Plumber Bull Creek

Bull Creek WA 6149, City of Melville. About 13 km south of the Perth CBD.

Bull Creek sits about thirteen kilometres south of the Perth CBD in the City of Melville, south of the creek that gives it its name and flows on into the Canning River. The wetlands here were a freshwater source for the Beeliar people long before subdivision, and the suburb was built out mainly through the 1970s. For a plumber that means a high water table near the creek, ageing original drainage across the rest, and several large schools with amenities to match.

• Wetland ground near the creekThe low ground along Bull Creek holds groundwater near the surface through winter. Soak wells on those blocks fill quickly and clear slowly, so stormwater there is about finding an outlet rather than adding soakage capacity.
• Seventies housing on original servicesMost Bull Creek houses are still running the drainage and, in many cases, the pipework they were built with. That is the age at which original pipe begins failing repeatedly rather than once, so recurring problems here deserve a proper inspection.
• Established gardens over old sewer linesFifty years of tree and shrub growth sit over earthenware drainage across this suburb. Roots into those joints are the single most common reason we are called to a Bull Creek house, and clearing them is a temporary measure.
• Schools with heavy-use amenitiesBull Creek has several primary and secondary schools, and their toilet blocks and tapware take hundreds of uses a day. Those fixtures wear on a different cycle to domestic ones and are better replaced on a plan than after a failure.