Plumber Mount Druitt, NSW 2770
Mount Druitt is the centre of the estates built by the Housing Commission through the 1960s and 70s, and it has Westfield Mount Druitt, Mount Druitt Hospital, the station and a busy town centre at its heart. Much of the original public housing has been sold and renovated, but the pipework underneath is largely what was laid in the 1960s. It sits on flat Cumberland Plain clay between the Great Western Highway and the M4, with Ropes Creek to the west.
What usually goes wrong in Mount Druitt
- Original galvanised water lines in 1960s estate homes rusting through and dropping to a trickle
- Shared sewer lines in Housing Commission duplexes and townhouse rows blocking for several households at once
- Earthenware sewers cracked by Cumberland Plain clay movement and blocked with roots from fifty-year-old street trees
- Blocked drains, grease traps and hot water faults in the shops and food outlets around Westfield Mount Druitt
- Overflow gullies surcharging and yards flooding on the low streets toward Ropes Creek and Angus Creek in storms
Local notes from the plumbers
Mount Druitt was built fast. The Housing Commission put up thousands of homes through the 1960s and 70s on flat Cumberland Plain clay, using galvanised water pipe and earthenware sewer, and the renovations that followed private sale mostly changed kitchens and bathrooms rather than what was under the floor. So the calls are predictable: galvanised lines that have rusted down to a trickle and finally split, sewers cracked at the joints by fifty years of clay movement, and roots from the street trees planted with the estate now filling the line. The duplexes and townhouse rows share drainage, which means one blockage takes out two, three or four households and nobody is sure whose responsibility it is until a plumber traces the run. Cisterns and tap sets in unrenovated homes are original. Around Westfield Mount Druitt and the station, the shops, food outlets and medical suites generate grease trap and floor waste blockages and hot water failures. The suburb drains slowly and the low streets toward Ropes Creek and Angus Creek hold water after a summer thunderstorm, with sewer surcharge through overflow gullies following.
Housing in Mount Druitt
1960s and 70s Housing Commission homes, duplexes and townhouse rows across most of the suburb, many now privately owned and renovated, 1970s and 80s brick veneer on the southern side toward the M4, 1960s and 70s unit blocks near the station, and newer apartment and townhouse developments around Westfield Mount Druitt and the town centre.
