Storm Water and Soakwells in South Perth

Water pooling in South Perth?

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What the river does to drainage here

South Perth is defined by its river frontage, and a soakwell is only as good as the ground it drains into.

On the higher parts of the suburb, away from the water, sand takes stormwater away steadily and a correctly sized well does its job without anyone thinking about it. Down toward the foreshore it is a different proposition. The ground sits lower, the natural water table is closer to the surface, and sand that is already holding moisture takes new water far more slowly.

That matters because it changes what "undersized" means. A well with adequate volume on paper can still struggle on low ground, simply because it cannot empty between downpours. During a wet Perth week, a system that never fully drains is effectively smaller every day the rain continues.

So on the foreshore side of South Perth, depth and placement carry more weight than they do a kilometre inland. Putting a deeper well into ground that is already wet does not always help, and knowing when it will not is the useful part.

The other South Perth pattern: towers over old blocks

South Perth has two housing stories running side by side.

There is the older suburb — character homes on established streets, much of it well over half a century old, with drainage to match. And there is the redevelopment, particularly the apartment towers and unit blocks that have gone up near the river and around the commercial pockets.

Both produce work, for opposite reasons.

The older homes have drainage that has been in the ground for decades, altered piecemeal through extensions and renovations, and frequently never resized when a patio, carport or rear addition went on. The failures there are age failures — cracked chambers, silted wells, pipe runs that have lost their fall.

The newer and redeveloped sites have the opposite problem. Far more roof and hardstand on the same piece of land, with very little permeable ground left over to soak into. Capacity is tight by design, so when one part of the system underperforms there is no slack anywhere else to absorb it. Strata and commercial drainage

The rule that applies here

South Perth is in the City of South Perth, so the same requirement covers it as covers Como: all stormwater falling on a site must be collected, contained and disposed of on that site, whatever the intensity or duration of the storm. Nothing may be pushed onto the road, the verge or a neighbouring block.

The council also divides its area into eight drainage precincts with requirements that are not identical across them. A riverside street and a street up near the ridge can sit in different precincts, so the address matters more than the suburb name. Tell us where you are and we will work out what applies.

What we do in South Perth

Why South Perth calls us

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Tell us where the water ends up and whether it only happens after rain. We will call you back to arrange a time.

Nearby areas we serve

Como · Kensington · Manning · View all service areas