Malaga is close to Ellenbrook. How quickly can you get there?

It’s one of our shorter runs, but it still depends on where we are and the traffic. We don’t promise a set time. We’ll tell you honestly when we can be there.

Do you clear drains at properties in Whiteman or Cullacabardee?

Yes, for blocked household drains, toilets and sinks. There aren’t many homes out there, and some may not be on sewer, so tell us what the property has when you ring. We don’t do septic tank or ATU work.

My Beechboro drain blocks every year or so. Why?

In a house from the late 1970s or 1980s, the usual cause is tree roots getting into the original drain through a crack or joint. We clear it with the hydro jetter, and a drain camera shows where the roots are getting in.

Do you clear blocked drains in Malaga strata complexes?

Yes. Staff toilets, lunchroom sinks, floor wastes and shared lines. Tell us who manages the complex and who should get the invoice when you book. We don’t pump grease traps or separators.

Who pays if the blockage is in the sewer main?

Blockages in your property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, Water Corporation clears it. If we find it there, we call them in.

North-east · Blocked drains, Malaga to Lockridge

Blocked drains in Malaga, Ballajura, Noranda and Beechboro

Only 28 people lived in Malaga at the 2006 Census, yet by 2008 it had more than 2,400 businesses and a workforce of over 12,000. The suburbs around that industrial core arrived in layers: Lockridge from 1969, Beechboro from 1979 through the 1980s, Ballajura’s lake estates in the 1980s, and Bennett Springs, gazetted in 2011. Whiteman, next door, is nearly all parkland, with 10 residents counted in 2021. Each layer tends to block for its own reasons.

The short answer

McDermott Plumbing clears blocked drains, toilets and sinks in Malaga, Ballajura, Bennett Springs, Noranda, Beechboro, Kiara and Lockridge, and at the few homes and sites in Whiteman and Cullacabardee. Call (08) 6187 3999 or text 0406 882 648. It’s one of our shorter runs from Ellenbrook, but we’ll still give you a real arrival time when you ring. We clear with a drain machine or the hydro jetter, and use a CCTV drain camera when a line keeps blocking. If sewage is overflowing from Water Corporation’s main or onto the street, call Water Corporation on 13 13 75 as well.

Malaga’s trade and industrial units

Malaga’s name was approved in 1969, and the suburb is an industrial precinct of warehouses, workshops and trade counters, with the Malaga Markets (opened 1994) and a Transperth bus depot (1986). Drain calls here are staff toilets, lunchroom sinks, wash-down areas and floor wastes, often in strata complexes where units share a line. Give us the unit number, gate or alarm codes and access hours when you book. We clear the drain. Grease trap and separator pumping is a licensed liquid-waste contractor’s job, not ours.

Noranda, Beechboro, Kiara and Lockridge

Lockridge started when the State Housing Commission bought 240 acres there in 1969, and parts were renewed in the late 1990s. East Beechboro, between Altone Road and Lord Street, was built from 1979 to the late 1980s, mostly brick-and-tile three-bedroom homes on 600 to 800 m² blocks. West Beechboro followed in the mid to late 1980s. Noranda was named in 1977, and the part north of Widgee Road moved from the City of Swan to the City of Bayswater in 2016.

Water Corporation says homes more than 15 years old are less likely to have PVC sewer pipe, and that a hairline crack is enough for a root to get in. Original house drains in these streets are well past that, and gardens planted in the 1970s and ’80s are big enough to find a tired joint. A drain that clears and blocks again a year later is usually roots.

Ballajura and Bennett Springs

Ballajura began as Ernest Kerruish’s farm in 1905, named after a farm on the Isle of Man, and he moved on after a few years because the soil wasn’t fertile enough. Its Lakeshore and Lakes Estate subdivisions were built in the 1980s around lakes and parks. Bennett Springs was carved out of Beechboro, Whiteman and West Swan and gazetted in April 2011 after a ten-year campaign by residents, and Bennett Brook runs through part of it.

