Plumber Tuart Hill

Tuart Hill WA 6060, City of Stirling. About 8 km north-north-east of the Perth CBD.

Tuart Hill takes its name from the tuart trees that once grew thickly through the area, particularly around Dog Swamp. It was established in the 1950s, and in 1914 there had been an unsuccessful attempt to name it Grenville, rejected because of the confusion with Granville in New South Wales.

• Housing from the 1950sMost of Tuart Hill went up in the 1950s, which means galvanised steel supply lines in a great many homes. Steel corrodes from the inside and narrows over decades, so low pressure and rust-coloured water in the morning are the usual symptoms, and replacing the run is the only permanent fix.
• A compact suburb under subdivisionAt just over two square kilometres with more than seven thousand residents, Tuart Hill is densely settled and steadily subdividing. Each new dwelling needs its own connection, its own meter and a junction cut into a seventy-year-old sewer main, which is careful work rather than routine.
• The tuart trees the suburb is named forThe tuarts that gave the suburb its name have largely gone, but mature trees remain through the older streets and around the former Dog Swamp. Their roots reach the joints in the original clay drainage, so root-blocked drains are a regular call here.
• Low ground around the old Dog SwampThe swamp the tuarts grew around has been drained, but the ground in that part of the suburb still sits lower and wetter than the rest. Soakage there needs sizing for it rather than assuming the same fall as higher streets.