Tasmania's categories of work, as Burnie City Council explains them
| Risk | Who does it, and what's needed | |
|---|---|---|
| Category 1 | Low | Work an owner can do. |
| Category 2 | Low | A licensed builder or plumber. Some of it must be reported to the permit authority once complete. |
| Category 3 | Medium | Notifiable work. For plumbing, a Certificate of Likely Compliance from a permit authority, then inspection and sign-off. |
| Category 4 | High | A permit from the permit authority, every time. |
Which plumbing jobs fall into which category is set by the Director's Determination on categories of plumbing work, which we haven't read. If you're not sure whether a job needs approval, Council invites you to call, email or book a time with a Permit Authority Officer.
Burnie facts
Steep ground, fast floods
Council says Burnie's steep, undulating terrain means floods generally pass quickly after rain, so the usual type is flash flooding.
Some floods start indoors
Council's list of flood types includes localised flooding on a property from blocked pipes or limited capacity in internal plumbing.
Council stormwater
Burnie City Council manages an extensive urban stormwater network in the city and the Ridgley township.
Houses dominate
At the 2021 Census, 90.2% of occupied homes in the Burnie City Council area were separate houses. 31.9% were rented, against 26.4% across Tasmania.
TasWater in Burnie
Council's water page points water and sewerage faults to TasWater. TasWater's rule makes the private sewer line, from the connection point to the house, the customer's. Owners must also keep a properly designed overflow relief gully working and never cover it.
Cold snaps matter too. TasWater says temperatures in Tasmania commonly drop below zero in the colder months, which can freeze meters and above-ground pipes. Let them thaw as the day warms, cover the meter before a cold night, and call a licensed plumber for damaged pipes on the house side.
Licences and hot water
Under Tasmania's Occupational Licensing Act 2005, a person must not carry on business as a plumbing contractor unless licensed, and nobody may hold themselves out as a practitioner without a licence. Practitioner licences range from standard and restricted to certifier.
New and replacement hot water heaters need a temperature control device in Tasmania, except where a single storage unit within a bank of heaters is replaced. See tempering valves, burst pipes and the Tasmania page.
What we would do
Before booking, ask the plumber which category your job falls into and who will deal with the permit authority if it's Category 3 or 4. If water pools inside after heavy rain, check gutters, downpipes and internal drains before blaming the street: Council's own list of flood types includes blocked pipes in the home.