Water Bore Drilling & Installation in Perth

What water bore drilling in Perth actually involves

A bore is a hole, a liner and a pump, and the three are quoted together because none of them is useful alone. On Perth's coastal plain the hole is drilled through sand, cased with slotted PVC screen so water enters without the sand following it, gravel-packed around the screen to filter what does come through, and then air-developed — flushed until the water runs clear and the surrounding sand has settled into a stable filter. A stainless steel submersible pump goes down the casing, gets wired up with cable, conduit and a switch relay, and comes up into a bore box at the surface where the retic connects.

What a new bore actually involves

In the Kalamunda and Roleystone hills almost none of that is the same. The ground is lateritic clay and gravel over granite, the rig is a pneumatic hammer rather than a sediment drill, and water is found in fractures in the rock rather than in a saturated sand layer — so yield is less predictable and two neighbouring blocks can return different results. That is not a reason to avoid a Hills bore; it is a reason to expect the quote to talk about depth ranges rather than a single number, and to be suspicious of one that does not.

Depth is the figure people most want before they call, and Perth genuinely does not have one. Published totals run from about 12 metres in low-lying areas to over 80 metres at high points such as near the City Beach water tower — a seven-fold spread across one city. The WA Government's Perth groundwater map publishes the estimated depth to the watertable and the depth of the Superficial aquifer by location, which is the honest thing to check before a quote rather than after it.

Water Bore Drilling & Installation in Perth — common questions

What is a rebore, and what is a bore camera inspection?

A rebore is drilling again — deeper, or in a new position — when an existing bore no longer gives the yield it did, and The Retic Gurus publish it at about A$85 per metre of depth plus GST. A camera inspection is the diagnostic step that should come first: a camera is lowered down the casing to see what is actually wrong before anyone prices a new hole. Collapsed or blocked screen, casing damage and heavy iron fouling all look identical from the surface — the pump simply stops delivering — and they have very different fixes. Paying for a rebore without looking first is how a repairable bore becomes a replaced one.

Can I drink bore water?

No — treat a garden bore as irrigation water only. The WA Government states that using garden bores for drinking water is not recommended where scheme water is available, and warns that although shallow groundwater across the Perth and Peel regions is generally good for irrigation-type purposes, water from your bore may contain contaminants including heavy metals and bacteria that could make you very ill. Its position is that bore water is not safe to consume without appropriate testing, treatment as required, and ongoing monitoring. If you have no scheme water, the WA Government points you to a NATA-accredited laboratory for a standard drinking water test rather than to a tradesperson.

Will a bore stain my paving and walls?

Iron in the groundwater is what causes the orange staining Perth homeowners recognise, and it is common enough that treatment units are sold specifically for it. Perth Bores publish a bore stain stopper unit installed at around A$1,800 to A$2,200 depending on the reticulation setup. Whether you need one is a water-quality question about your bore rather than a standard inclusion, so it is quoted separately rather than folded into the drilling price.