Council will come out itself when
- Blockages are affecting several neighbouring properties at the same time.
- A licensed plumber has found the blockage is in council's sewerage system.
- Sewage has flooded inside the house.
- It's a public holiday and you've tried every avenue but can't get a licensed plumber.
Anything else that looks like a blockage in your private drain is yours to sort out with a licensed plumber. Council's procedure is plain that it doesn't clear private drains, so it isn't competing with local plumbers.
Yeppoon drain facts
The split point
Council's line is the point of connection, the house connection branch shown on its standard drawing. The owner maintains, and if necessary replaces, the private drain up to there.
Not every property is sewered
The Yeppoon scheme covers Yeppoon, Cooee Bay, Taranganba, Rosslyn Bay and six more localities. Most rural areas in the shire use septic or an on-site treatment plant, which is a different job: see septic systems.
The council side blocks sometimes
In council's 2025 figures to the state, the Yeppoon scheme's 246 km of mains had 10 breaks and chokes, about 4.1 per 100 km.
Heavy rain days
Yeppoon The Esplanade's wettest day on record brought 295.8 mm, in March, and the station averages 1009.6 mm a year (1994 to 2026).
If your plumber finds it's council's blockage
| The rule | What to do | |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting | The plumber must notify council immediately so council can clear it. | Agree this before work starts. Council crews clear their own pipes. |
| Reimbursement | The plumber is reimbursed a maximum of one standard hour, up to $250. A manager can approve more in some cases. | Ask your plumber to claim it, and keep their notes on what they found. |
| A wrong call | If the fault turns out to be in the private drain, council recovers all its costs from the owner at its private works rates. | Ask for camera footage or clear evidence before council is called out. |
What a drain specialist will do
A plumber will find the lowest point they can open, usually an inspection opening or the yard gully, and check which length of pipe is holding water. If the cause isn't obvious, a drain camera shows whether it's roots, a sagging joint or a build-up of fat and wipes.
They'll clear it with an eel or a jetter, and tell you if the pipe itself is damaged. A cracked or root-filled drain will block again, so ask about repair or relining options and why one suits better than the other.
Your part, and the plumber's
You can
- Keep the gully grate in the yard clean and clear. The QBCC lists cleaning a ground-level grate over a trap as unregulated work.
- Replace a lost cap on a ground-level inspection opening, also on the QBCC's list.
- Keep wipes, fat and food scraps out of the drains.
- Ask the neighbours whether they're backing up too.
Leave to a licensed plumber
- Any blockage a plunger won't move.
- Clearing, cutting or relining the drain.
- Camera inspection and locating the point of connection.
- Septic system work outside the sewered area.
What we would do
If more than one house is affected, or sewage is inside, ring council: those are cases it attends itself. Otherwise, book a drain specialist and agree up front that they'll stop and notify council if the blockage is past your point of connection, because that's what makes the reimbursement possible. Ask for camera evidence before council is called, since a wrong call is charged back to you. And if your property is on septic, say so when you describe the job.