Who runs Dunedin's water
Under the Local Water Done Well reforms, many councils are handing water to new organisations. Dunedin isn't: its council retained water service delivery in an in-house business unit.
The council's website refused our automated reads, so we haven't been able to confirm its published rules on the toby, the water supply pipe or the sewer lateral. Rather than guess, we suggest one call: ask Dunedin City Council where its pipe ends at your property before a plumber or drainlayer starts work near the boundary.
Dunedin facts that change a plumbing job
Burners in four homes in ten
At the 2023 Census, 42.2% of Dunedin dwellings used a wood burner as a main type of heating, against 28.2% nationally, and 2.2% a coal burner. Those are space heating figures, but where a burner has a wetback, it limits which cylinder can replace yours without consent.
Burner rules by air zone
Central, North and South Dunedin, Mosgiel, Green Island and Port Chalmers are Otago Regional Council Air Zone 2 areas, where a new burner must meet an emissions and efficiency standard. ORC's list of ultra-low emission burners includes some with a wetback.
South Dunedin's groundwater
ORC monitors groundwater under South Dunedin and Harbourside, and has mapped how sea level, tides, storm surge and rain move it. In the June 2015 flood, the Fire Service answered 345 callouts, most of them in South Dunedin. The maps are on ORC's Natural Hazards Database Portal.
Rain most days, frost in winter
NIWA counts 178 rain days a year at Dunedin's Botanical Gardens, the most of the Otago stations in its report. Musselburgh averages 16 ground frosts in July.
Wetbacks, cylinders and gas in Dunedin
If your burner has a wetback and its cylinder fails, the Building Act only exempts the replacement from consent if it's a comparable open-vented cylinder fixed in the same position on the same pipework, and an authorised plumber fits it. Anything else, ask about consent first. Our wetbacks page explains more.
There's no piped natural gas in the South Island, so gas appliances here run on LPG. Fixing, moving or repairing one is still gasfitting: see Dunedin gasfitting.
Checking a Dunedin plumber's licence
Every plumber, gasfitter and drainlayer doing restricted work needs a practising licence from the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board, renewed every year. Licences run out on 31 March, and renewal means the person has kept up their professional development and passed a fit and proper check. So it's the current year's licence you want to see, on a card or in the PGDB app.
Then look the person up by first and last name on the PGDB register and check for a current licence in the right trade. PGDB's Ask for Licensed line is 0800 743 262 if something doesn't add up. Our licence check guide shows what a current entry looks like.
Around Dunedin
Nearby areas: Mosgiel and Brighton. Jobs: gasfitting in Dunedin, and our guides to hot water cylinders, blocked drains, drainlayers and emergency plumbers.
What we would do
Ring the council before anyone digs near your boundary, and ask where its pipe ends at your address. If your cylinder runs off a wetback, say so when you describe the job, because it narrows the replacements that avoid consent. In South Dunedin or Harbourside, look up the groundwater maps before planning drainage, and check the name of whoever turns up against the PGDB register.