Who looks after what
| Responsible | Council's notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Internal house drainage | The owner | Repairs and maintenance are the owner's. |
| Overflow gully | The owner | At least 50mm above ground and 150mm below the house floor, never buried or covered. |
| Water service from the main, including the stop cock beside the meter | Council | Report a leak on it to Council. |
| Water meter | Council | Council installs, maintains and replaces meters. Keep the area around yours clear. |
| Pipes and taps after the meter | The owner | Inside or outside, it's internal plumbing and yours to repair. |
Sewer blocked? Open the boundary shaft
Find it
Most homes connect through a single junction, and the inspection shaft is usually about one metre inside the boundary.
Lift the lid carefully and look
That one look tells you whose problem it is.
Empty shaft
The blockage is between the house and the shaft. Council says the owner organises a licensed plumber to clear it, at the owner's expense. A drain specialist is the right call.
Partly or completely full
The blockage is in Council's part of the system and Council fixes it. Call Council before paying anyone.
Goulburn climate, water and homes
Frequent hard frosts
Goulburn Airport AWS averages 94.6 days a year at or below 2°C and 60.5 at or below 0°C (1990 to 2026). July's mean minimum is 0.4°C, and it has recorded -10.9°C.
Water near the hardness guideline
Council says the treated water's hardness can range from 150 to 250 mg/L as calcium carbonate. The 200 mg/L guideline exists to limit scale in hot water systems, and that range straddles it.
Almost all houses
At the 2021 Census, 87.5% of occupied homes in Goulburn Mulwaree Council's area were separate houses. 13.0% of private dwellings were unoccupied on Census night.
Shared drains between blocks
Council says private inter-allotment drainage easements are the responsibility of the property owners, not Council. If a shared stormwater line behind your fence is blocked, the owners who use it sort it out between them. See stormwater.
Hot water and licences
With hard frosts and hardish water, hot water is a common Goulburn job. Any replacement in NSW must include a temperature control device, like-for-like or not. A switch to a heat pump may attract an Energy Savings Scheme discount, but the published amounts are indicative only and you make a minimum payment. See hot water, tempering valves and NSW discounts.
Every plumbing, drainage and gasfitting contract in NSW needs a contractor licence, and the Public Register shows whether it's current. More on our NSW page, or see burst pipes and emergency plumbing.
What we would do
Do the shaft test before you ring anyone: it takes a minute and decides who pays. Keep your overflow gully uncovered and above the garden. And with water this hard, ask a hot water specialist when the anode in your tank was last checked.