Victorian Landfill Register

Any information contained in the Victorian Landfill Register (VLR) is intended to be used only as a guide and should not be relied upon as being either complete or accurate. EPA does not verify the accuracy of all information contained in the VLR. Anyone with an interest in a particular piece of land, location, site or property should make his or her own enquiries with relevant authorities.

EPA does not accept any responsibility for any claims, loss or damage of any kind whatsoever arising out of any person’s reliance on any information that is either:

contained in or omitted from the VLR, or

arises out of the inclusion or exclusion of any land, location, site or property on the VLR.

Victorian Landfill Register

The Victorian Landfill Register (VLR) was an EPA initiative to share information and data to help Victorians to make decisions about their health and the environment.

Publicly available to all Victorians, the register drew information from various sources. It listed all current and known closed landfills in Victoria to create a strong foundation for building a complete and comprehensive landfill register for Victorians. It contained known attributes of these landfills, including type and volume of waste accepted, and the year of closure.

Accessing the register

Due to new legislation that came into effect on 1 July 2021, we stopped updating the VLR, however you can still see the historic landfill data on Victoria Unearthed's map(External link) (best viewed on a laptop or desktop device).

If you're looking for landfills that are currently accepting waste, please contact your local council.

Where the information on the register came from

The VLR brought together information from:

EPA landfill licences and post closure pollution abatement notices
Regional Waste and Resource Recovery Implementation Plans
historic landfill records held by EPA.

Data points on the map represent individual records. Clicking on each data point will reveal information for each record. Because of the range of information sources used for the register, not all fields have information. Where there is no information, the field will display “Not available”.

See below for a description of each information field.

Landfill register number	EPA’s unique identifier for each record in the VLR
Reference number	These numbers are linked to an EPA licence or pollution abatement notice. “Not available” indicates that the source of the record is not an EPA instrument e.g. it may be from a local government record
Address	The address of the site
Extra address information	The name of the landfill or other additional locality information
Suburb	The suburb where the landfill is located
Council	The relevant local council
Latitude and Longitude	Map reference information
Operating status	Whether the landfill is operating or closed
Waste type accepted	A description of the wastes accepted at the site, where available
Estimated year of closure	Known or estimated year of closure, where available
Estimated total waste volume	Known or estimated waste received at the site, where available
Provenance	The source of the record, including EPA electronic records, EPA legacy records, or other records
Licence number	Current EPA licence number, where applicable
Historic licence number	Any historical licence numbers, where available

Because the register is built from unique records, some landfill sites have overlapping data points, representing multiple unique records.

In the interest of developing as accurate a register as possible, we contacted relevant officers in local councils and shires asking them to verify our records. They also provided any additional information they had on landfills and offered suggestions on how the register could be improved for the benefit of communities. Their feedback has been incorporated into the register. Where EPA has medium/high confidence in a historical record it holds, these have been included on the register without external verification.

Victoria Unearthed

Victoria Unearthed is an online tool that has been created to provide access to more information about potential and existing contamination through the state. As well as information about the landfill register, this database contains information about:

environmental audits
the location of Environmental Audit Overlays
historical business listings (from the Sands and McDougall directories)
and groundwater quality restricted use zones.

Landfills management in Victoria

Landfills are an important parts of Victoria’s waste management infrastructure. While disposal of materials to landfill is the least preferred management option for waste, landfills will continue to be necessary to manage wastes that cannot be practically removed from the waste stream.

Today’s landfills must not leave an unacceptable environmental legacy for our children to address. As long as landfills remain part of Victoria’s waste management infrastructure, best-practice measures must be adopted to ensure that landfills are acceptable to the public.

The planning, operation and rehabilitation of landfills requires a high level of design and management to ensure the environment is protected and community aspirations are met. EPA uses a range of tools to do this, including:

setting the standards for what type of waste an existing landfill can accept
requiring financial assurance
assessing works approvals and providing relevant conditions for landfill construction
licensing landfills (except municipal landfills servicing fewer than 5000 people).

Landfills and your health

Studies indicate that living nearby to a regulated, well managed landfill site does not pose a significant risk to human health.

Landfill designs and processes have evolved over time, therefore some closed landfills may not have all of the current environmental controls. The health risks associated with older, less regulated landfill sites are unknown.

Available research, mainly from UK and overseas [1],[2] does not identify any strong link between the health of nearby residents and operational landfill sites. The available studies do however, acknowledge considerable uncertainties and variances within and between studies, reflecting a lack of understanding in likely exposures, the confusing effect of non-landfill exposures and the interpretation of self-reported health information gathered from concerned communities.

Community concerns are sometimes raised in relation to old closed landfills in areas where housing development has subsequently taken place. Such sites may predate landfill regulation. Due to the range of wastes that may have been received at these sites, and in their operation and design, it is not possible to give definitive advice on the health risks of such landfills without an assessment of the risks specific to that landfill. Where a landfill site is causing local concern, site-specific monitoring and/or modelling is needed to aid any risk assessment and address any uncertainty about potential public health impacts.

