The asbestos-ridden eight-storey mill house was removed in a “controlled collapse” last Friday afternoon.

NSW Public Works oversaw the mill’s razing as part of an ongoing program to address safety issues at the site.

Industrial misting systems were employed to reduce the spread of dust as excavators and hydraulic shears tore into the building.

NSW Trade and Investment said two air quality monitors downwind of the site did not detect any asbestos dust.

“The demolition works are being undertaken in a controlled and progressive manner over a period of 32 weeks,” a spokesman said.

“A number of specialist consultants have been engaged to assist in planning and conducting the environmental assessments and demolition works.”

The mine, which the NSW Ombudsman described in 2010 as an “environmental disaster”, was abandoned 32 years ago.

Open-cut asbestos mining first occurred at Woodsreef from 1919 to 1923 before the Chrysotile Corporation ran the mine between 1970 and 1983.

In 2011, the NSW government allocated $6.3 million to address the mine’s “most significant health, safety and environmental issues”.

However, environmental consultants Dames and Moore estimated in a report to the government in 1997 the cost of the clean-up could top $100 million .

NSW Trade and Investment said last week’s demolition of the mill was not advertised, to avoid attracting onlookers. Neither Tamworth Regional Council nor community members of the Woodsreef Community Advisory Group were notified.

Danny Ballard, who sits on the advisory group, said the mill’s removal was a significant and overdue step forward in the mine’s clean-up.

But he questioned whether all the mill’s asbestos sheeting had been removed before the demolition occurred, as per asbestos handling guidelines. 

“Last year I asked the taskforce specifically how the building was going to be brought down ... and I was told that it wouldn’t be coming down in one big hit,” he said.

“They said it would be pulled apart bit-by-bit, so I was quite surprised with what happened last Friday.”