Your house drain, or Council's sewer?
There is no separate water company to call in Toowoomba. Council looks after the sewer, and its own page puts it simply: blockages inside your home or in private drains are the owner's, and blockages in Council-owned pipes are Council's.
Its Wastewater Infrastructure Policy, approved in September 2023, spells out the money side. A blocked house drain is fixed at the owner's expense. When the blockage turns out to be in the extension or the main line, the repair is at TRC's cost. Council will not refund what you spent hunting for a blockage that ends up being in your own house drainage.
If sewage comes up inside, Council will not clean inside the home. That falls to the owner, and Council suggests ringing your insurer for advice first. Our guide to who owns the sewer pipe compares the rules of other water authorities.
Toowoomba facts that shape a plumbing job
Real frost on the range
The Bureau's old Toowoomba station, closed in 2007, recorded an average of 27.4 days a year with a ground temperature of -1°C or lower across 41 years to 1998. Toowoomba Airport, open since 1996, averages 4.8 days a year at 2°C or colder. Exposed pipes and outdoor taps are the ones to lag.
Your gully is your safety valve
Council says the overflow relief gully lets sewage spill outside rather than inside when a drain blocks, so it must sit lower than every toilet, sink, shower and bath. Never raise it or seal it over when landscaping.
Leak alerts on new meters
Council began fitting smart water meters in 2022 and aims to finish in 2029. If your home has one, it can flag a sudden spike in use that may mean a leak, and the Toowoomba Water app shows use in near real time.
Septic outside the sewered areas
Unsewered homes rely on on-site sewerage facilities. By law the owner keeps a licensed service agent engaged, aerated plants are serviced every three months, and installing, altering or removing one needs a plumbing approval first.
Gas in Toowoomba
Allgas Energy, which owns the gas network south of the Brisbane River, runs a separate network in Toowoomba and another in Oakey. Not every street is on it, so check before you plan a gas appliance.
In Queensland anyone carrying out gas work must hold the appropriate gas work licence or gas work authorisation, and not every holder may do every type of gas work. Our Toowoomba gas fitter page covers the licence check and the compliance certificate you should receive.
Checking a Toowoomba plumber
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission keeps the licences. Two of its registers are worth a search through myQBCC: the QBCC licensee register for the business, and the occupational plumber and drainer register for the person who turns up.
Some plumbing counts as notifiable work. The licensee lodges it with the QBCC within 10 business days of invoicing you, and a copy should reach you within 20 business days of that. For the handful of jobs a Toowoomba homeowner may legally tackle alone, see our Queensland page.
Toowoomba specialists
Start with the page that fits the problem: hot water in Toowoomba, an emergency plumber in Toowoomba or a Toowoomba gas fitter. For other work, see blocked drains, burst pipes and septic systems.
What we would do
If a drain backs up, look at the overflow relief gully and the inspection opening before anyone digs. Sewage spilling from the gully while the inside fixtures still drain slowly points to a blockage somewhere downstream, and Council wants a call straight away in that case. If Council says the problem is on your side, ask the drain specialist to find it with the least digging, because the cost of locating a house drain blockage stays with you. And before winter, wrap any pipe that runs exposed outside.