Websites for Cairns plumbers and drainers working anywhere from Palm Cove to Gordonvale, written for the months when council is swapping about 55,000 water meters for smart ones. A leak detection page an owner can find straight after council flags their usage, a backflow section for commercial sites, and a call button that stays in reach on a phone.
In Cairns the water and sewer networks belong to the regional council, so the piece of paper a customer is holding when they search for a plumber has usually come from council: a letter about a new meter, word that their usage looks unusual, or a card left after a temporary repair. A useful site recognises each of those.
Council is replacing roughly 55,000 mechanical meters and says it watches usage and will try to contact customers when consumption looks like a leak. Finding and fixing anything past the meter is the owner’s job and the owner’s cost. A leak detection section that explains how you trace a hidden leak, with a form asking when the meter was changed and what council told them, is the page that owner is looking for.
Owners can apply for help with a water account inflated by a concealed leak once a licensed plumber has repaired it. Council’s policy, adopted again in June 2026, expects the repair within 14 days of the water account or council’s notice, and wants your invoice or report to detail the work and confirm the leak is fixed. The online form also asks for your business name, licence number, phone number and the repair date. One line saying your invoices carry all of that saves the owner from ringing you back.
Council won’t consider leaks on appliances, fixtures or fittings, including air conditioners, dishwashers, pools, hot water systems, toilet cisterns, valves, taps, sprinklers and irrigation, or a leak anyone could see. A short paragraph saying the claim is about hidden pipework on the owner’s side of the meter sets fair expectations before you’re on site.
When council crews make a temporary repair, they can leave a Notification of Temporary Repairs Card, and the owner then has to organise a licensed plumber to check the plumbing and finish any further repairs at their own cost. Naming that card on your site, next to the call button, tells the owner holding it that you take exactly that job.
Testable devices in the Cairns council area need an inspection and test every year by a backflow-endorsed plumber, and the plumber lodges the Form 9 with council within 10 days. A section naming your endorsement, the devices you test and the fact that you lodge the form gives cafés, workshops and body corporates something definite to book.
Port Douglas and Mossman are in Douglas Shire, Kuranda and Mareeba in Mareeba Shire, and Atherton in the Tablelands Regional Council. If your van goes up the coast or up the range, list those towns by name so someone in Kuranda can see you’ll make the trip.
A call bar that stays on screen, your QBCC licence line in the footer of every page and a short form asking for the suburb, the problem and a photo. That’s enough for someone in Bentley Park with water pooling by the meter.
Licensing works the same way in Cairns as in Brisbane. Plumbing and drainage work needs a QBCC licence, specialist work such as backflow testing is added as an endorsement, and your licensed name, licence number and a licensing statement belong on your advertising, websites included; our Brisbane plumbing page explains the detail. The local difference is who customers deal with for water and sewer: in Cairns that’s the council, not a separate utility.
Cairns Regional Council’s area runs from Ellis Beach and Palm Cove through the northern beaches and the Redlynch Valley, the inner suburbs and the southside around Edmonton, to Gordonvale and Babinda. The neighbours run their own systems. Douglas Shire, which covers Port Douglas and Mossman, keeps its own backflow register with an annual administration fee, and its own concealed leak policy applies only to properties without a smart meter, expects the repair within 28 days and asks for a statement signed by the plumber who fixed it. Mareeba Shire, re-established in 2014, takes in Kuranda and Mareeba, and Atherton is in the Tablelands Regional Council. A plumber who covers several of these does better naming each town than relying on the word Cairns.
For plumbers, the smart meter program is the change to watch. Phase 1 put 697 smart meters into Palm Cove in 2019, and council says it has since found more than 120 leaks there and saved about 50 megalitres. Phase 2 was scheduled to begin in January 2023 and covers about 55,000 meters across the region over three to four years, with owners told by mail before their meter is replaced. Council expects every meter, the communications network and a customer portal to be in place by December 2026. Its advice to an owner who suspects a leak inside the boundary is to contact a licensed plumber; a problem at or before the meter goes to council.
