Before You Dig Australia: What It Is, What It Costs

BYDA is a single point of contact. Instead of ringing every gas, electricity, water and telecommunications network yourself, you lodge one enquiry, and BYDA refers it to the registered members with assets near your site. Its what we do page describes it as a free referral service.

The plans are not BYDA’s. Each asset owner prepares and sends its own, along with its own safety instructions. BYDA’s guide to free plans is clear that they show the presence of underground infrastructure, not its exact location, and should only be used as a guide.

That has a practical consequence. When a plan is late, unclear or missing, BYDA cannot fix it. The asset owner can, and their contact details are on the enquiry confirmation you receive after lodging.

Lodging an enquiry is free. BYDA’s FAQ notes two exceptions, and both are charged by the asset owner, not BYDA. Some owners charge for information on large developments or planning and design enquiries where no excavation is taking place. And a utility may charge if you ask it to locate a specific asset or give advice on site.

Before You Dig Australia. BYDA announced in 2022 that the state services were uniting as one national organisation, launching a new referral system and dropping “Dial” from the name from 1 July 2022. Log-in details and the way responses arrive stayed the same, and so did the price: the enquiry is still free, and your duty of care still starts with lodging one.

BYDA is a member-based national not-for-profit. Its members are infrastructure asset owners and non-asset owners, and it is governed by a board of directors made up of representatives of its infrastructure asset members, according to its governance page.

Not every asset owner is a member. BYDA’s FAQ says most are, but not all, so a complete set of responses does not mean every service on site has been disclosed. What that gap means on the ground is covered in our checklist for safe excavation near underground services.

Lodge through the BYDA portal. Mark your dig site on the map by street address, lot number or coordinates, enter the project dates and type of work, and submit. You get an enquiry summary listing each affected asset owner, their contact details and expected response times.

Build the lead time into the program. BYDA’s duty of care page says to lodge at least one day before work starts, and its best practice guidelines say at least one business day. Plans often arrive within minutes, but its guide to free plans says to allow up to two business days, and not to start until every affected owner has responded.

Once you have lodged

1. Check the summary. Every asset owner listed should send a response.
2. Chase gaps with the owner. If a response is late, contact that asset owner directly and quote the sequence number.
3. Read every set of instructions, not just the plans. Note each expiry date and the potholing method each owner permits.
4. Brief the crew. Everyone on site should understand the instructions before work starts.
5. Lodge again if the scope changes or any plan expires.

BYDA’s FAQ is direct about this: "The receipt of all Before You Dig responses is NOT considered to be an approval to proceed with excavation." You still have to follow each asset owner’s directions and any legal and safety requirements. BYDA is not the regulator either. Its codes and regulations page points to the code of practice for your state, which in New South Wales is SafeWork NSW’s Excavation Work Code of Practice.

Even a current, complete set of plans has accuracy limits. We covered those, the AS 5488 quality levels and exclusion zones in our Sydney checklist for safe excavation near underground services, so this article does not repeat them.

BYDA’s best practice guidelines set out the Five Ps of safe excavation. In short:

1. Plan. Lodge your enquiry at least one business day ahead and make sure you have the information you need.
2. Prepare. Review the plans, contact asset owners if anything is unclear, look for surface clues such as pit lids, marker posts and meters, and engage a skilled locator to locate assets electronically before potholing.
3. Pothole. If potholing is permitted, use the method the asset owner states in its plans and information pack.
4. Protect. Mark or barricade exposed assets and make sure everyone on site knows where they are.
5. Proceed. Start the main excavation only once the first four steps are done, including potholing unless it is prohibited.

The potholing method is the asset owner’s decision, not the excavator’s. BYDA gives hand digging and hydro vacuum extraction as examples, but the owner’s plans and information pack decide what is permitted on its asset, and some may prohibit potholing altogether. If the method is unclear, or hydro-vac is not listed as permitted, ask the asset owner before anyone potholes. No work proceeds until the permission and the required controls are clear.

A skilled locator and a potholing crew do different jobs, so read the plans early and book both with the lead time they need. Where hydro-vac potholing is permitted, our non-destructive digging service in Sydney does that exposure work, and our guide to utility potholing explains what a pothole can and cannot confirm. For the difference between finding a service and proving it, see service locating and service proving.

Eire Vacuum Services provides vacuum excavation and potholing. Truck positioning and hose reach are part of assessing whether vacuum excavation suits a site, so describe access in your enquiry. We can ask for photos during follow-up if useful.

For the service itself, see non-destructive digging in Sydney and potholing services. For the method, how hydro vacuum excavation works explains what the truck is actually doing, and vacuum excavation compared with mechanical excavation covers when each one is the right call.

Before You Dig Australia is free to lodge and is the first step on any job that breaks ground. It is a referral service, not a locating service, and its responses are not approval to dig.

Where the asset owner permits it, potholing exposes the asset at that point so you are not relying on the plan alone there. If the owner’s instructions allow hydro-vac potholing and that is where your plans have left you, tell us where the site is and what the plans show.

Before You Dig Australia, FAQ. Before You Dig Australia, Guide to free plans. Before You Dig Australia, Duty of care. Before You Dig Australia, Best practice guidelines. Before You Dig Australia, Codes and regulations. Before You Dig Australia, Governance. Before You Dig Australia, What we do. Before You Dig Australia, Innovation through transformation, 4 May 2022. SafeWork NSW, Excavation Work Code of Practice (PDF).