Sprinkler roster and water rules

The short answer

In Perth and Mandurah, sprinklers run on two days a week, set by the last digit of the house number, once a day, either before 9am or after 6pm — and not at all between 1 June and 31 August. Bores and scheme water follow the same roster. Everything below is the detail behind that sentence.

The roster

Use the last digit of the street number. If the property has no street number, use the lot number. For a unit, use the building’s street number, not the unit number — and where a property spans a range like 22-24, use the higher number.

Last digit	Watering days
1	Wednesday and Saturday
2	Thursday and Sunday
3	Friday and Monday
4	Saturday and Tuesday
5	Sunday and Wednesday
6	Monday and Thursday
7	Tuesday and Friday
8	Wednesday and Saturday
9	Thursday and Sunday
0	Friday and Monday

This is the roster for Area 3, which the by-laws define as 32 local governments: Armadale, Bassendean, Bayswater, Belmont, Cambridge, Canning, Claremont, Cockburn, Cottesloe, East Fremantle, Fremantle, Gosnells, Joondalup, Kalamunda, Kwinana, Mandurah, Melville, Mosman Park, Mundaring, Murray, Nedlands, Peppermint Grove, Perth, Rockingham, Serpentine-Jarrahdale, South Perth, Stirling, Subiaco, Swan, Victoria Park, Vincent and Wanneroo. That is the whole metropolitan area plus Mandurah and Murray, so within Perth the roster does not vary by council — a rare thing on this site, and worth saying plainly.

Confirm any individual address with Water Corporation’s lookup tool, which asks whether the property has a bore and answers for both.

The watering window

One watering per day, in either the morning period (before 9.00am) or the evening period (after 6.00pm) — not both. A station that starts at 8.50am and runs 20 minutes has watered outside the window. Set controllers to finish before 9am, not to start before it.

Hand watering sits outside the roster entirely: a handheld hose with one outlet, or a watering can, is lawful on any day at any time. That is the legal escape hatch for a struggling new plant, and it is the only one during winter.

Winter: 1 June to 31 August

The Sprinkler Switch-off is permanent, annual, and covers both scheme water and bore water. During it, the only lawful ways to water a lawn or garden are a handheld hose with one outlet or a handheld watering can. Reticulation is off — no rostered days, no exceptions for drip.

The ban covers Perth, Mandurah, and parts of the South West and Great Southern. Checking postcodes on 2 August 2026: Perth (6000), Mandurah (6210), Bunbury (6230), Busselton (6280) and Albany (6330) are all inside it; Geraldton (6530), Kalgoorlie (6430) and Karratha (6714) are not. Check the site’s postcode on the Sprinkler Switch-off page rather than assuming.

Rainwater tank systems are exempt. Active sporting grounds — school and local government ovals — are exempt. Bore maintenance testing is permitted.

Penalties

Breach	Amount	Issued by
Sprinklers outside rostered days or times	$100 on the spot	Water Corporation
Sprinklers during the Switch-off	$100	Water Corporation
Breaching exemption conditions	up to $500	Water Corporation
Unregistered new lawn or garden, breach proven	$100	DWER
Contravening the stage of restrictions (bore)	fine of $500 maximum	Court, under by-law 4(2)

Inspectors work seven days a week and every reported breach is investigated. A controller that malfunctioned is not a defence — the published position is that you can still be fined, so replace backup batteries after a blackout. Bore breaches are referred by Water Corporation inspectors to DWER, which issues the infringement.

The liability sits with the property owner, not the installer. Say that out loud at handover, then give the client the exemption schedule in writing.

New lawns and new gardens

An exemption is what makes establishment watering legal — daily, between 9am and 6pm, off-roster, and through the Switch-off. It covers roll-on lawn, runners, shredded lawn, seed and new garden beds, on manual or automatic systems.

Installed	Exemption runs	Target
1 October – 31 March	up to 42 days from planting	10 mm a day
1 April – 30 September	up to 35 days from planting	7.5 mm a day

The published spring/summer schedule tapers: days 1-10 at 3.5 mm three times daily (before 9am, noon, 3pm); days 11-20 at 5 mm twice daily (before 9am and 3pm); days 21-28 at 10 mm once daily before 9am; days 29-42 at 10 mm every second day before 9am. The autumn/winter schedule runs 4 mm twice daily for days 1-14, then 7.5 mm once daily to day 28, then every second day to day 35.

Apply on the day of installation. The exemption is dated from the installation date either way, so applying late simply burns days. Build it into the job: apply, screenshot the confirmation, and hand it over with the controller settings for the day the exemption ends.

Water Corporation grants these for its own customers. Licensed bore holders go to DWER (1800 508 885, option 1). Aqwest and Busselton Water customers apply to their own supplier.

Testing and commissioning

A homeowner may test only on a rostered day, before 9am or after 6pm, no longer than two minutes per station. Anything more, or anything during the Switch-off, must be done by a Waterwise Garden Irrigator.

The by-laws give the trade its own exemption: a person in the turf, garden or landscaping industries does not commit an offence by running a system “to the minimum extent necessary while the reticulation system is being installed, maintained, tested or repaired”. DWER deems that to be no more than two minutes per station. A separate by-law permits watering immediately after verti-mowing or applying fertiliser or wetting agent, which DWER caps at a recommended 10 mm. Be on site, be visibly working, display signage, and keep it short.

Garden bores

No licence is needed to draw from the water table aquifer for domestic use on less than 0.2 ha (2,000 m²) of lawn and garden. Above that area, for any non-domestic use, or from a well outside the water table aquifer, the exemption does not apply and you need a licence from DWER under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914 — confirm the aquifer with DWER before you assume a bore is licence-free.

Check the Perth Groundwater Map before quoting a bore. Bores are unsuitable within 200 m of the ocean or the Swan River estuary because of saltwater intrusion, near wetlands or contaminated sites, on the Cottesloe Peninsula, and around Secret Harbour. Use an ADIA-accredited driller working to the Minimum Construction Requirements for Water Bores in Australia, 4th edition 2020, and keep the bore log.

Sharing a bore across two lots? If the irrigation cannot be isolated per property, everyone waters on the days set by the number of the lot the bore sits on — and DWER asks you to register the arrangement so nobody gets a warning notice.

What is changing

• 1 September 2022 — the Perth and Mandurah bore roster dropped from three days to two, aligning with scheme water. Enforcement began 1 September 2023.
• 1 July 2028 — under the Gnangara allocation plan, most licensed groundwater users lose 10% of entitlement; Water Corporation loses 27%. Relevant to strata, schools and sporting clubs, not to domestic bores.
• 1 April 2026 — the West Pilbara moved to a three-day roster for a six-month trial. Perth is unaffected.

The Waterwise Irrigation Rebate (up to $200 for leak and solenoid repairs by a participating irrigator) ran 1 September 2025 to 31 May 2026 and is currently closed. Check waterwise offers before promising a client a rebate.