- Published:
- Wednesday 15 July 2026 at 1:18 pm
EPA fined the man $1,221 for failing to comply with its order to clean up stockpiles of tyres on a local property.
EPA detected, monitored and documented the activity through a combination of community reports, proactive inspections, drone surveillance and waste tracking requirements.
EPA Gippsland Regional Manager Zac Dornom says the property has been inspected several times since the public first reported the dumping of industrial waste in 2023.
“EPA officers inspected the property in response to pollution reports, and then later as proactive inspections looking for confirmation that it was being cleaned up,” Mr Dornom said.
“However, inspections across 2025 and early 2026 confirmed that more waste had arrived, even though the site did not have an EPA licence or permission to accept it," he said.
By then, EPA had issued the man with a Waste Abatement Notice (WAN), requiring that he cease accepting and depositing waste at the site and that he remove all waste tyres and dispose of them in a lawful place. It was issued in February 2026 based on two previous inspections that revealed scrap metals, mixed industrial waste, two skip bins full of waste tyres and another pile of tyres on the site.
On 3 June 2026 EPA officers flew a drone over the site, confirming that skip bins and stockpiles of waste tyres had been removed, but the man was not able to produce documentation to show the loads were registered with Waste Tracker and taken to a properly licensed location.
The volume of the waste tyres in the skip bins was about 50 cubic metres and the nearby stockpile covered about 400 square metres.
"The clear message is that the community doesn't like illegal waste dumping, it can be reported easily by anyone, and EPA won’t hesitate to take action," Mr Dornom said.
EPA’s drones are part of a wider effort, flying over suspect sites, surveying larger sites, or gathering evidence for court cases. They add to the intelligence and enforcement capacity of the EPA-led Illegal Waste Dumping Taskforce, with DEECA, Parks Victoria, the Conservation Regulator, councils and land managers working to identify dumping hotspots and catch those responsible.
Under the Environment Protection Act 2017 and the Infringements Act 2006, the operator has the right to have the infringement notice reviewed or be considered by a court.
Members of the public can report pollution by calling EPA’s 24-hour hotline on 1300 372 842 or providing details online at epa.vic.gov.au/report-pollution/reporting-pollution(opens in a new window)
Updated