As a keen DIY-er for 40 years in the UK before emigrating to Australia, I was extremely frustrated by the Australian restrictions when I arrived here. A week after we arrived, my sister-in-law’s microwave stopped working - it was just the microswitch in the door latch that had to be replaced, so I got my screwdrivers out and started taking the case off (after unplugging it obviously) - you should have seen the horrified looks on their faces! It seems that this is a good country to be a ‘qualified’ electrician…
So firstly, the disclaimer…
In Australia, it is illegal for anyone but a qualified licensed electrician to undertake any work on any electrical circuits or appliances.
Having said that, the major DIY retailers (Bunnings and Mitre 10) both sell basic electrical things like light fittings, switches, plugs and sockets, and cable, but not an awful lot more than that (and everything has a warning on it saying that you aren’t allowed to fit it yourself…)
Having employed a couple of ‘licensed’ and ‘qualified’ electricians in my time here, I can tell you there are a lot of cowboys, and a conscientious and careful DIYer can do a better job than some of the ‘experts’ - IF (and that’s a big if) you can source the parts you need.
* 240v 50Hz - same as UK.
* Domestic sockets are rated at 10A rather than 13A in the UK.
* Appliances are not fused at the plug like they are in UK.
I’ll add more to the page when I find out what flavour of markup this uses.
Grumby
