Tree roots, not wipes: what's really blocking drains in Melbourne, Geelong and Canberra
Written by Richie Foster
Founder, licensed plumber
Everyone blames wet wipes. Our job records tell a different story.
We went through every blocked drain job our plumbers attended between November 2024 and September 2026. That's 2,102 jobs across Melbourne, Geelong and Canberra. On the jobs where our plumber recorded what caused the blockage, tree roots were involved in 56% of them. Fat and grease came next at 19%, followed by broken or collapsed pipes at 18% and silt, sand and leaves at 18%. Wipes turned up in only about 4%. Some blockages had more than one cause.
One job, before and after
Conrad ran a camera and jetter through a Carrum Downs sewer and found this. Swipe to see the same pipe once the roots were cut out.
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Myth
Wipes cause most blocked drains.
Fact
Roots turned up 14 times as often.
What causes blocked drains
On the jobs where our plumber recorded a cause. A blockage can have more than one.
| Cause | Share of blockages |
|---|---|
| Tree roots | 56% |
| Fat and grease | 19% |
| Broken or collapsed pipe | 18% |
| Silt, sand and leaves | 18% |
| Wipes | about 4% |
Canberra is the root capital
In the ACT, roots were behind 64% of the blockages where a cause was recorded. Established street trees and older clay sewer pipes are a bad mix. Plumber Canberra.
The hotspot suburbs
We looked at what share of all our plumbing jobs in each suburb were drain jobs, so busy suburbs don't win just by being big. Across all our jobs the average is 19%.
Each bar is drain jobs as a share of all our jobs in that suburb. The dashed line marks our 19% average across every suburb.
| Suburb | Drain jobs as a share of all our jobs there |
|---|---|
| Hamlyn Heights (Geelong) | 37% |
| Belmont (Geelong) | 35% |
| Mount Eliza | 30% |
| Wanniassa (Canberra) | 30% |
| Mount Waverley | 28% |
| Kambah (Canberra) | 27% |
| Mornington | 24% |
| Langwarrin | 21% |
Geelong's older suburbs top the list (Plumber Geelong, Plumber Belmont). On the Mornington Peninsula, Mount Eliza and Mornington sit well above our average.
What it looks like on a real job
Earlier this year in Belmont, our plumber ran a camera and jetter through a sewer and found damaged earthenware pipe with roots growing in just past the boundary trap. He cleared the roots and got the flow back, but clearing only buys time when the pipe itself is cracked. That's why we always show the customer the camera footage and quote the repair, rather than walking away once the water's running.
For a bigger example, read how we cleared, camera inspected and relined a root-choked drain in Corio that three other plumbers had already looked at: Case studies.
Roots we've pulled out this year
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Why roots?
Roots go looking for water. A hairline crack or a loose joint in an old terracotta pipe leaks a tiny bit of moisture, and the roots find it. Once they're inside, they grow into a mat that catches everything flushed after them. Clearing it only buys time if the pipe itself is broken, which is where drain relining comes in.
What homeowners can do
- 1Know where your sewer line runs, and don't plant big trees over it.
- 2Treat a slow drain or a gurgling toilet as an early warning, not a quirk.
- 3If you've been blocked before, get a camera inspection. It shows whether the pipe is cracked, not just blocked.
- 4Keep fat out of the sink. It's the number two cause.
- 5Wipes still don't belong in the toilet, even if they're not the main culprit.
Got a slow or blocked drain? See how we fix blocked drains.
Slow drain? Book a camera inspectionHow we did this
The data comes from Fix-It Right Plumbing's own job records: 2,102 blocked drain, storm drain and drain inspection jobs from November 2024 to September 2026 across Melbourne, Geelong and Canberra. Causes are taken from what the plumber wrote on the 370 jobs where a cause was noted, and a job can have more than one cause. The suburb figures only include suburbs where we did at least 60 jobs in that period.
Media enquiries: richie@fixitrightplumbing.com.au
