yeah I thought that was the go. A cable locater. Typical, I could have borrowed one from work for a carton, but alas on holidays and need cable down now.

Dial beofre you dig is not the magical service it appears to be.
Since there is no requirement for any cables on a private property to be recorded or lodged with anybody (yes that is correct) dial before you dig can provide you with the contact details for cables and pipes that are located in public areas, ie the street. Once it hits your meter box, thats your problem.
Not only that you stillhave to ring the associated companies to get the data anyways, they just log that you are attempting to get the data.

So cable locater it is.
Thanks folks

yea the doover is the go, they can also send signal down the wires and find them..

just ring 1100 - dial before you dig

i know exactly where mine is as its right next to the dam sewerage line which i have had to dig up too many times!

Yeah I've heard of that. Some companies specialise in under ground detection & can quickly locate pipes, wires etc.

go see an earthworks mob or a bobcat dude, they use a doover you run across the top of the ground. me and a mate used one and it gave us a good enough idea of where things were that we missed them with the digger.
works pretty well on underground power and steel pipes.

Folks

I am about to dig a trench for the power cable for the new shed. The last 50 metres to the power meter is worring since I dont know where the existing power cable is or the telephone, and the digger op doesent want to start until we have an idea. Since the cables are on private property, there is no law to record where they are, so its dig blind basically.

It was suggested to me by a less than relaible sparky that I should dig a hole by hand at the power box and then follow the poly to determine direction. This seems a little dodgy to me, but at this stage is the best option.

Any sparkys out there have a method that they use?

Cheers