Before You Dig Australia takes the enquiry through its website.
What the enquiry is for
One enquiry covers the planned site. It is lodged with Before You Dig Australia, which passes it to its member asset owners, so the people holding the records are reached without contacting each one separately.
The FAQ lists homeowners among those who should lodge before starting, on the same list as builders, contractors, farmers, councils and landscapers.
It is free, and Brisbane City Council describes it as a free national service open to anyone planning ground disturbance.
What comes back is what the asset owners record: the presence of their network, an approximate location drawn on a plan, and instructions for working near it.
The records are indicative only. Depths and alignments are not exact, because the ground profile can change after a cable or pipe is installed.
The FAQ says the person disturbing the ground has to take reasonable steps to avoid damaging what is below.
The scale of the risk is spelled out on the FAQ: service interruptions, project delays, costly repairs, and in the worst case injury or death.
When it has to be lodged
The duty of care page sets the lead time: lodge the request at least one day before the job is due to begin.
The FAQ says to lodge before commencing.
The FAQ encourages a reply within two business days. If a plan has not arrived by then, the duty of care page says to contact the asset owner directly and quote the sequence number.
The duty of care page words it from the other side: check that a response has come back from all asset owners before work starts.
What comes back, and when
Responses are sent to the email address registered with the account that lodged the enquiry, and each one carries the owner's own duty of care statement.
Those instructions have to be understood on site before work begins: they carry the owner's directions for working near the asset.
Where a plan or its information is unclear, the FAQ's answer is to ring the contact number on the enquiry confirmation sheet, or to engage a skilled locator to pin the asset down.
The FAQ also answers the straight-line question: networks are not necessarily straight, because obstacles at installation bend them, so manual excavation may be needed where an owner instructs it.
When the plans run out
Plans have an expiry date, and there is no single period for it. Each asset owner sets the date that applies to its own plans, so the date printed on each plan is what counts.
A plan past its date is replaced the same way it was first obtained: a new enquiry. The duty of care page adds a second trigger, a change to the scope of the work.
Keeping current plans on site is the point of both rules: the ones on the table should describe the work actually being done, and be inside their validity dates while it is done.
What a plan does not authorise
Receipt of the responses is not an approval to proceed with excavation.
Each member's directions have to be followed, along with any legal or safety requirement, or best practice guidance, that applies around those assets.
The enquiry is one step in a chain. If the plans it returns are not kept current, or the scope of the digging moves, the responses stop describing the site and a fresh enquiry is the fix.
The FAQ's worst example on private property passed $200 million in damage, and it adds that an insurer may not cover a strike where no enquiry was lodged.
A worked example: the days before one dig
- At least one day before the work begins, lodge the enquiry with Before You Dig Australia. It is free to lodge.
- Members are encouraged to reply within two business days. If a plan is still missing after that, ring the asset owner and quote the sequence number.
- Before the digging starts, check that every owner has answered, and read each statement they sent.
- While the work runs, keep watching the dates: when a plan's validity dates run out, or the work changes shape, lodge a new enquiry.