Plenty of Gold Coast waterfront owners have asbestos on their property and have no idea. It's usually not in the house. It's out on the water, hidden in the older jetty, pontoon, boat ramp or seawall that came with the place. A lot of marine structures from the mid to late last century used asbestos materials, and decades on they're still sitting there at the water's edge.
None of this is cause for panic. Asbestos that's intact and left undisturbed is generally low risk. The danger comes when someone cuts, breaks or removes it without knowing what it is. So the most useful thing you can do as an owner is simply learn to recognise it, and know what to do if you spot it.
This is the easiest one to check yourself, from a safe distance. Asbestos pile sleeves are grey, with a furry or textured surface, and they usually come in pairs. Modern PVC piles look completely different: white, smooth, and single. If your jetty is standing on grey, textured, paired piles, treat them as asbestos until proven otherwise. Some older concrete jetties also have asbestos sheeting underneath them.
Some of the older, smaller pontoons, and we see this a lot in Mermaid Waters, are floating on large asbestos floats underneath. You often can't see them from the deck, but they're there holding the whole thing up, and they really should be removed.
Here's the hidden one. A fibro sheeting called Super Six was commonly used as formwork underneath boat ramps. You'd never know it's there until the ramp is lifted, which is exactly why an old ramp should never be removed by someone who isn't watching for it. When Super Six is involved, the safe approach is to treat all of the concrete as if it contains asbestos.
Some revetment walls have Super Six asbestos sheeting built into the structure itself. It's a typical older wall design through parts of Mermaid Waters. Because it's part of the wall, any repair work needs to account for it from the start.
Here's the catch: you can't reliably identify asbestos just by looking. The fibres are 50 to 200 times thinner than a human hair, so you can't see or smell them. Asbestos takes on the look of whatever it's mixed with, and it can be blue, brown, green or white, or painted over entirely. Colour won't tell you. Age is a bigger clue than appearance.
It also comes in two forms. Bonded (non-friable) asbestos is mixed with cement and holds together, which is most of what turns up in marine structures. Friable asbestos crumbles to powder by hand and is far more dangerous. The important thing to know is that bonded asbestos can become friable as it ages and gets damaged, which is exactly what happens to old marine materials sitting in the weather and the tide.
Don't disturb it. Don't cut it, drill it, break it, sand it or try to pull it out. Intact asbestos left alone is manageable. Disturbed asbestos is what releases the fibres you don't want to breathe.
Then call a licensed contractor. This matters more than people realise: removing asbestos without a licence is both illegal and genuinely dangerous, and a lot of marine contractors aren't licensed to handle it. That means an unlicensed crew can disturb it without even realising, on your property, and leave you with the problem.
Gold Coast Barges is asbestos-licensed. We can identify it, and remove and dispose of it legally and compliantly, usually as part of the same job when we're removing an old jetty, ramp or pontoon, or repairing a wall. If asbestos turns up unexpectedly mid-job, we're set up to deal with it on the spot rather than downing tools and leaving you stranded.
If you've got an old jetty, pontoon, ramp or seawall and you're not certain what it's made of, take a photo from a safe distance and send it through, or call us on 0419 024 336. We'll tell you what we're looking at, and if it does need handling, we're licensed to do it properly.
This is general information to help you recognise possible asbestos, not a substitute for a professional assessment. If you think you have asbestos, don't disturb it, and speak to a licensed professional.