Coomera facts a plumber should know
Dual water in some areas
The City says parts of the Pimpama to Coomera region use dual reticulation: two separate pipe networks into each property. The non-drinking side is purple, from the main to the meter, pipes, taps and hoses.
Houses and townhouses
At the 2021 Census, 72.8% of the suburb's occupied homes were separate houses and 26.1% townhouses, semis or terraces, more than double Queensland's 11.7%. Flats were just 0.6%.
Young, and mostly renting
53.7% of Coomera's homes were rented, against 33.1% across Queensland. The median age was 29, and households averaged 3.1 people.
Part of the City's inflow checks
Coomera was one of 12 suburbs in the City's Inflow Mitigation Program, which inspected about 4500 properties between 2020 and 2023 and found stormwater reaching the sewer at 16% of them.
Living with purple pipes
The purple supply is for flushing toilets, watering gardens and lawns, washing cars, outdoor cleaning, ornamental ponds and fire fighting. It must not go to drinking, cooking, showers, baths or basins, clothes washing, pools and spas, evaporative coolers, pets, or topping up a rainwater tank.
Dual supply homes have a meter for each kind of water, so a leak check means reading both. If you think a purple pipe has been joined to a tap you drink or wash from, stop using that tap and report the incorrect connection to the City. Not sure whether your street is single or dual supply? The City's planned water supply system map for the Pimpama to Coomera area shows it.
The gully that keeps sewage outside
The overflow relief gully is a grated fitting outside the house. If the sewer blocks or surcharges, sewage spills out there instead of through the lowest drain inside. The City wants its grate loose and uncovered, 75 mm above the surrounding ground and 150 mm below the lowest drain in the house.
The inflow program's most common findings were gullies that were faulty or sat too low, inspection openings with missing or broken lids, and stormwater pipes connected to the sewer. If rain, pool water or tap water can reach your gully, the City recommends a licensed plumber fit a gully cap or rework the pipes.
What we would do
Walk around the outside of your Coomera home once: find the gully, the inspection opening and, if you have them, the purple tap and second meter. Clear anything piled on the gully grate. If you rent, report a blockage or leak to your property manager before booking anyone. And if a drain does back up, we can match you with a licence-checked drain specialist for Coomera who can check whether the fault is in the City's sewer before clearing it.