Leak Detection Program 2022-2025

Cairns Regional Council is undertaking a Leak Detection Program throughout the Cairns area to identify and repair leaks in Council's water network. This program aims to minimise water wastage identified in both Council's infrastructure and within private properties.

This program is one of four focused actions identified under Council's Water Demand Management Strategy 2016-2025 ( PDF, 0.72 MB ) to address water demand and provide water savings of 10% over a 10-year period.

Council last carried out a Leak Detection Program in 2015-2018 and identified 464 leaks throughout the region across both Council infrastructure and private property. Once repairs were undertaken there was a water saving of approximately, saving approximately 398 megalitres of water.

This next round of leak detection will also take three years to complete, with contractors moving throughout the south of the region first, followed by the central Cairns area and the northern beaches, as outlined in the works schedule  below.

While investigation works are underway, residents might see Council's contractor, Detection Services Pty Ltd, in their suburbs in vehicles and/or walking the water network lines.

To carry out these works, the contractor will use acoustic monitoring equipment to connect to Council's water meters on private property boundaries. The contractors will not need to access private properties but they will require access to water meters to carry out the checking.

Find more information on water conservation, detecting water leaks and reading your water meter.

Works schedule