Tank Demolition and Site Clearance for Cleanaway, Orange NSW

Completed October 2025. Perfect Contracting carried out the tank demolition and site clearance at Cleanaway's former liquid waste depot at 28 Leewood Drive, Orange NSW. Two horizontal storage tanks, two small sheds, a tank bund and the concrete hardstand under them came out over eight working days, and the yard was handed back cleared and sampled before the lease ran out.

It was the third site Perfect Contracting has cleared for Cleanaway in New South Wales, after the Unanderra tank farm and the St Marys warehouse, and it was priced off the same schedule of rates to save both sides a tender.

Services delivered

• Principal contractor for the site while Cleanaway's own industrial services crew pumped out and cleaned the tanks
• Power disconnection, service scan and test holes before any digging
• Demolition of two small sheds and processing of the materials
• Oxy cutting of the two horizontal steel tanks into manageable sections, then shearing with the 35 tonne excavator
• Hammering and saw cutting the concrete slab and tank bund, and removal of the hardstand
• Test pits dug for the client's environmental consultant
• Steel to a metal recycler, seven loads of concrete to a local crushing yard for reuse
• Site secured and made safe at the end of every shift, and handed back cleared

The job

Cleanaway had used the depot for liquid waste collection in the Central West. With the lease ending on 30 November 2025, everything on the yard except the main shed had to go: the two storage tanks on their steel saddles, the bund and concrete pad under them, two small sheds and the pipework that tied it all together. Cleanaway also needed an environmental survey done before handover, which meant test pits across the yard once the slabs were up.

The tanks were marked waste oil and combustible liquids. They had been emptied but not cleaned, so nothing could be cut until they were. Cleanaway's industrial services team came in with a vacuum truck on the second and third days to pump out the residue and wash the shells, while Perfect Contracting ran the site as principal contractor, held the permits and kept the rest of the demolition moving around them.

What made it hard

Three things. The tanks had held combustible liquids, so hot work was a permit job from start to finish, with gas testing before every cut and the cleaning crew signed off before the first flame went near a shell. The job was about 250 kilometres from our yard, so the crew lived away for the job and everything had to be on the first float, because a forgotten attachment is a day lost in Orange. And the client's own crews were working on the same yard, with a vacuum truck parked beside the tanks while we were demolishing sheds on the same yard.

How the tanks came down

Power was disconnected on day one and the sheds came down first, so the 35 tonne excavator had room to work. The services were scanned and test holes dug around the tank pad before the bucket went in, because the yard had a history and the drawings did not show everything.

Once the cleaning crew had pumped the tanks and the supervisor had inspected them, the oxy cutter opened the shells and cut each tank into pieces the excavator could handle. The grab then lifted each section onto the bund and the shear cut it down to scrap size. Nothing was dropped and nothing was cut with liquid still in it. The steel went into the scrap truck as it was processed.

With the tanks gone, the hammer went on and the concrete slab and bund came up. The slab was saw cut where it met the pavement that stayed. Seven tipper loads of concrete, about 85 tonnes off the weighbridge dockets, went to a crushing yard in Orange for recycling. The last two days were test pits for the environmental consultant, backfill and a final tidy before the excavator went back on the float.

Safety on a liquid waste yard

Every day started with a documented pre-start signed by the client's representative, a plant pre-start on the excavator and a check that the hazardous materials register was on site. Hot work ran under permits with a gas test before every cut. Tank entry for cleaning was done by Cleanaway's crew under their own confined space permit and rescue plan, in full suits and respirators, with Perfect Contracting holding the exclusion zone. Dust suppression was on the shed demolition and the slab breakout. No incidents and no variations were recorded across the job.

Perfect Contracting's role

Perfect Contracting was engaged directly by Cleanaway's Engineering, Projects and Supply Chain team as principal contractor for the demolition and clearance. A Perfect Contracting supervisor ran the site, with an excavator operator, an oxy cutter and a labourer, our own 35 tonne excavator with buckets, grab, shear and hammer, a tipper and a float driver out of Sydney. The crew lived in Orange for the duration.

Because the rates were already agreed from the earlier Cleanaway jobs, the client went from a scope email to a purchase order in a fortnight, and we were on site three weeks after that.

Lessons learned on this job

What worked

• Pricing off the existing Cleanaway rates. No tender, no negotiation, a PO inside a fortnight and the client could plan around a fixed finish date.
• Sheds first, tanks second. Clearing the small structures on day one gave the 35 tonne machine room to work and kept the crew busy while the tanks were being cleaned.
• Cutting the tanks to size before shearing. Oxy cutting the shells into sections meant the shear never had to fight a whole tank, and the scrap truck could load as the pieces came off.

What was difficult

• Living away. A short regional job still needs accommodation, meals and a plan for the crew's own gear, and that has to be sorted before the float leaves Sydney.
• Sharing the yard with the client's cleaning crew. Two contractors and a vacuum truck on one small site needs an exclusion zone that moves through the day, not a line on a plan.
• Test holes on an old depot. Services around the tank pad were not where the drawings said, so every dig started with a scan and a hand hole.

Industrial demolition in the Central West

Depots, workshops and tank installations across Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo are being handed back at the end of leases or cleared for new uses. Perfect Contracting runs demolition in Orange, tank and vessel demolition, plant decommissioning and site remediation from its Sydney base with the same crews, plant and permit systems used on this job.

If you have something similar

A depot to hand back, tanks to remove, or a yard that needs clearing and sampling before a lease ends. Call the Perfect Contracting estimating team on (02) 8021 1784, see more Perfect Contracting projects or send us the scope.