The first ten minutes
Water leaking or spraying
Turn off the stop tap at your water meter. If water is near power points or the switchboard, switch off the power at the main switch.
Sewage from the overflow relief gully
Stop flushing and running taps. Council asks you to call it straight away; it will ask a few questions to work out whether the problem is yours or Council's.
Smell of gas
Get everyone outside, don't touch switches, and ring the gas emergency number on your gas bill from outside.
Sewage inside the house
Keep people and pets away from it and take photos. Council will not clean inside the home, so ring your insurer for advice before cleaning starts.
Toowoomba emergencies, what's different
Council's pipe, Council's cost
Under its 2023 policy, a blockage in the extension or main line is fixed at TRC's cost. A blocked house drain is the owner's to fix and pay for, including the cost of finding it there.
The gully is meant to overflow
Council designs the overflow relief gully to release sewage outside instead of inside. If it is spilling, it is doing its job, so don't cover it to stop the mess.
Cold snaps
Toowoomba Airport averages 0.9 days a year at 0°C or below, and the old Toowoomba station averaged 4.2 such days from 1957 to 1998. A split pipe after a frosty night is most likely where pipework is exposed.
An alert can come before the puddle
If your home has one of Council's smart meters, it can send a leak alert when use spikes. Take it seriously even when you can't see water.
When the blockage is in your house drain
If Council finds its pipes clear, the job is yours. A drain specialist will find where the house drain is blocked, clear it and tell you whether tree roots, a collapse or a build-up caused it. Council notes that tree roots can enter sewer pipes through small cracks or joints.
Ask the plumber to show you where the blockage is before any digging starts. Our pages on blocked drains and tree roots in drains explain the usual fixes.
Urgent still means licensed
The QBCC's DIY plumbing guide lets a homeowner clean a ground-level grate over a trap on a sanitary drain and replace caps on ground-level inspection openings. Almost everything else on an emergency job needs a licensed plumber or drainer.
Even at night, check the plumber on the QBCC registers through myQBCC, and ask for the licence number on the invoice. If the work is notifiable, the licensee registers it with the QBCC within 10 business days of invoicing.
Ask before they start
- Is the blockage in my house drain, or past my inspection opening in Council's line?
- What is your QBCC licence number, and are you the person named on it?
- What will the first hour cover, and what needs my approval before you go further?
- Will this repair be notifiable work?
What we would do
When sewage is coming from the gully, ring Council before you ring anyone else. If the blockage is in Council's pipe, fixing it is Council's job and cost, and a private plumber's bill for the same blockage may be yours to keep. If Council says it's your side, an urgent drain specialist is the right call. For burst pipes, the stop tap buys you time: once the water is off, a leak can often wait for a booked visit rather than an after-hours rate.