Completed July 2026. Perfect Contracting cleared a group of former rural lots at The Gables in Sydney's north west for JK Williams Contracting, ahead of a new residential land subdivision. The package took in the demolition of several dwellings and their farm structures, asbestos and hazardous materials removal, removal of septic tanks and buried services, clearance of a large above ground irrigation network across the old plantation ground, and contaminated soil remediation under a schedule of rates. The site was handed over clear and validated for the civil works to start.
Perfect Contracting was engaged by JK Williams as its demolition and remediation subcontractor. One contractor, one crew and one supervisor for everything between the standing buildings and the validated ground.
Services delivered
- Hazmat pre-start, service disconnections and site set up across multiple lots off Boundary Road
- Non-friable asbestos removal from the dwellings and outbuildings under a documented asbestos removal control plan, with clearance by the independent licensed assessor before demolition
- Internal strip out of the dwellings, with steel, timber and recyclables kept apart
- Mechanical demolition of the dwellings, sheds and outbuildings, including one two storey structure over six metres high
- Break out of slabs, footings, paths and driveways
- Location, decommissioning and removal of septic tanks and buried services
- Clearance of the above ground irrigation network laid across the former plantation area
- site remediation: progressive scraping of contaminated zones to the environmental consultant's marked extents, with sampling and validation of each zone before the next was opened
- Classification and tracked removal of soil and building waste to licensed facilities, with steel and concrete to recycling
- Handover of the cleared and validated site for the subdivision civil works
The challenge
Land like this looks simple from the road. A few older dwellings on big blocks, some sheds, open paddocks. What sits underneath is the job. Each dwelling had its own septic system and its own set of buried services. The former plantation ground behind the dwellings was laced with above ground irrigation pipe, thin plastic that had spent years in the sun and broke into pieces the moment a machine touched it. And the ground around the old buildings was contaminated, so it could not just be pushed into a stockpile and driven away.
The remediation had to be done zone by zone. The environmental consultant marked each area, we scraped it to the depth called for, the consultant sampled and validated it, and only then did we move to the next one. Getting that sequence wrong means double handling clean and dirty material, or worse, spreading contamination across ground that was already clean. On a site this size, with the client's civil programme waiting behind us, the sequence had to be right the first time.
Perfect Contracting's role
Perfect Contracting was the early works contractor for the site: demolition, asbestos, services, irrigation clearance and soil remediation under the one subcontract to JK Williams. Our estimators priced the buildings as a lump sum and the ground as a schedule of rates, so the client paid for the remediation that was actually done, not a guess made before the ground was opened.
A Perfect Contracting supervisor ran the site with our own operators, 15 and 30 tonne excavators, hook lift trucks and bins. No hire fleet. The client had one point of contact from the first hazmat pre-start to the final validation letter.
How the site was cleared
Work started with the hazmat. Each dwelling and outbuilding was checked against the hazardous materials report, the non-friable asbestos was removed under controlled conditions, and the independent licensed assessor issued the clearance before any machine went near the structure. Services were located and isolated, and the septic tanks were decommissioned, broken out and removed.
The dwellings were then stripped inside and demolished mechanically, one at a time, with the excavator sorting material at the footprint. Timber, brick, concrete and steel went into separate bins, so the recyclable streams stayed clean and the mixed waste going to the licensed facility stayed small. Slabs, footings and driveways were broken out and loaded. One structure stood over six metres high and came down under the additional controls that height calls for.
With the buildings gone, the crew turned to the paddocks. The irrigation network was collected by machine and by hand, working the ground in strips so nothing was buried under the next pass. Then the remediation zones were scraped in the consultant's sequence, each one sampled and signed off before the next was opened. A further round of sampling within the building footprints after the works confirmed no more remedial work was needed there.
Environmental controls
- Non-friable asbestos removed under a documented control plan, with clearance by the independent licensed assessor before demolition
- Contaminated soil scraped to the environmental consultant's marked extents and depths, never stockpiled over clean ground
- Every zone sampled and validated before the next was opened, with the results carried into the consultant's validation letters
- All soil and building waste classified before it left site and removed on tracked dockets to licensed facilities
- Steel, concrete and clean timber separated at the footprint for recycling
- Water on the scraped areas and the haul route for dust control
Safety beside a live estate
Demolition next to a live estate means people on the other side of the fence every day. The work zones were fenced, the compound sat off the estate road with its own access, and truck movements were kept to the compound gate and the estate road. Every day started with a pre-start and a documented site inspection, and every structure had its own demolition work method before it came down.
Asbestos work ran under the control plan with the exclusion zones held until the assessor's clearance was in hand. Nobody worked inside the swing radius of a machine while it was sorting or loading, and the exclusion zone around each structure was held until it was on the ground.
Early works in the north west growth area
The north west growth area between Rouse Hill, Box Hill and Marsden Park is turning old farms and market gardens into suburbs, and almost every one of those sites has the same mix: a few dwellings, sheds, septic tanks, buried services, farm infrastructure and ground that has had decades of agricultural use. Perfect Contracting delivers early works, demolition, asbestos and hazardous materials removal and contaminated soil remediation as one package for civil contractors and developers across the growth area, from its Sydney yard.
The outcome
Dwellings, sheds and outbuildings gone. Septic tanks and services out. The irrigation network cleared off the paddocks. Every remediation zone scraped, sampled and validated by the environmental consultant, with the assessed quantities holding and no variation to the remediation scope. The site was handed to JK Williams clear and validated for the subdivision civil works.
See more Perfect Contracting projects or contact our estimating team.
What the client said
"Thank you again for the great work on this project. Perfect Contracting team was always very helpful throughout the project, and the excellent results achieved have made both the Client and JKW very satisfied. I look forward to working with you again on future projects."
Ali Ghanbari, Project Manager, JK Williams
Perfect Contracting acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Traditional Custodians of the country on which we live and work. We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, present and future, and honour their connection to the land and ongoing contribution to society.