Do these first
Isolate the water
The stop tap is at the water meter. Turn it clockwise until it stops. In a unit, there may also be a valve for your unit alone; the building manager will know.
Keep water and power apart
If water is reaching power points, lights or appliances, stay out of the wet area. Only flip the main switch if you can reach the switchboard without standing in water.
Gas: out, then call
No switches or flames. Shut the gas at the bottle or meter if it's safe, leave the doors open, and ring the gas emergency number from outside.
Sewage backing up
Stop using water inside. If other homes or the street are affected, report it to Cairns Regional Council, which runs the sewer mains.
Why Cairns emergencies look different
Big rain days
In an average year Cairns Aero logs 21.5 days of 25 mm or more; its record day was 402.8 mm, in March. February averages 436.1 mm on its own. Know which is which: gutters and downpipes carry rain, while the yard gully belongs to the sewer drain.
Breaks in the council's mains
Cairns Regional Council's 2025 report to the state counted 527 water main breaks, bursts and leaks, 460 of them in the Copperlode/Behana scheme. Water coming up through the road or nature strip should be reported to the council.
Units and shared systems
15.7% of occupied homes in the council area were flats or apartments at the 2021 Census. Where a block has bulk hot water, the system may belong to the body corporate or an energy retailer, so faults go to the building manager first.
After a flood, leave the gas off
Under Queensland's rules, nothing gas-fired gets used after a flood until a licensed gasfitter has inspected the installation and appliances. Leave the pipework alone during the clean-up, too. If the network operator or LPG supplier finds your installation unsafe, it will cut the supply, and the owner pays a licensed gasfitter to test and repair it.
Urgent, or can it wait?
Book a plumber tonight for: a burst pipe you can't isolate, sewage coming up inside, a gas smell, or a hot water tank pouring water. Those cause damage by the hour.
These can usually wait for a daytime booking: a dripping tap, a toilet that runs (close the valve under the cistern), one slow sink, or no hot water with no leak. Our hot water page for Cairns covers the next steps for that one.
What happens when the plumber arrives
A plumber will stop the damage first, by isolating the water, gas or the failed fixture. Then they'll find the cause and tell you whether it can be fixed properly tonight or needs a return visit with parts.
If the leak is in the street or past your meter on the council side, they should tell you to report it rather than dig. If it's hidden in a wall or slab, ask about leak detection instead of opening up large areas at night.
Watch for these on an urgent job
- No QBCC licence number on the ad, van or quote. Queensland licensees have to show it in their advertising.
- A gas fitter who can't show a Queensland gas work licence. You can check it on the RSHQ Portal without an account.
- A demand to approve major work before the cause has been found.
What we would do
Before the wet season, find the stop tap at your meter, make sure it turns, and show everyone in the house. In an emergency, make it safe, then work out whose problem it is: the council for the street, the body corporate for shared parts of a block, a plumber for everything inside your own boundary. Ask the plumber to stop the damage now and quote the permanent fix in daylight. And if floodwater has touched the gas, wait for the gasfitter.