Why does my drain in Morley keep blocking?

In older Morley, Bedford and Embleton homes, it’s most often tree roots getting into an old house drain through a crack or joint. Clearing it fixes today’s blockage, but the roots come back. A drain camera shows where they’re getting in, so you can decide what to do about that section.

Our Bayswater block has a second house out the back. Do we share a sewer line?

Often, yes. Split blocks and pairs of units commonly share a line before it reaches the sewer connection, and Water Corporation says one 100 mm junction can serve up to five home units. If both homes are backing up, the blockage is probably in the shared section. Tell us when you ring.

Why is my outdoor gully in Bassendean full of sand?

This area sits on loose grey Bassendean sand, which washes in through grates and around pavers and settles where the drain is flattest. We flush it out with the hydro jetter and check the grate and surrounds.

Do you clear blocked drains in Maylands flats and strata blocks?

Yes. Give us the strata or property manager’s details when you book. If it’s a shared line, we’ll be clear about which part is your lot and which is common property.

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.

Inner north-east · Blocked drains, Morley to Bassendean

Blocked drains in Morley, Bayswater, Maylands and Bassendean

Bedford Park started filling in during the 1920s, when the Beaufort Street tram was pushed out to Salisbury Street, and a few of those first houses still stand on Rosebery and Salisbury Streets. Morley Park became Morley in 1961, by which time home builders were putting up whole estates at once. Bayswater is older again, laid out beside the railway in the 1880s. All of it sits on the grey Bassendean sand, and decades of gardens have grown over the house drains. A drain that blocks, gets cleared and blocks again is a familiar call on this side of town.

The short answer

McDermott Plumbing clears blocked drains, toilets and sinks in Morley, Embleton, Bedford, Bayswater, Maylands, Bassendean, Eden Hill and Ashfield. Call (08) 6187 3999 or text 0406 882 648. It’s a straight run down from our Ellenbrook base, and we’ll give you a real arrival time when you ring. We clear from the inspection shaft or gully with a drain machine or the hydro jetter, and use a CCTV drain camera to find out why 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.

Morley, Embleton and Bedford

Morley was farmland known as Morley Park until the estate was cut up for housing after the First World War. The big growth came from the late 1950s, alongside the Boans store and the drive-in, when the Shire of Bayswater’s town planning schemes were written around the large home-building companies that were building estates all at once in the 1960s. Tonkin Highway went through the middle of the suburb in 1984, and the Galleria opened in 1994.

Bedford grew in two bursts: the 1920s streets behind the tram, then State Housing Commission homes after the Second World War, built on wide, deep blocks. By the early 1970s the suburb was complete, and Gummery Street in the north was the last road to go in. Embleton next door is almost all houses. At the 2016 Census, 996 of its 1,140 occupied dwellings were detached houses and 129 were semi-detached. The strip between Embleton Avenue and Tonkin Highway is zoned industrial.

Bayswater and Maylands

Bayswater grew fast after the Midland Railway Workshops opened down the line in 1904. Most homes built after that were brick or weatherboard, and plenty of them are still standing, many now with a newer house or unit beside them. Bayswater Brook once linked swamps through the area. In the 1920s it was turned into a network of open and covered drainage channels, which still carry stormwater to the river. That’s stormwater drainage, not sewer. If the overflow relief gully in your yard is full, that’s your property’s sewer line, not the brook.

Maylands is far denser than its neighbours. At the 2016 Census, 1,936 of its 5,647 occupied dwellings were apartments or flats, and another 1,948 were semi-detached. In older blocks of flats and in pairs of units, residents often share a sewer line, and Water Corporation says a single 100 mm junction can serve up to five home units. If the neighbours’ toilets are playing up too, tell us when you ring.

Bassendean, Eden Hill and Ashfield: grey sand and newer sewers

Bassendean gives its name to the Bassendean Dunes, the heavily leached white-to-grey sands that run under Bayswater, Bedford and Embleton too. This sand doesn’t hold together well. It washes into outdoor gullies and grated drains around loose pavers, and it settles wherever the fall is flat. Jetting flushes it out better than a cable machine.

Ashfield is a bit different. Its 1950s and ’60s State Housing streets were partly rebuilt in the late 1990s, at the same time as the infill sewerage project that moved Perth homes off septic tanks and leach drains onto mains sewer. So some houses here are older than their sewer connection. Eden Hill was approved as a suburb in 1954, from an area first subdivided in 1892.

What blocks drains around Morley and Bayswater

Tree roots in older clay and earthenware house drains. 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. Most of this area is decades past that.
Shared lines on split blocks, and in pairs of units and older flats, where one blockage can back up into the house next door.
Grey Bassendean sand in outdoor gullies and stormwater grates.
Joints where a renovation or a new house out the back tied new PVC into the original line.
Fat and food scraps in kitchen lines. Water Corporation says fats, oils and grease hardening in pipes cause 30% of its wastewater blockages. Wet wipes don’t break down either, even the ones labelled flushable.

Blocked sink in Morley or Bedford?

In an unrenovated 1950s or ’60s kitchen, the waste pipe under the sink may still be the original metal pipe, often galvanised. It rusts and narrows on the inside, so grease and scraps catch sooner and a sink that drained fine for years starts to slow down. In a Maylands flat, check with the neighbours first. If their sinks are slow too, it may be the shared line. If only your sink is slow, our blocked kitchen sink guide has the safe checks to try first. If the toilet, shower or outdoor gully is backing up as well, the blockage is further down the drain. Stop using water and call.

How we clear it

We clear from the inspection shaft, gully or nearest sensible access point. A simple choke gets the drain machine. Roots, grease and sand get the hydro jetter. When a line keeps coming back, the CCTV drain camera shows whether roots are getting in through a cracked joint and how far along the pipe that is, so you can decide whether it’s worth repairing that section or clearing it now and then. Jetting won’t fix a broken pipe, and we’ll tell you straight 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: Morley, Embleton, Bedford, Bayswater, Maylands, Bassendean, Eden Hill and Ashfield.

Common questions

Why does my drain in Morley keep blocking?: In older Morley, Bedford and Embleton homes, it’s most often tree roots getting into an old house drain through a crack or joint. Clearing it fixes today’s blockage, but the roots come back. A drain camera shows where they’re getting in, so you can decide what to do about that section.
Our Bayswater block has a second house out the back. Do we share a sewer line?: Often, yes. Split blocks and pairs of units commonly share a line before it reaches the sewer connection, and Water Corporation says one 100 mm junction can serve up to five home units. If both homes are backing up, the blockage is probably in the shared section. Tell us when you ring.
Why is my outdoor gully in Bassendean full of sand?: This area sits on loose grey Bassendean sand, which washes in through grates and around pavers and settles where the drain is flattest. We flush it out with the hydro jetter and check the grate and surrounds.
Do you clear blocked drains in Maylands flats and strata blocks?: Yes. Give us the strata or property manager’s details when you book. If it’s a shared line, we’ll be clear about which part is your lot and which is common property.
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 15 October 2026. General information only. Every property is different, so call us to talk about yours.

More Perth plumbing help

Need a plumber now?

Call (08) 6187 3999 or call/text 0406 882 648. 24/7 for emergencies. Tell us the suburb and what’s happening.

Call (08) 6187 3999 Message us now