Drains backing up? Read the inspection shaft
Find the vertical inspection shaft
It sits inside your block, near the boundary, where your drains meet Council's sewer. Lifting its cover shows where the problem is.
Empty shaft: the blockage is on your side
Council says an empty shaft means the blockage is within your property, so you need a plumber. A drain specialist will find it, often with a camera.
Full or part full: ring Council before anyone digs
It may be Council's responsibility. Council doesn't automatically pay a plumber's bill for clearing its sewer pipes unless it authorised the work, so call Council first and let it decide.
The gully that keeps sewage out of the house
Your overflow relief gully (ORG) has a loose grated lid. In a blockage or a big wet weather event, it lets sewage spill out in the yard instead of inside your home. Council wants it at least 75 mm above ground level so rain and surface water can't run into the sewer. Garden beds built up around it defeat both jobs.
Council lists tree roots that have broken into pipes as one of the main causes of blockages, and asks owners not to plant trees over sewer lines. Our tree root page explains what a drain plumber does about them.
What shapes plumbing jobs around the Hastings
Mostly houses, many owned outright
At the 2021 Census, 75.7% of occupied homes in Port Macquarie-Hastings Council's area were separate houses and 9.6% flats or apartments. 42.5% were owned outright, well above the NSW figure of 31.5%.
Wet, with the odd light frost
Port Macquarie Airport averaged 1408.4 mm of rain a year and 8.2 days at or below 2°C, from records between 1995 and 2022. Freezing pipes are rare; drains working hard in heavy rain are not.
Six mapped floodplains
Council has six identified floodplain areas, with hazard maps based on a one in 100 year flood for Port Macquarie, Wauchope, Rawdon Island, Telegraph Point and Wrights Creek.
Buying a place on a septic system
Outside the sewered areas, homes rely on on-site systems. If you buy one, you must apply to Council for an Approval to Operate within 3 months of the property transfer, and an Environmental Health Officer will arrange an inspection. Council suggests a pre-purchase inspection, because a building inspection won't cover the septic. Our septic systems page covers what a plumber checks.
Licences, notices and certificates
Any plumbing, drainage or gas fitting in NSW is specialist work, and contracting for it needs a contractor licence whatever the job costs. Look the plumber up on the NSW Public Register: it shows licence categories, expiry dates and any conditions or cancellations.
Outside Sydney's metropolitan area, plumbing notices go to the local council regulator rather than through MyInspections. Once the work is done, the plumber lodges a Certificate of Compliance and must give you a copy. More in our compliance certificates guide and on the NSW page.
Specialists for the Hastings
Start with the page for your problem: blocked drains, hot water, leak detection, stormwater or an emergency plumber. Thinking of a heat pump? The NSW Energy Savings Scheme offers a discount through accredited installers, you still make a minimum payment, and the figures are indicative only. See NSW hot water discounts.
What we would do
Learn where your inspection shaft and gully are before the day you need them, and keep both clear of mulch and pavers. If drains back up, lift the shaft lid. If it's full, call Council before you pay anyone to clear it. If it's empty, book a drain specialist and ask for the Certificate of Compliance when the job needs one.