All five guides to a Perth block
Stake 03 · Reticulation
Watering days in Perth
Perth sprinklers run to a roster: Water Corporation works out your rostered watering days from your street number, and on those days you water only once, before 9am or after 6pm. Garden bore users in Perth and Mandurah follow the same roster and times, and sprinklers used outside your days and times can draw a fine even when a faulty controller is to blame.
General information, not legal advice. Water Corporation’s watering days page is where you look up your own property’s days.
Finding your rostered days
The roster is keyed to the street number of the property, so in a villa or an apartment block you use the street number and can leave your own unit number out of it. If the property spans more than one street number, as a block at 22–24 on a street does, you use the higher number. Only where a property has no street number do you look it up by its lot number instead.
| Your property | How the roster finds it |
|---|---|
| A house with one street number | By its street number |
| A villa or apartment | By the block’s street number, not your unit number |
| A property across several street numbers | By the higher of the numbers |
| A property with no street number | By its lot number |
| A garden bore in Perth or Mandurah | The same roster and times as scheme water |
Because the roster turns on your number, this guide does not print it: Water Corporation’s watering days page gives the days for your number.
Once, before 9am or after 6pm
On a rostered day, Water Corporation’s page says to water only once, either before 9am or after 6pm. The hours between are not for sprinklers, and neither are the days off the roster.
Between 1 June and 31 August each year the roster gives way to the Sprinkler Switch-off. It reaches scheme and bore water users alike in Perth and Mandurah, and in parts of the Great Southern and South West regions, households and businesses both, and anyone in its area seen running sprinklers in those three months risks a $100 fine (as Water Corporation’s page gave it on 9 October 2026). Irrigation fed from rainwater tanks is outside it.
The same page suggests checking the run times for different kinds of sprinkler, so a garden is not overwatered. That is advice rather than a rule; the roster and the times are what inspectors enforce.
Planning around the roster
For a new garden, the roster belongs in the brief from the start. Sprinklers on scheme water may run only on your rostered days, and only once on each of those days, before 9am or after 6pm. In Perth and Mandurah, sprinklers on scheme or bore water also fall under the Sprinkler Switch-off from 1 June to 31 August each year. A landscaper laying out reticulation zones is working within those windows, and in Perth and Mandurah a garden bore does not widen them.
The rosters are one of the permanent water efficiency measures, which Water Corporation describes as ongoing rather than temporary, so they are a fixed part of the design rather than something a new garden waits out. How much water a particular garden needs within those windows is a question for whoever designs it.
Bore water follows the roster too
A bore does not take a garden off the roster. In Perth and Mandurah, garden bore users have the same watering rosters and times as households on scheme water; outside those areas a roster and its times may differ.
Enforcement runs differently. When Water Corporation’s inspectors see a bore user off the roster, they pass it on to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, and the department may issue an infringement.
Permanent measures and temporary restrictions
After a run of dry winters, the State Government brought in the Permanent Water Efficiency Measures across Western Australia in 2007, in response to the effect climate change is having on the state’s water sources. Water Corporation separates two things that both limit garden watering.
Permanent water efficiency measures
Ongoing measures for using outdoor water efficiently, the sprinkler rosters among them. They came in during October 2007, after a trial and wide consultation, and they are set in regulations that the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation administers, with Water Corporation enforcing them.
Temporary water restrictions
Short-term measures imposed in a drought or an emergency to cut demand and keep water for essential needs. They are aimed at non-essential uses, garden irrigation among them.
Water Corporation’s page says restrictions are in place throughout Western Australia for both bore and scheme water users.
Fines, faulty controllers and reports
Water Corporation says its inspectors work seven days a week, every complaint is investigated, and breaches of the watering rosters draw $100 on-the-spot fines (as its page gave the amount on 9 October 2026).
Water Corporation’s answer on a malfunctioning controller is that you can still be fined. If inspectors see sprinklers running outside the allocated days and times, that attracts an infringement. Its recommendation is to replace a controller’s backup batteries regularly, and especially after a power blackout, so the programme still matches your allocated days and times.
The same logic applies when a landscaper installs new reticulation or reprograms an old controller: the fine follows what the sprinklers do, so it is worth checking that the controller is set to your rostered days and times before the job is signed off. Ask, too, how long each zone runs: Water Corporation’s tip about sprinkler run times applies to a new system as much as an old one.
If you see sprinklers running on the wrong days, Water Corporation takes reports through its sprinkler breach form or its 24/7 Waterwise helpline, both reached from its watering days page.