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Water bore drilling across the Perth Hills.

Eleven localities I have drilled for decades, plus the Perth coastal plain. Typical depths, where the granite starts, and what the water is like in each one.

THE GROUND OUT HERE

East of the scarp, the ground changes fast.

A coastal bore is a hole through sand. Up here you get a few metres of gravel, then laterite, then clay, and then granite. The water does not soak through the rock. It runs in the cracks, so finding it is about knowing where the rock breaks up rather than how deep to push.

That is why depth quotes vary so much between one Hills suburb and the next, and why a rig without hammer capability stops short on a Lesmurdie block. It is also why the sections below carry different numbers rather than the same paragraph with the suburb name swapped.

How hard rock drilling works →

WHERE I DRILL

Eleven Hills localities, and what the ground does in each.

Every suburb up here drills differently. Depth to water, where the granite starts, what the water is like when you find it. Here's what I've struck in each one.

Water bore drilling in Kalamunda

Kalamunda blocks sit right on top of the change in ground that makes Hills drilling its own trade. You get laterite and clay over granite, and the depth to water swings between one street and the next depending on how the rock has fractured underneath.

Most of the work here is garden and household supply on standard residential blocks. Access is usually straightforward, which keeps the job to a single day on site.

Water bore drilling in Gooseberry Hill

Gooseberry Hill is scarp-edge country and the access is the first thing I look at. Steep driveways and tight blocks decide where the rig can set up, and that decides where the hole goes.

The geology is granite close to the surface with fracture lines running through it. Where those lines sit under a particular block is the difference between a good bore and a slow one.

Water bore drilling in Lesmurdie

Lesmurdie sits on the escarpment, and the granite comes up closer to the surface than it does further east. That means the hammer goes on earlier in the hole and the fracture you are looking for can be shallower or a good deal deeper than the street next door.

Blocks here often have a slope to deal with. I position the rig where it can work safely without tearing up the garden getting there.

Water bore drilling in Walliston

Walliston runs to bigger semi-rural blocks, so the bores here tend to do more work than a suburban garden bore. Household supply and larger gardens are the common jobs.

The ground reads much like neighbouring Lesmurdie, and I often drill both in the same week.

Water bore drilling in Pickering Brook

Home ground. I live and work here, and I drilled ten bores on my own orchard block during the 2000 drought looking for water. Everything I know about Hills geology started in this soil.

The work here is orchard irrigation as much as household supply. Orchard bores need volume, which means a bigger hole and a hunt for a fracture that will keep delivering through a dry summer.

Water bore drilling in Bickley

Bickley valley carries orchards and vineyards, and the valley geology brings fracture zones that can produce well. The catch is that they are not evenly spread, so local knowledge decides where the hole goes.

Irrigation bores dominate here, with household supply on the lifestyle blocks around them.

Water bore drilling in Carmel

Carmel is orchard country, and irrigation demand shapes the bores. Growers here need a yield they can rely on across the whole season, not just a reading on the day the rig leaves.

I have drilled through this area for decades and have a good sense of which parts of Carmel deliver and which are harder work.

Water bore drilling in Piesse Brook

A small locality with valley geology much like Bickley next door. Fracture lines run through the valley floor and the depth to water varies with how the ground sits.

Most of the work is household and garden supply on rural blocks.

Water bore drilling in Paulls Valley

Rural lifestyle blocks, where a bore usually covers stock water, garden supply and topping up tanks through summer. Steady supply matters more than a big number on day one.

The ground runs deeper here than on the scarp edge, which is worth knowing before you budget for the job.

Water bore drilling in Bickley

Irrigation bores dominate here, with household supply on the lifestyle blocks around them.

Water bore drilling in Carmel

Carmel is orchard country, and irrigation demand shapes the bores. Growers here need a yield they can rely on across the whole season, not just a reading on the day the rig leaves.

I have drilled through this area for decades and have a good sense of which parts of Carmel deliver and which are harder work.

Water bore drilling in Hacketts Gully

Gully country, where the fracture lines are the whole story. Yields vary more here than anywhere else in the eleven, and I would rather tell you that up front than after the rig has packed up.

Where the gully geology works in your favour the bores are good. Where it does not, I will say so before you commit.

Water bore drilling in Reservoir

Reservoir sits next to catchment land, so there are rules here that do not apply elsewhere in the Hills. Getting the paperwork right is part of the job rather than an afterthought.

I handle the DWER side of it. [Lorry: confirm exactly what catchment restrictions apply and what you take care of, because this section is only worth having if it is accurate.]

Perth metro, on the coastal plain

West of the scarp the job changes. Sand and limestone instead of granite, shallower holes in most suburbs, and mud rotary rather than air drilling. Garden bores across the metro are the bulk of this work.

Having one driller who covers both sides of the scarp matters if your property straddles the change, or if you have holdings in the Hills and on the flat.