Plumbing Spring Hill

1. 01

   Old pipes bring old problems

   Cement joints crack over the decades, roots push into every gap, and silt settles in behind them until the flow slows to a trickle.

2. 02

   The housing tells the same story

   A scattering of nineteenth century cottages remains, including McWhinneys Brick Cottage up on Birley Street and Moody's Cottages down on Victoria Street, all wedged among newer apartment blocks and low-rise flats.

Some of the oldest dwellings still carry galvanised service lines from early re-plumbing. Those pipes rust where they join and choke the flow, which shows up as weak showers and cisterns that take forever to fill.

Something going wrong right now? Do this first:

Storm season runs from November to March. The exposed ridge gets more breeze than the flats near the river, so warm days feel milder up here, but rain heads downhill in a hurry.

Council's overland flow planning area follows Water Street and the lanes sloping toward it. When stormwater drainage built for a far smaller suburb backs up during a downpour, ground-floor units and car parks in that pocket take the surge.

The ridge itself sits above the reach of the Brisbane River. None of the 1974, 2011 or 2022 river flood maps touches these streets, so surface water is the issue here, not river flooding.