Is Southside an official area?

Not as a council or ABS name. We use it for the ABS's Brisbane - South region, which lies wholly inside Brisbane City.

Whose is the water pipe between my meter and the house?

Yours. Urban Utilities owns the meter and the pipes leading away from the property toward its main. From the meter to the house, repairs are the owner's.

Plumbers across Brisbane's Southside: Urban Utilities rules

Plumbers across Brisbane's Southside One council, one water company.

By Southside we mean the ABS's Brisbane - South region, which takes in areas from Coorparoo and Annerley to Carindale, Rochedale and Calamvale. All of it is Brisbane City, so Urban Utilities' pipe rules apply across the lot. Send us the job and a licence-checked plumber who specialises in that work can pick it up.

What Southside covers

The ABS divides Brisbane - South into six areas: Carindale, Holland Park - Yeronga, Mt Gravatt, Nathan, Rocklea - Acacia Ridge and Sunnybank. Every part of the region falls inside Brisbane City Council's boundary.

Several suburbs have their own page with more detail: Sunnybank, Carindale, Mount Gravatt, Coorparoo and Rochedale.

Southside facts that shape plumbing jobs

Mostly houses

At the 2021 Census, 69.5% of occupied homes in Brisbane - South were separate houses, 14.5% townhouses or semis and 15.4% flats or apartments. 41.2% had 4 or more bedrooms.

Over a third rented

35.6% of homes were rented, a little above Queensland's 33.1%. If sewage overflows indoors, Urban Utilities tells renters to call the property manager or landlord straight away.

The odd frost

The Bureau's Archerfield Airport station, on the south side, averages 2.4 days a year at or below 2°C and 0.4 days at or below 0°C. Its lowest reading is -2.5°C. Frost is rare here, not unknown.

Downpours are the bigger test

Archerfield's wettest day on record, in February, dropped 343.7 mm. Heavy rain can force stormwater into the sewer through bad connections and low-lying gullies.

Sewer trouble: how Urban Utilities handles it

Urban Utilities asks you not to clear a sewer blockage yourself. Use a licensed plumber, or pay Urban Utilities to do it, a service it offers in Brisbane and Ipswich.

If the plumber finds the fault in Urban Utilities' pipe, you still pay the invoice, then lodge your own claim for reasonable costs. A plumber can't make the claim for you, every claim gets a liability investigation, and digging done without Urban Utilities' prior approval stays with the owner.

Call Urban Utilities' 24/7 line first if public sewage floods your property, several houses are affected, or your inspection opening or gully is overflowing.

Before you dig or renovate

Brisbane City Council's Flood Awareness Map shows how likely creek, river and storm tide flooding is for a property. A FloodWise Property Report compares the January 2011 and February 2022 flood levels where available. Council also sells house drainage plans, which show the in-ground sewer drains, so nobody has to guess where to dig.

What we would do

Work out whether the problem is yours or the street's before you book. One slow sink is nearly always your pipe; several fixtures backing up, or a neighbour with the same trouble, is a reason to ring Urban Utilities first. After that, pick a plumber who handles your kind of job week in, week out, and file the paid invoice in case a claim follows.

Southside jobs we match

Go straight to blocked drains, hot water, leak detection, gas fitting or an emergency plumber. Each job goes to a licence-checked specialist in that work.