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I went looking for water on my own block and never stopped.
Lorry Della Pollina, water bore driller, Pickering Brook.
In 2000 the drought hit and my orchard at Pickering Brook needed water. I drilled ten bores on my own 25 acres looking for it. By the time I found what I needed I understood the ground under these hills better than anyone who had only read about it.
Neighbours started asking. Then their neighbours. The business grew out of a drought and word of mouth, and I have been drilling the Perth Hills ever since.
The rig
The rigs on the market were built for sand. Granite chewed through them. So I designed and built my own, set up to run a down-hole hammer all day through the rock east of the scarp.
[Lorry: confirm the current rig and compressor setup. The 2008 specifications are the starting point for this section, not the published claim.]
What does getting a water bore in Perth involve?
Getting a water bore in Perth takes one to two days on site. I assess the block, drill to the depth the geology calls for, case the hole with PVC, then develop it with air until the water runs clear. You finish with a cased bore, a drill log, a water quality reading and a flow rate.
Why drilling the Hills is different
That is the short version. The long version depends on where you are. On the coastal plain a bore is a hole through sand. East of the Darling Scarp you are drilling through laterite, clay and granite, and the water sits in the fractures rather than soaking through the ground. Both jobs need different gear and a different approach.
The process
Four stages, and what you get at the end.
Site assessment
I look at the block, the access and what I know about the ground nearby. In most Hills suburbs I have drilled within a few hundred metres, so I can tell you the likely depth and what the water will be like before anything starts.
Access matters more than people expect. The rig needs a path in and a level spot to set up on, and a steep Gooseberry Hill driveway takes more planning than a flat paddock at Carmel.
Drilling day
The rig goes in and the hole gets drilled. In the Hills that means air drilling with a down-hole hammer once the rock starts. On the coastal plain it means mud rotary through the sand.
You do not need to be home, though most people want to watch. The hole is logged as it goes down, so the strata record comes off the job itself rather than a guess afterwards.
Casing and development
PVC casing goes down the hole, with screen across the section carrying the water and gravel packed around it. Then I develop the bore with air until the water runs clear of drilling fines.
Development is the step that separates a bore that runs for decades from one that silts up in two summers. [Lorry: how long do you develop a typical Hills bore, and what are you looking for before you stop?]
What you walk away with
A cased and developed bore, the drill log showing what the hole went through and at what depth, a water quality reading, and the flow rate in litres per hour. Take those three numbers to a pump supplier and they can size a pump.
[Lorry: do you install pumps yourself, or hand the bore over for someone else to do the pump and retic? This changes what the page promises.]
Bore types
What the water is for changes the bore.
Garden bores
The most common job in Perth. Enough water to keep a garden and a lawn alive through summer without the scheme water bill or the sprinkler roster. On a standard Hills block that is a smaller-diameter hole and a modest pump.
Typical depth and yield to confirm
Orchard & irrigation bores
Bigger hole, bigger pump, and a yield that will run a whole irrigation system through a Perth summer. I have drilled this work through the orchard country at Pickering Brook, Carmel and Bickley for decades.
Typical yields for orchard work to confirm
Household supply bores
For properties running off tanks, or blocks where the scheme water does not reach. Higher demand than a garden bore, so the water quality reading matters more and the bore gets built for continuous use.
Water quality and treatment advice to confirm
Stock water bores
roughs and tanks on rural lifestyle blocks out through Paulls Valley and Hacketts Gully. Steady supply matters more than volume, and the water quality has to suit stock.
Salinity thresholds for stock to confirm
Hard rock & granite
The part most drillers turn down.
Yes, a water bore can be drilled through granite in the Perth Hills. It takes air drilling with a down-hole hammer rather than a mud rig, and it takes knowing where the rock fractures, because the water runs in the cracks instead of through the rock.
East of the Darling Scarp the ground changes within a few metres. You get topsoil and gravel, then laterite, then clay, then weathered granite, then solid rock. A rig built for coastal sand stalls when it hits that, which is why a lot of Perth drillers quote the flat and pass on the Hills.
Air drilling and mud drilling, plainly
Mud drilling pumps a mud mixture down the hole to carry the cuttings up and hold the walls open. It suits sand and clay, which is why it is standard on the coastal plain.
Air drilling blows compressed air down instead, and a hammer at the bit end pounds the rock as it turns. It cuts hard rock that mud rigs cannot, and it tells you the moment you hit water because the water comes straight up the hole.
[Lorry: confirm you still run both methods. The whole "both sides of the scarp" position rests on it.]
The rig
I built the rig because the ones for sale would not cut it.
Construction Week reported in 2008 that the rig Lorry designed doubled his drilling rate and halved the fuel burnt per metre. For you that means fewer days with a truck parked on your lawn and less of the block torn up getting the job done.
The question everyone asks
What if you don't find water?
[Lorry's dry-hole policy, in his own words, in 40 to 60 words. This is the single highest-trust passage on the site and the one most likely to be quoted by an AI assistant, so it has to be his exact position.]
What I can tell you before we start is what the odds look like. I have drilled these hills long enough to know which blocks are straightforward and which ones are a gamble, and I will say so rather than take the job and hope.
Want to know what your block can do?
Tell me your suburb and what the water is for. I answer every enquiry myself, usually the same day.
Water bore drilling and hard rock drilling across the Perth Hills and Perth metro.