Tank & Bore Water Watch: week of 21 September 2026

A quieter week on the water front: two notices in Queensland and a new South Australian study on household rainwater tanks. Here's a quick rundown of what was reported and what the official advice says.

Boil water and drinking water notices

Queensland

Boulia, Queensland: precautionary boil water alert

On 24 September, Boulia Shire Council issued a precautionary boil water alert for Boulia after a communications network outage disrupted operations at the town's water treatment plant. The council asks residents to use boiled (then cooled) or bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, preparing food and caring for infants, while unboiled tap water is fine for bathing, washing dishes, laundry and flushing toilets. The council says the alert will stay in place until consistent testing shows levels are back within the required range, so check its website for updates.

Source: Boulia Shire Council

Beaudesert, Queensland: residents asked to save water

A burst water main and a brief, unplanned outage at the Beaudesert Water Treatment Plant on Saturday 26 September were both fixed within hours, but the burst drained a lot of water from a local reservoir. On 27 September, Urban Utilities and Seqwater asked residents to cut back on non-essential use such as watering gardens, washing cars and topping up pools over the next few days, as a precaution while reservoir levels recover. The Helen Street tanker filling station is offline for now, and customers are asked to avoid metered standpipes. This is a request to use less water, not a water quality alert.

Source: Seqwater

Rainwater tanks and bores

South Australia

Adelaide, South Australia: new study tests 100 household rainwater tanks

Researchers from Adelaide University and Flinders University, working with CSIRO and UNSW, published results on 21 September from 100 household tanks in Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills, sampled between May 2024 and January 2026. Some tanks contained bacteria such as Campylobacter (13% of tanks) and Salmonella (10%), and some had levels of metals including cadmium, lead, arsenic or manganese above the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, with metal tanks and poorly maintained systems tending to have higher metal levels. About two in three households surveyed used their tank water for drinking and cooking, and the researchers stress the importance of regular maintenance of roofs, gutters and tanks.

Source: Scimex (Australian Science Media Centre); paper in the Journal of Environmental Management

Tip of the week

Look inside your tank, not just the gutters. SA Health recommends checking your tank for a build-up of sludge at least every two years and removing it (by siphoning, or emptying and rinsing the tank) when it covers the bottom. Keep the inlet and overflow screens clean and insect-proof, and if you suspect your tank water has been contaminated, SA Health advises disinfecting it before further use. Read SA Health's rainwater advice.

Want to check your own tank or bore water? Find out what your results mean at https://www.watercheck.com.au/results

Always follow the advice of your local council, water supplier or state health department. This roundup summarises publicly reported information; see the linked sources for full details.