When a hidden leak has already pushed up the bill, council offers financial assistance to residential owners and eligible not-for-profit groups under its Concealed Water Leak Policy. The leak has to have been repaired by a Queensland licensed plumber within 14 days of the water account being issued or council letting the owner know, the application is due within 30 days of that account, and claims aren’t considered for visible leaks, internal appliances and fittings, non-compliant plumbing or vacant land. The application is an online form that asks for the repairing plumber’s details and a copy of their invoice. We don’t give advice on who qualifies; a site can simply link to council’s page and say what your invoices include.
Permanent water conservation measures apply across the region whatever the season: sprinklers run 5–9am and 5–9pm, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for odd-numbered houses and Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for even-numbered ones, and never on Mondays. We’re an Adelaide team and work with Cairns plumbers by phone and email: you send your licence details, the suburbs and towns you cover and photos from recent jobs, and we send a draft link you can check on your phone between calls.
Our plumbing client is M.J. Debney Plumbing & Gas in Queensland. Beside it is Tomi’s Bobcat and Excavation from the Bega Valley in New South Wales, a regional trade whose site leans on a large photo gallery: the same approach suits a plumber whose best proof is a dug-up water service or a cleared drain.
A licensed Queensland plumber and gas fitter. Its one-page site sets out six services, among them hot water, drainage and backflow, with a 13-photo gallery that swipes on a phone, client testimonials, a protected contact form and tap-to-call.
Visit the M.J. Debney site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Bobcat and excavator operators in the Bega Valley. We built one page with three service sections, a 42-photo gallery that swipes on mobile, a testimonial carousel and a contact form with its own thank-you page. A Cairns plumber could caption each job photo with the suburb in the same way.
Visit the Tomi's Bobcat site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“They were very helpful and envisioned exactly what I was wanting for my website. They created the site very promptly and cost efficient.”
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Want numbers from a trade site? Western Sydney Stump Grinding has landed at least 62 jobs, about $46,500 of work, from a single-page site we built. Read the case study.
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
$399
Services, licence line, your Cairns suburbs and outlying towns, a short leak detection section, captioned job photos, a quote form and tap-to-call, all on one page.
Our pick for leak work
$899
A home page, a leak detection page built around the smart meter rollout and council’s concealed leak form, and a backflow and commercial page.
$1,499
For larger crews: a home page plus pages for leak detection, drains, hot water and gas, backflow, the temporary repairs card, the northern beaches, and Port Douglas or the Tablelands.
If you do leak detection, yes. Council is still rolling the meters out, expects to finish by December 2026, and says it will try to let customers know when their usage suggests a leak. A section that uses the words an owner has just heard from council, such as unusual consumption or a possible leak, next to your call button, meets them at the right moment. We keep it factual and leave out promises about bills.
Council’s online application asks for the plumbing business name, the plumber’s name, licence number and phone number, the date of the repair and a copy of the invoice, and the policy says the invoice or report should detail the work and confirm the leak was repaired. If your invoices already show all of that, a line on your leak page can say so. Who qualifies is council’s decision under its Concealed Water Leak Policy, so the site links to council rather than telling owners whether they’ll get help.
List them as towns you cover, under their own heading after your Cairns suburbs. Port Douglas is in Douglas Shire and Kuranda in Mareeba Shire, each with its own council processes, and a customer there won’t assume a Cairns plumber travels. If you charge for travel or go on set days, say that too. Text changes on existing pages are covered by the $30 monthly hosting, so the list can change as your work does.
Yes. We’re based at Hutt St in Adelaide and work with businesses Australia-wide by phone and email. Our current clients are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD, including our plumbing client, M.J. Debney Plumbing & Gas, in Queensland. You send your words and photos, we send a draft link, you ask for as many changes as you like, and you pay once you approve it. If you don’t go ahead, you owe nothing.
One page is $399. Up to 3 pages is $899 and up to 8 pages is $1,499. No GST is added and there’s no deposit. For most Cairns plumbers we’d suggest three pages: home, leak detection and backflow. After launch, hosting is $30 a month, and we register your domain in your name for about $20 a year.
Tell us the suburbs and towns you cover, the jobs you want more of and your QBCC licence details, and send a few job photos. We’ll quote first, build the draft, and you pay nothing until you approve it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au