If the gully is overflowing right now
Stop adding water
No showers, flushing, dishwasher or washing machine until the drain is clear. Every litre goes to the same blocked pipe.
Keep people and pets clear
Treat any overflow as sewage. Keep children and animals away and wash hands after touching anything near it.
Look over the fence
If a manhole in the street is overflowing, or neighbours have the same problem, call SA Water. That points to its sewer, not your drain.
Find your inspection point
Uncover it if you can. A drain specialist will want to open it first, because it shows which side of the line the blockage is on.
Adelaide drain facts
Sewer and stormwater are separate
The EPA says indoor drains run to the sewer or a septic system, and outside you may have a sewer gully under a tap. Roof downpipes and yard drains go to stormwater instead, so a spilling downpipe is a different job.
The inspection point may be inside your fence
SA's plumbing code lets a utility's inspection shaft or point sit outside or within the property boundary. Openings that aren't raised to the surface must not end up under paving or concrete.
Protected trees have protected roots
A tree with a trunk 1 metre or more around, measured 1 metre up, is regulated. City of Salisbury lists severing large roots among the work that needs development approval first.
Tea Tree Gully's converted homes
Where SA Water has moved a property off the old CWMS, an inspection point near the former septic tank marks the start of the owner's responsibility.
Your drain, or SA Water's sewer?
We tried to read SA Water's own rule on where its sewer ends and your drain begins, but its website refused us. So we won't state a boundary. If the inspection point or a camera shows the blockage is past your part, stop and ask SA Water what happens next before paying for more work.
In a unit or townhouse, the shared drain may belong to several owners. Check before anyone starts, so the bill goes to the right people. Our guide to who owns the sewer pipe compares water companies around Australia.
Old clay drains under the house
South Australia's code bans vitrified clay pipes above ground, and under buildings unless they've been renovated with cured in-place pipe (CIPP) relining. If a camera finds a cracked clay drain beneath your floor, relining is one of the options the code itself names. See pipe relining in Adelaide for how that works.
Keep it from happening again
SA Water asks everyone to flush only the three Ps: paper, pee and poo. Wipes, sanitary items and cotton buds belong in the bin. In the kitchen, wipe greasy pans with paper before washing up, and use a sink strainer. For root problems, see tree roots in drains.
Questions to ask the drain specialist
- Where was the blockage: before or after my inspection point?
- Did you see roots, a collapsed pipe or just a build-up?
- Is there a regulated tree near the drain line that the council should know about?
- Would relining or a repair stop it coming back?
- Will this work come with an eCOC?
What we would do
Find the gully and the inspection point before the plumber arrives, and clear anything sitting on them. If the blockage turns out to be beyond your part, ask SA Water before paying for more. If roots are the cause and there's a big tree nearby, get the council's view before any digging, because damaging a protected tree's roots without approval is an offence. A drain specialist who works in Adelaide every week will know to raise all of this.