! Don’t saw it! Don’t scrape it! Don’t scrub it! Don’t dismantle it! Don’t tip it! Don’t waterblast it! Don’t demolish it! Don’t dump it! And whatever you do… DON’T remove it yourself! ONLY use licenced asbestos professionals because it’s not worth the risk!
Media has the power, the means and the reach to deliver this potentially lifesaving message to help ensure no Aussie or a family member dies needlessly from a preventable asbestos-related death, like my grandfather did.
With appreciation,
Cherie Barber
The Salvation Army Christmas Letter to the Editor
With Christmas upon us, I have begun to notice a strange phenomenon. Although Christmas is a time of joy and hope for so many, I have also noticed a heaviness, a stress, a pressure that has started to come to the surface in people’s lives.
As The Salvation Army, we notice these pressures firsthand. They are the pressures that are placed on individuals and families at Christmas which can turn a time of joy into a time of distress.
One of the most obvious pressures is the financial pressure people face. It is the choice between paying for food and affording presents for their children or being able to go to the doctor instead of a special Christmas Day meal.
Christmas also illuminates other pressures, like relationship tensions as family conflict is heightened, or time pressures due to the busyness of the season.
But one of the more hidden pressures we see people facing, although often one of the most damaging, is the pressure of comparison with those around you at Christmas time. Pressure to spend a certain amount, look a certain way, buy a certain number of gifts, have all your friends over for a meal, the list goes on.
We see firsthand the damage this can create. The stress placed on a family trying to ‘keep up’ with those around them can be debilitating, not just for individuals and parents but also for children.
This is why we want to encourage Australians to re-think how they approach Christmas this year, so as to not fall into the trap of comparison and ‘keeping up’ with those around you.
Aim for connection, not perfection. Being with others is so much more valuable than stressing about creating the perfect Christmas, whether it be with family, friends or the Salvos – there’s no need to be alone this Christmas, we’re here for you.
Share the load. Ask others to chip in, encourage everyone to bring a plate or help out in another way. You don’t have to be everything to everyone.
And finally, if you are struggling this Christmas, please don’t be ashamed to reach out for support. We want you to know that we have your Christmas taken care of this year – providing gifts for children, hampers and meals for Christmas Day, and a place for connection where you can belong.
If you need help this Christmas, or to donate to The Salvation Army’s Christmas Appeal which is aiming to raise $29 million, please visit salvationarmy.org.au or call 13 SALVOS (13 72 58).
From all of us at the Salvos, we wish you a very happy and hope-filled Christmas.
Colonel Rodney Walters
The Salvation Army
REPLY TO CONSULTATION CRISIS ARTICLE
Some comments on last weeks “Consultation Crisis” article.
Firstly, regarding putting houses amongst the trees: anyone with practical experience of living underneath eucalypts the size of those on Lot 1 will know, not just the inconvenience of leaves, branches, bird and animal droppings and other debris falling on your roof, blocking gutters, and soiling washing, but the danger of long, thin, dead branches called
“widowmakers”, and larger limbs, falling at any time, and causing injury or worse. Large blackbutts like these shed branches regularly – I knew personally a man killed on his own property by a widowmaker, and just recently a 7-metre hefty limb fell – anything underneath would have been seriously damaged. Any vehicles parked under these trees would suffer the same consequences.
As some “site scenarios” have now been published, we see that six dwellings are planned, including a group of three at the bottom of the block. This area becomes a swirling torrent during torrential rain, and remains a bog for months of the year, when mosquitos and midges move in. Also, being very close to the railway, and two stories, they will get huge train noise and a blast of diesel fumes every time a train goes past.
Being in the shade, no solar hot-water or pv panels will be possible, and clothes-dryers for drying clothes. These won’t be environmentally-friendly houses.
Although these buildings are claimed to be “low impact’, connecting them to services certainly won’t be. Sewer, water, electricity, stormwater, phone and internet connections will all require their own separate trenches and pits, some possibly quite deep, which will criss-cross much of the area of
Lot 1, significantly damaging the root systems of all trees, causing possibly mortal wounds.
So, at some stage these trees would need to be removed, leaving a bare block of pre-fab houses with outdoor parking for vehicles, looking like cheap holiday-park accommodation, totally incompatible with the surrounding area.
None of this aligns with WWCLT’s charter of “improving the environment”.
And all this is added to the existing application for re-development of the
Kalang River Motel immediately next door into a 14-room affordable accommodation complex, plus residence and commercial café. So residentsn will be hit with the entire northern side of Ferry Street becoming a sub-standard social housing precinct for at least 30 people. This is way beyond anything that could even remotely be seen as fair and reasonable –
it shows total disdain for the interests of residents and others, indeed for the township of Urunga. Would any other neighbourhood accept this?
As for the “greater good” that is another fiction: there is no tangible or material benefit to anyone else in Bellingen shire other than a few who may get a cheaper house.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter Dingle, for the Friends of Ferry Street group.