Alert: Flood updates and recovery Read more.
Skip navigation
Use space to open navigation items
City of Wollongong
Resident Visitor Business

Stormwater Maintenance

Wollongong experiences regular flash flooding, so it’s important our stormwater systems work properly.

There are lots of stormwater structures throughout our city, such as pipes, drains and detention ponds.

The video below explains the responsibilities landowners have in maintaining stormwater structures on their land.

You can also check out our Flooding in Wollongong YouTube playlist for more videos.

Find out whether a stormwater structure is your responsibility to maintain

Stormwater structures on private land can be Council assets or part of private drainage systems.

Property owners can check their land title certificate, which will show whether an easement that benefits Council is on their land. An easement is a section of land registered on your property title, which gives someone the right to use the land for a specific purpose even though they are not the land owner. An example is a shared driveway.

If there is a drainage easement benefiting Council in the land title certificate, it is likely any stormwater infrastructure located within the easement is a Council asset. However, Council assets could be located within private land without an easement in place. To confirm if a stormwater asset belongs to Council, please contact us and we'll check if it's included in our asset register.

If the stormwater structure is determined to be private, the property owner is responsible for maintaining it.

All registered land title certificates are maintained in public registers which can be accessed either online or in-person from NSW Land Registry Services (NSW LRS).

Drainage easements

Council can give you advice about whether there are any easements on your land. Please contact our Customer Service team for help.

You can also get help from outside Council, for example:

  • Ask your own qualified engineer, plumber or surveyor for advice
  • Contact your solicitor about accessing land title information.

Development near stormwater structures

Please contact Council’s duty planner or your own qualified engineer for advice if you’re planning any kind of development on your land. This includes activities such as building a driveway or connecting stormwater pipes to the kerb and gutter.