Victoria's drainage challenges are clay-driven. Melbourne's basalt-derived clay soils ('Melbourne clay') are highly reactive, swelling and shrinking with the seasons, which puts French drains squarely in the toolkit for protecting slabs and keeping yards usable.
Melbourne's reactive clay is famous among local builders. Combined with a temperate, year-round-rainfall climate, drainage is a constant consideration rather than a wet-season one.
Each area has its own drainage conditions, tap through for local context and recommended installers.
Much of Melbourne sits on reactive basalt clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, hard on slabs and footings. Drainage along the building…
Geelong and the Bellarine mix clay plains with some sandier coastal pockets. Newer estates on cut-and-fill sites can have unpredictable drainage…
Ballarat's cooler, wetter climate and clay soils mean yards stay damp for much of the year. Old goldfields ground can also hide rubble and fill that…
Bendigo combines clay soils with a drier climate punctuated by heavy downpours, so drainage has to handle intense short bursts rather than constant…