EPA will continue to assess the risk of old closed landfills to determine if any additional works are required to minimise risk to human health and the environment. Where further works are required to be undertaken, a Post Closure Pollution Abatement Notice (PC PAN) will be issued to ensure that the works are undertaken. EPA regional staff are aware of landfills below the licensing threshold in their regions and may inspect these sites at any time. EPA only issues PC PANs to formerly licensed sites. Field staff will only issue a Pollution Abatement Notice if there is pollution occurring at the site.

If you have further questions or concerns about landfills and health you can call us at 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC). If you have a specific health concern, EPA recommends you consult your GP.

[1] Nichola Porter and Susanne Tepe, Air Emissions from Non-Hazardous Waste Landfills – a literature review; August 2013, RMIT

[2] EnRiskS, Air Emissions from Non-Hazardous Waste Landfills – Update of 2013 Literature Review, April 2018

About landfills

Landfills and the environment

Landfills and EPA's role

Hazardous waste (PIW) in landfills

Closed landfills

Landfill guidance for operators and councils

This page was copied from EPA's old website. It was last updated on 19 March 2019.

More information about the VLR

What is the Victorian Landfills Register?

The VLR is a listing of current and known closed landfills in Victoria. It contains known attributes of these landfills, including type and volume of waste accepted, and the year of closure.
Why was the VLR established?

The VLR is a further step in Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) sharing information and data that will help Victorians to make decisions about their health and the environment. The VLR also directly addresses recommendation 14 of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) report Managing Landfills (2014) ‘that EPA develops a public register of landfills’.
Where did the information about ownership of properties listed on the VLR come from?

This information comes from LANDATA, the State Government website that provides public access to title and property information.
Are there any landfills that are not included in the VLR?
The register does not capture all possible, historical landfill sites. EPA has included the locations of landfills where there is a moderate or high level of confidence in the records.

Potential historical sites where EPA has lower confidence in the information have not been included in the initial release of the register.

Extensive efforts have been made to verify the information in the VLR but users should be aware of the limitations to the dataset including the following:
- Some addresses are estimated. Older landfill records may not contain comprehensive information on landfill locations and/or the boundaries of the site. Those sites have been included where possible, with the best available information.
- Not all landfill records have an address. Where address details for a suspected landfill could not be validated (e.g. only a landfill name is available but no location), these sites have not been included in the initial release of the register. Without clear location information, it is not possible to accurately represent a landfill on the map. Work will continue to verify information for these possible landfills to include them in the register over time.
- Some details are missing on some records. Historical records that the VLR draws from can be incomplete and this will be reflected in the data that is displayed. Therefore, some fields related to the characteristics of the landfill may be blank, on some records. The information provided is everything we have for that record.
- The site area marked as a landfill represents the whole site that was subject to an EPA licence, remedial notice or is recorded as a landfill. The area where waste is deposited will only occupy part of the site.
- Some landfills will have many points plus a polygon, each of which has a different type of detailed information. This will depend on the source of the record and the accuracy of the location information. Click on all of these points and the polygon to see all of the information held about a site.
- The register does not capture all possible, historical landfill sites. Many landfills are undocumented, such as those on private property. These will be included when information is discovered.
My property is listed on the VLR. Do I need to take any action?

No action is required from landowners whose properties are listed on the VLR.
What if my property is listed on the VLR in error?
If you believe your property has been listed on the Victorian Landfill Register in error, email landfills@epa.vic.gov.au or call EPA on 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC) to discuss your concerns.

You will need documents that demonstrate the error in our landfill records, for example:
- an audit report for the site
- aerial photographs showing site history
- records showing a history of use that would preclude the site having been used as a landfill.
Your property will continue to be listed on the register until the assessment is complete.
What happens when a property owner notifies EPA of an error?
- EPA will assess the documents provided as evidence of an error.
- EPA will review the confidence and accuracy of the source record of the landfill.
- EPA may seek additional information e.g. council and planning records.
- Considering all the available information, EPA will decide whether to remove a landfill from the register.
It may take up to four weeks for EPA to review existing information, seek further information if required, and decide whether to remove a landfill from the register.
How can I submit information about my property?

If you have additional information about your property, email landfills@epa.vic.gov.au or call EPA on 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC).
How else can I access the VLR?

Call 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC) for assistance. We can post a map to you or arrange for you to visit an EPA office and view the VLR.
Has there been an audit conducted on my property?

To find out if an environmental audit has been conducted on your property, call EPA on 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC), or visit the EPA Interaction Portal.

Environmental audits are most commonly used by EPA and councils (via the land use planning system) to understand the risk to human health and the environment posed by an industrial activity, or to validate that contaminated land or groundwater has been cleaned up. This includes audits associated with landfills.
Where can I find out more?

Visit the landfills page or contact EPA.