Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) is the essential first step before any excavation in Australia. But a common and dangerous misconception is that the plans alone make a site safe to dig. They don't. Here's what DBYD does, and what it leaves out.
What Dial Before You Dig gives you
When you lodge a DBYD enquiry, registered asset owners send you plans showing the approximate location of their underground infrastructure in your work area. It's free, it's vital, and you should always do it. The plans tell you roughly what's there and who owns it.
What the plans don't tell you
- Exact position — plans show approximate alignments, not survey-accurate locations.
- Depth — most plans don't give reliable depths, and ground levels change over time.
- Unregistered or private assets — private power, irrigation, comms and abandoned services often don't appear at all.
- Real-world accuracy — services move, records age, and what's drawn isn't always what's in the ground.
Why you still need on-site locating
DBYD plans tell you a service is probably there. On-site cable and pipe location tells you exactly where it is and marks it on the ground, and hydro excavation lets you see it with your own eyes. Treat the plans as the starting point, then verify on the ground before you dig.