A plain-language guide · New South Wales
Plumbing and drainage on the North Shore, under NSW rules
Where the water goes on a North Shore block
Plumbing on Sydney’s North Shore runs on New South Wales rules. These six guides set out who may do the work, where your pipes meet the water network, how rain and wastewater leave a sloping block, and the papers you should hold when a job is finished.
A guide published by Dotto, drawn from the official pages linked throughout. General information, not legal or technical advice.
- Contour line
- Ridge line
- Water running downhill
Six guides, from the ridge down
Each one answers a single question from the official pages behind it, and links to them so you can read the rule itself.
- Checking a plumber’s licence in NSWThe licence and certificate types, what each lets a person do, and how to look one up on the NSW register.
- Whose pipe is it?Where the regulator draws the point of connection, and why the ownership line sits in Sydney Water’s customer contract.
- Stormwater on a sloping blockRain and sewage leave by separate systems. What that means when your block drains through a neighbour’s land.
- The overflow relief gullyA drainage fitting that must sit at set heights, measured from your lowest fixture and from the ground around it.
- The paperwork after plumbing workThe Notice of Work, the Certificate of Compliance and the Sewer Service Diagram, and which of them you should receive.
- Water ratings on taps, showers and toiletsHow to read the WELS star label, and the minimum rating new fittings must meet.
Rain and sewage go separate ways
Rain and wastewater leave a block by different routes, and they end in very different places.
Stormwater
Rain the ground cannot absorb runs to the gutter and into the stormwater drains, and from there through pipes into local rivers and creeks with no treatment or filtering on the way.
North Sydney Council puts it plainly: unlike sewage, stormwater is not treated, and it flows from your street and gutter into the harbour.
Sewage
In NSW, drainage work means work on sanitary drains that connect, directly or indirectly, with a sewer. It is a licensed category of its own. Sydney Water’s customer contract says an owner must not let rainwater into their wastewater system.
Where a property is not connected to Sydney Water’s sewerage system, North Sydney Council says it will have an on-site system to store, treat and dispose of wastewater, and that system is the owner’s responsibility.
How the two systems meet a slope, and a neighbour downhill: stormwater on a sloping block.
Who looks after what
Four public bodies stand behind the rules in these guides.
- Building Commission NSWLicenses people to do plumbing, draining and gasfitting work, and audits plumbing and drainage work in Sydney where properties connect to Sydney Water’s sewer.
- Sydney WaterProvides water, wastewater and stormwater services across Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. Its operating licence started on 1 July 2024, runs to 30 June 2028 and includes a customer contract, according to IPART, the regulator that publishes it.
- Your local councilIn North Sydney, where new drainage from a development is built to a public road and is to revert to the council’s ownership, the developer pays for it. Drains through neighbouring private land stay in private ownership.
- The WELS schemeThe Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards scheme is an Australian Government initiative run in partnership with the states and territories. It puts the star label on taps, showers and toilets.