In the newest Bennett Springs homes, blockages are more often wipes, fat or sand and grout left in the line from the build than roots. Ballajura’s 1980s streets sit in between: old enough for trees to reach the drain, young enough that a lot of the trouble is still from the kitchen and the toilet.

Whiteman and Cullacabardee: mostly parkland and bush

We won’t pretend these are busy suburbs. Whiteman is almost all Whiteman Park, about 4,000 hectares of bushland the State bought in 1978 to protect the drinking-water aquifer beneath it, with Perth Film Studios on its southern edge. The 2021 Census counted 10 people living there. Most of Cullacabardee is sheoak and banksia forest over the Gnangara Mound, a Priority 1 drinking water source. Much of it became part of Whiteman Park in 2000, and the rest is zoned General Rural.

If you have a home or a facility out here, tell us whether it’s connected to sewer or runs on a septic system when you ring. We clear blocked household drains, toilets and sinks, but we don’t do septic tank or ATU work. If the problem is in the tank or the leach drains, you’ll need a septic specialist.

What blocks drains around Malaga and Noranda

Paper towel, wipes and lunchroom grease in shared lines at Malaga trade units.
Tree roots in original 1970s and ’80s house drains in Lockridge, Beechboro, Noranda and Kiara.
Wet wipes and nappies in family homes. Water Corporation says wipes don’t break down like toilet paper, even if the packet says flushable.
Fat from busy kitchens. Water Corporation says fats, oils and grease cause 30% of its wastewater blockages.
Sand, grout and offcuts left in new lines in recent Bennett Springs builds.

Blocked sink in Ballajura?

In a Ballajura or Bennett Springs family kitchen, a slow sink is usually fat and food scraps in the trap, or a dishwasher sharing the same waste. In a Lockridge or Beechboro home with its original kitchen, the waste under the bench has had decades of grease through it. At a Malaga unit, it’s often the lunchroom sink. If only the sink is slow, start with the safe checks in our blocked kitchen sink guide, and skip the caustic cleaners. If the toilet, shower or outdoor gully is backing up too, the blockage is further down. Stop using water and call.

How we clear it

We clear from the inspection shaft or nearest sensible access point. A simple choke gets the drain machine. Roots and grease get the hydro jetter, which cuts and flushes rather than just punching through. If the line keeps blocking, the CCTV drain camera shows what’s causing it and how far along the pipe it is, so you can decide whether that section needs repairing. Jetting won’t fix a broken pipe, and we’ll be straight with you if that’s what we find.

If the blockage turns out to be in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, it’s theirs to clear and we report it. Blockages within the property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility.

Suburbs we cover here: Malaga, Ballajura, Bennett Springs, Whiteman, Cullacabardee, Noranda, Beechboro, Kiara and Lockridge.

Common questions

Malaga is close to Ellenbrook. How quickly can you get there?: It’s one of our shorter runs, but it still depends on where we are and the traffic. We don’t promise a set time. We’ll tell you honestly when we can be there.
Do you clear drains at properties in Whiteman or Cullacabardee?: Yes, for blocked household drains, toilets and sinks. There aren’t many homes out there, and some may not be on sewer, so tell us what the property has when you ring. We don’t do septic tank or ATU work.
My Beechboro drain blocks every year or so. Why?: In a house from the late 1970s or 1980s, the usual cause is tree roots getting into the original drain through a crack or joint. We clear it with the hydro jetter, and a drain camera shows where the roots are getting in.
Do you clear blocked drains in Malaga strata complexes?: Yes. Staff toilets, lunchroom sinks, floor wastes and shared lines. Tell us who manages the complex and who should get the invoice when you book. We don’t pump grease traps or separators.
Who pays if the blockage is in the sewer main?: Blockages in your property plumbing are the owner’s responsibility. If it’s in Water Corporation’s main, normally outside the property, Water Corporation clears it. If we find it there, we call them in.

Nearby

Blocked drain and plumber pages for the areas next to this one.

How we clear drains here.

Official sources

Last updated 16 October 2026. General information only. Every property is different, so call us to talk about yours.

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