Victorian Landowner Fined $60,000 and Ordered to Pay $1M+ Clean-Up for Illegal Asbestos Dumping

Overview

A Melbourne property owner has received what is believed to be the highest fine ever imposed on an individual for an environmental offence under Victoria’s current environment protection legislation. Joseph Chetcuti was sentenced at the Heidelberg Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to operating an illegal waste dumping operation at a 19,000-square-metre property on Black Gully Road in Diamond Creek, Victoria. The court imposed a $60,000 fine and ordered Chetcuti to pay $12,000 in legal costs. More significantly, the court issued a remediation order requiring the site to be cleaned up at an estimated cost well in excess of $1 million, an obligation that remains legally binding on Chetcuti even if the property changes hands.

The case came to light following a major fire at the property in May 2020, which drew the attention of EPA Victoria and emergency services. Subsequent investigation revealed a highly organised, industrial-scale illegal waste operation involving stockpiles of commercial construction and demolition waste, as well as imported fill soil heavily contaminated with asbestos. The EPA characterised the operation as brazen, and EPA Victoria CEO Joss Crawford stated publicly that the operation showed “a blatant disregard for the community and the environment, causing significant harm and eroding public trust.” The prosecution was secured using aerial photography and surveillance of commercially operated trucks delivering fill material derived from construction and demolition sites.

For Australian environmental professionals and their clients, including developers, property lawyers, local councils, and site owners, this ruling carries material implications. It confirms that Victorian regulators are aggressively pursuing individuals rather than just corporate entities, and that the clean-up liability associated with illegal waste activity can be attached personally to a landowner and survive a property transaction. This is not an isolated enforcement event. It reflects a broader regulatory shift across Australian jurisdictions toward stronger individual accountability, remote surveillance, and non-negotiable compliance with clean-up notices.

Key details of the Diamond Creek illegal waste prosecution

Chetcuti pleaded guilty to two distinct offences under the Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic). The first was depositing and receiving waste, including reportable priority waste, at an unlicensed facility, an offence under Section 115 of the Act. The second was failing to comply with an Environmental Action Notice (EAN) issued by EPA Victoria under Section 290(1), which had directed him to cease accepting waste, classify the existing stockpiles on site, and safely remove the asbestos-contaminated material. The guilty pleas to both charges meant the court had before it not only the original illegal dumping conduct but also the deliberate non-compliance with a formal regulatory direction.

The site itself spans approximately 19,000 square metres (1.9 hectares). Investigations and soil sampling confirmed the presence of asbestos contamination within the imported fill stockpiles, elevating the waste classification to reportable priority waste under Victorian regulations. Priority waste in Victoria is defined under Schedule 3 of the Environment Protection Act 2017 and includes substances that present a higher risk to human health and the environment, with asbestos-contaminated soil clearly falling within this category. The remediation cost, estimated at well over $1 million, reflects the complexity of safely identifying, classifying, containing, and removing asbestos-bearing material from an almost 2-hectare site.

To build the prosecution, EPA Victoria deployed aerial photography to establish that imported fill soil was being regularly brought onto the property. Surveillance also documented commercially operated trucks carrying fill material sourced from commercial and domestic construction sites arriving at the property over time. This intelligence-gathering approach, using remote surveillance rather than relying solely on physical inspections, was central to the evidentiary case and demonstrates the technological capability now applied to illegal waste enforcement. The Waste Tracker digital system, which Victoria introduced to improve traceability of waste movements across the state, forms part of the broader regulatory infrastructure supporting this type of investigation.

The $60,000 fine is understood to be the highest penalty ever imposed on an individual under the Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic), which came into force in July 2021 and replaced the earlier Environment Protection Act 1970. Critically, the court’s remediation order is not discharged by a property sale. The obligation travels with the individual, not the land title, meaning that Chetcuti cannot extinguish his personal liability by transferring ownership to a third party. This is a consequential point for any prospective purchaser conducting environmental due diligence on a property subject to an outstanding EPA order.

Australian context: how this ruling fits within national contaminated land and waste frameworks

Victoria’s Environment Protection Act 2017 introduced a General Environmental Duty (GED) as a cornerstone obligation. The GED requires any person who engages in an activity that may give rise to risks of harm to human health or the environment to understand those risks and minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable. The duty applies to landowners who accept imported fill, because accepting unverified fill soil from commercial or demolition sites creates a foreseeable risk of introducing contaminants, including asbestos, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and PFAS. Critically, the GED is not a strict liability standard. It incorporates a “reasonably practicable” qualifier, which means the obligation is calibrated to what a person in that position ought reasonably to have done given the nature and scale of the risk involved.

References and related sources

• Primary source: www.epa.vic.gov.au
• epa.vic.gov.au
• epa.vic.gov.au
• epa.vic.gov.au
• NEPM Assessment of Site Contamination
• EPA Victoria

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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.

Published: 27 Jul 2026

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