By Howard Waldron and Peter Rodgers, Co-Founders of Lotsearch
Australia’s industrial past has left a lasting imprint beneath the surface—one that continues to shape our land use decisions, environmental policies, and public health outcomes. Sites once occupied by gasworks, dry cleaners, council depots, and defence now pose complex challenges as we confront the lingering effects of historical contamination, including on groundwater systems.
Among the contaminants of concern, PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) has emerged as a key focus due to its persistence, mobility, and risks to both human and ecological health. It exemplifies a broader issue: the need to better understand where historical contamination exists, where risks remain unknown, and how to respond.
Understanding Where Contamination Lives
As the Co-founders of Lotsearch, our vision was to create a more environmentally aware Australia, which is why we pioneered the development of environmental information and insights in Australia. For more than a decade, our team at Lotsearch has diligently pieced together a national picture of potential contamination across the country. Through the collation and accurate mapping of public register information, historical data, and unique insights, we have identified over 260,000 sites across Australia that may be contaminated, typically due to past industrial or commercial activities.
Where are the hotspots?
In a recent article featured in the Australian Conveyancer, we provided a summary of the main hotspots of potentially contaminated land, broken down state by state.
There is a significant difference between the red (known contamination, which in most instances are listed on government datasets /public registers) and the orange hotspots that Lotsearch has identified as potentially contaminated. Note: In some states / territories there is sparce information sources available (e.g. Northern Territory).
Potentially Contaminating Activities
Sitting behind each of these hotspot maps are our extensive datasets and quality assurance processes, representing a significant investment by our team to support our industry in uncovering the true extent of Australia’s contamination legacy.
Lotsearch have identified 63 Potentially Contaminating Activities (PCAs). This exhaustive list was compiled by combining various industry practice notes, including the National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM), as well as other state-based guidelines, planning documents, and policies.
A small sample from Lotsearch’s 63 Potentially Contaminating Activities (PCAs).
Many of the +260,000 sites identified by Lotsearch as being potentially contaminated fall under common legacy uses such as old service stations, former dry cleaners, gasworks, and facilities that handled petroleum, solvents, or firefighting foams. It is worth noting that contamination can be caused by other types of activities and incidents, which we also aim to capture in our database. Nevertheless, the master list of 63 PCAs is a helpful guide.
Methodology and Quality Assurance
Our work draws on a wide array of public sources, including large numbers of public registers maintained by state and territory-based environmental regulators. The sheer number of individual information sources makes this process challenging to manage, as each state has different registers, varying update procedures, and different methods for adding and removing records (sometimes unintentionally). As well as managing the public register data, there is also the challenge of locating each feature and placing it accurately on a map.
Our data quality team ensures there is a data standard document for every dataset in our system. Each record is mapped by our team of highly skilled analysts, and treated with the utmost scrutiny, whilst also undergoing a separate peer review process. Any problematic records are then queried with the data custodian.
In addition to mapping information, Lotsearch have conducted targeted research projects accessing a variety of historical documents and artifacts, including historical business directories, gazettes, maps and aerial photographs. These projects help identify industrial use patterns and areas where contamination may still be present. Each historical record requires additional validation, typically multiple sources of evidence to ensure that the information is of the highest quality available.
Overall, the information on known and potentially contaminant sources that we have identified, checked, and validated over the last decade is critical to understanding and including when conducting a preliminary site investigation or Phase 1 environmental assessment. Our intelligence offers an important layer of context for land planning, risk screening, and due diligence.
NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into PFAS Contamination in Waterways and Drinking Water.
A Select Committee was established on 25 September 2024 to inquire into and report on PFAS contamination in waterways and drinking water supplies throughout New South Wales.
As part of this inquiry, Lotsearch were invited to provide evidence to the Select Committee at NSW Parliament House. During the interview, we highlighted a significant knowledge gap regarding the known and potential locations of contaminated land (including documentation of the hotspot maps above) and shared that our investigative work had led us to build a database that has identified 260,000 potentially contaminated sites, with over 75,000 of these located in New South Wales.
Howard Waldron and Peter Rodgers presenting their Evidence to the NSW Select Committee for the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into PFAS Contamination in Waterways and Drinking Water at NSW Parliament House.
In alignment with our vision to foster a more environmentally aware Australia, we encouraged the committee to integrate data and information reporting services into the New South Wales strategy for addressing PFAS contamination. Additionally, Lotsearch strongly advocated for the inclusion of contaminated land searches for every property transaction to improve awareness of potential and known contamination issues across the state.
It’s anticipated that the Select Committee of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into PFAS contamination in waterways and drinking water will release their findings along with a series of recommendations on August 20, 2025.
Peter Rodgers and Howard Waldron at NSW Parliament House after presenting their Evidence to the NSW Select Committee for the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into PFAS Contamination in Waterways and Drinking Water.
Looking Ahead
The conversation about contamination in Australia is continually evolving. Many parties have transitioned from a reactive approach and searching sparse and fragmented records, to using technology companies like Lotsearch to access more accurate data on potentially contaminated land, natural hazards, as well as planning and ecological constraints.
While many sites still carry the legacy of past contamination, we continue to advocate for higher standards, with our quality-assured datasets and reports. Lotsearch is dedicated to continuing to research, validate and maintain our unique and robust datasets to help protect our client’s and their interests.
About Lotsearch
Lotsearch is the industry leader in providing best-in-class environmental reports, to help clients identify potential contamination risk to land and property. By utilising our unique information and insights, clients are provided with the most complete, accurate and high-quality data for any site in Australia.
For further information about how Lotsearch can support your business or project, please visit our website at www.lotsearch.com.au or reach out via email at support@lotsearch.com.au.
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Sources:
Lotsearch Content
Background on Lotsearch’s land-use contamination database, Advocacy work and submission to the NSW Select Committee on PFAS, Statistics on over 260,000 identified potentially contaminated sites nationally, Summary reference to a snapshot in The Australian Conveyancer.
References
NSW Parliament – Select Committee on PFAS
Publicly available submissions and hearings:
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=3017
Lotsearch – Reports and Public Resources
Lotsearch’s Environmental Risk Search service descriptions, historical land-use database information, and PFAS-related insights:
https://lotsearch.com.au
Contaminated Land Guidelines and Registers (State Agencies)
NSW EPA – Contaminated Land:
https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/land/contaminated-land
VIC EPA Priority Sites Register:
https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-community/environmental-information/land-and-groundwater/priority-sites-register
Other state equivalents used for context.
National Chemicals Data and Risk Resources
Australian Government – Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) on PFAS:
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/pfas
Common Contaminants Overview
ALGA and CRC CARE (Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment) publications.