The hinterland corridor is a regular run, not a special favour. This photo is a real job on it: pumping out for the National Parks at Mogo camp site, Bucketty.
"Have you called septic cleaning companies and been told yes, they can help, then found out later that they can't? Or worse, had your time wasted with a no-show, just because your property is 'too hard' to get to? I have heard too many stories like these from people I have already helped around the Central Coast hinterland. People fortunate enough to live in beautiful locations like Wollombi or Spencer, and everywhere in between. It doesn't seem right to me."
"The reason I can help where the others can't is simple. I own my business and I carry out every septic tank clean myself. My truck was specially designed to go to the places the huge pump-out trucks can't, and it carries 90 metres of septic pump hose. So even if your tank is in an extremely tough spot, I can have the truck parked almost the length of a footy field away and still do the job for you, no problem."
The corridor starts in the wine country of the Wollombi valley, climbs the sandstone ridge through the old orchard districts, and drops to the Hawkesbury at Spencer. Every place on it is septic country, and all of it is one run for the red truck.
Historic village blocks, vineyards and acreage at the Hunter end of the run.
Plateau farms and bush blocks along the top, most of them on tank water too.
Quiet riverside hamlets where the corridor meets the Hawkesbury.
Between those names sit plenty of tracks and mailboxes that belong to no suburb in particular. If yours is one of them, the road knows it even if the list does not: ask about your address. Neighbouring runs: the Central Coast, Gosford, Tuggerah & Wyong, Wisemans Ferry and Lake Macquarie.
Anyone who has followed a B-double crawl over the ridge knows what the corridor's roads think of big vehicles. Tight bends through the cuttings, narrow dirt tracks off the bitumen, driveways that wind down to the house through the trees. This is exactly why Paul's truck was specially designed with a smaller wheelbase and a more efficient sized tank: it navigates the roads and tracks that would turn most septic cleaning trucks on their ear.
Where even the small truck should not go, the hose goes instead. Ninety metres of it means the truck parks on the road edge or the hardstand and the hose does the walking: down the drive, through the gate, around the dam if it has to. Your paddock stays a paddock.
Book the clean and the truck's jet will clear roots and debris from your inlet pipes in the same visit, which out here beats waiting on a second callout from anyone.
A standard septic pump-out starts from $600 as a rule of thumb, rising with tank size. If you are properly off the beaten track, expect to pay a little more than normal, and Paul would rather tell you why up-front than have you wonder.
"For complete transparency between us before we start, here are the main reasons. It costs me more in time and fuel to reach your property, there and back. And the trip to correctly dispose of your septic waste takes longer from a remote location than from a suburban one."
What you get in return is the part that matters out here: he will be there when he says he will, the price is agreed before the truck leaves the depot, and the number on the invoice is the number you were quoted. Ring with your address and you will get an estimate over the phone, no callout needed for that. If a neighbour or two book the same day, Pump-Out Partners means the trip is shared and everyone pays less.
Could not have had a better experience than the one we had today when Paul and co cleaned our septic system and grease trap.
Almost certainly not. Hard-to-reach properties are the reason this page exists: a smaller truck than the big pump-out rigs, 90 metres of hose, and an owner who answers his own phone. Ring with your address and Paul will tell you straight whether he can get in, before anyone's time is wasted.
Yes, the whole corridor. Wollombi to Spencer is its own run, and the work out here includes jobs like the National Parks campground pump-out at Mogo camp site in Bucketty, the photo at the top of this page.
A little, and you will know exactly how much before anything starts. Septic cleans start from $600 as a rule of thumb; remote properties add something for the extra travel and the longer waste-disposal run. The estimate comes over the phone, and the quoted price is the price you pay.
That is what it was built for: a smaller wheelbase than the standard pump-out trucks, made to navigate tracks that would turn the big rigs on their ear. And where the truck should not go at all, it parks and the 90 metres of hose covers the rest.
Yes. Most properties on this run are on tank water as well as septic, and water tank cleaning is the second trade on the truck, it says so on the side. Book both and it is one trip instead of two, which off the beaten track is worth real money.
Paul does; the Mogo camp site pump-out at Bucketty was a National Parks job. Facilities with tanks and no easy access are routine work on this run. Commercial and parks jobs are quoted up-front like everything else.
Tell Paul where you are on the corridor and what the access is like, a rough idea is plenty. You will get a straight answer, an estimate over the phone before anything starts, and a truck that turns up when he says it will.
Call and you talk to Paul, not a call centre.
Call 0438 315 514