The clean up of the WA south coast town of Esperance has begun, to clear away dust deposited from lead and nickel exports between 2006 and 2007.

The local port authority was fined more than $500,000 in the Esperance Magistrates Court last Friday after pleading guilty to six pollution charges.

The Director of the clean-up Wayne Winchester says stage one has started with samples collected from 45 homes.

"The levels vary from house to house," he said.

"We need to go to each house on a case by case basis.

"We're taking about 25 to 30 samples from each home and then analysing those and that's leading us to develop the work pack.

"There's actually an individual work pack for each home."