Yep , had the fire brigade here ,whole street was blocked off for about two hours.
I was mowing the lawn with my 1960 Victa toe cutter and the blades hit the gas main on the street side of meter.
Tore a big hole in the pipe! Ive not run that fast in years, Gas was pour out full bore!
So the fire engine turns up and 3 Gas vehicles and they dug up my front lawn and fixed the pipe.
I'm guessing I'm about to get the biggest bill from the Gas company I've ever had.
I realise these things are sent to try us! What I don't understand is why they are always sent to me to try

Pete

It will depend on where the main was hit. If it was on the pipe leading vertically to your gas meter, they might bill you, but if it is a horiztonal pipe that was not laid deeply enough then it is their fault.

Back in the days when I built fences I put my scissor shovels through a 1 inch 'gold line' near the property boundary. It was laid in the garden bed but only a few inches deep. As AGL (who owned Sydney's gas lines at the time) didn't do their job properly they were not able to charge me for the repair.

Mind you, repair is all they did. One would have thought that they'd bury the pipe at the legally required depth but I guess that was too hard.

Vertical pipe to the meter..there was no way of stopping the gas coming out.
It cut it in half basically.

Hi Pete still not your fault the pipe should have had better protection around it . The installer is responsible in my book.
Awesome mowers those old Victa toe cutters. I would imagine it provided quite a bit of entertainment for the neighbours.

Jim,,,Yes met neighbours I didn't know I had!
The fire men ,told me what to put on the form so maybe I won't get a bill.
They liked the mower and the shed I'm building. They were all very interested in the shed frames I've built. Good people all of them .no one got hurt so that's all it matters.
Pete

I am perplexed...............

What kind of gas pipe was it?
The gas pipe through my property to the meter is about a 1.5" (maybe 2") steel gal screwed layout about 2 foot down.
Peters Victa would not be going through that in a hurry!!

What are they using now...plastic????

Fred.

Fred, no this is a old house and it looks like copper pipe, but the moment I saw it happen I Ran so I didn't hang about looking at it.
It sticks up out of the ground about 10 inches and toe cutter blades stick out beyond the mower base

Plastic, nicknamed goldline, is normally only used for the main to the stop valves. I don't remember whether or not each domestic customer has their own stop valve or if each valve services several customers but they are around, usually hidden under the grass that runs along the footpath. Commercial and industrial customers get their own stop valve.

The network owner would have operated a stop valve in order to do the repair.

"Plastic, nicknamed goldline, is normally only used for the main to the stop valves."

My place went up in 2002 and has yellow pipe running from the main to the gas meter at the side of the house, where there is a stop valve. Don't know if there is also a stop valve at the main, which is at the other side of the road from me.

I have dug this up at one point where it crosses the drainage line from a retaining wall which was blocked. It is about 600mm down in road base, and has a yellow tape marked gas line under, or some such, above the road base. Soil fill over that.

No trouble with gas, except for wasps that like to nest around the gas meter. Have had a surprise like an electric shock to my calf there when I didn't notice the wasps when mowing the grass.

The water meter is another matter. Had been mowing around that for ten years without any trouble. One time though my back foot slipped, up went the front of the mower, decapitated the valve sending the handle crashing into the colourbond fence. Meanwhile a strike from the blade (one of those that is a single large lump of metal) neatly unscrewed the valve producing a fountain to the amusement of the neighbours.
At times like these you are glad you kept your fathers junk box through a couple of moves, so I had spare valve to screw in, after opening wide the nearest tap. No need to trouble a plumber.

Now surrounded by H4 pine in a garden.

Hey, Pete, you need the optional "toe guard" from Victa that bolted onto the base plate.
I had one on my old Victa back in the 1960's.
It was a steel ring that effectively increased the base plate diameter and was held on with 4 clamps.
I am sure your local Victa agent would have them in stock.
Ho ho ho.
Oh crap we dont make anything in this country any more......................
Oh well.
Fred.

That sort of issue is common around here & electric fence wires & whipper snippers are not compatible as is laying pipes & unprotected wires in sharp rock fill. It may pay to either mod the mower, or guard the pipe that can be as simple as a bit of half pipe or 11/2 medium pipe, you can get clamp fittings like "T's" some which articulate (used here).

The biggest one like that is around the power distribution box & will withstand 1000Kg of beef rubbing on it. Artistic; its deliberately not built square. The gate way has a lintel between posts to stop it being separated.

Marc

I've actually upgraded to anther mower ,but it's not quite ready yet and is still being repaired.
It's a 1958 villiers mower 7f manual.
Single handle model. It's far better mower than than the victa ,but very rare and worth a fair bit more too
I actually hate mowing ,I just like cool old things and the Villiers is one cool old mower.

Pete

We have a water meter conveniently placed in the centre of our front lawn with the garden tap attached to a post next to it.
One day the in laws were paying a visit and had parked on the front lawn.
I went to fill the kettle and noticed the water pressure to be extremely low.
You guessed it, the father in law had parked his car on the water meter and folded it at a right angle and buried it in the lawn.
After moving the car I very gingerly prized it upwards whereupon water started spraying for a small hole where the pipe had kinked.
I managed to get it to about 45 degrees without danger of snapping the copper pipe completely but at least we had water (it was a Sunday of course).
Next, how to stop the leak.
I used a self tapping screw and some plumbers tape to screw into the hole in the mains side of the meter which completely stopped the leak until a proper repair could be done.
I contacted the water supply company first thing on Monday who quite promptly came out and repaired the damage.
The chap said this was a very common occurrence and doubted I would be charged.
I never received a bill (whew) so hopefully with your gas pipe they may be a bit lenient especially if it's in a damage prone spot.

Haha , bloody outlaws! I'm blessed mine live overseas!

STC, the 'last mile' you spoke of was where I shovelled the pipe at the fencing job that time. I'd say a fair bit of customer installations are like that and it probably depends on where the meter is located and how old it is. There's still a lot of meters connected with lead pipework to screwed water pipe.

Gas stop valves are usually under the cast iron lids with "GAS" or "AGL" on them. Those with "SV" are water board valves.