Episode: 11
Title: Dial Before You Dig
Broadcast: November 3, 2018
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane

It seems more and more people are looking to utilize their verge space for gardens, and there’s a lot of different things you can do, like grow natives, particularly local species that require very little extra water once established, some people turn them into community share vegie gardens and others plant herbs, again to share, but before you dig anywhere in the garden particularly on the verge there’s something you should do… dial before you dig!

• This is a free service that can be accessed by a quick call or by going online, it takes 2 days and you will receive maps of the utility services in your verge, which is there because it's the service corridor to your property and the rest of the neighbourhood for utilities such as water, power, storm water, sewerage, NBN and telephone.
• The reality is we have highly valuable service infrastructure and some of it like phone and NBN are just below the surface. It doesn’t matter if your putting in a new letterbox or a boundary wall, before any dirt is dug this should be your first stop and it needs to be done a couple of days before work starts. The maps are an approximate guide and designed to help identify where underground infrastructure lays, it’s not absolutely precise so careful pot hole digging by hand to establish where infrastructure is, is smart.
• You should always use the 5 p’s of safe excavation… Plan… contact Dial before you dig at least 2 days before any work is done, if you have a contractor establish whether they will do it, or you need to
• Prepare, review the plans and if your still not sure, contact the utility and ask for more advice.
• Pothole, dig some small holes to establish where the pipes are… you can never assume the exact location or depth of infrastructure, but these plans make a great guide to awareness.
• Once established where the pipes are set out and an exclusion zone to protect them and finally proceed… after making sure everyone knows where the protected infrastructure is. It doesn’t matter if your planting a street tree, a new verge garden or building a fence… on your property or on the verge a quick call to Dial Before You dig can save you a lot of pain later helping a void a mistake…

W: https://www.1100.com.au/
P: 1100