A guide published by Dotto
Everything about the kitchen sink
The tap, the bowl, the water and the rules that sit quietly behind them. Each rule on this site comes from the body that sets it, and each of those bodies is linked where the rule appears.
Start with the drawing below: five numbered parts of an ordinary sink, and the rule that reaches each one.
- 1The tap. Tapware is on the WaterMark Schedule of Products, so a tap needs WaterMark certification before a licensed plumber may install it. Tap equipment used over a fixed sink is also regulated under the WELS water rating scheme. The WaterMark on a tap
- 2The bowl. The sink itself, “kitchen, cleaners, laboratory, pot, tea, bar or utility”, sits on the WaterMark Schedule of Excluded Products, with a note that its waste outlet requires certification.
- 3The strainer and the waste. A sink strainer plug, there “to prevent food waste entering the drainage system”, is listed as not required to be certified. The waste outlet beneath it is another matter (see 2).
- 4The water. The Environmental Health Standing Committee (enHealth) suggests using the cold tap for drinking and cooking, and letting it run for 10 seconds or more at the start of each day. Lead-free tapware and flushing
- 5The pipes. Plumbing licensing is regulated by each state and territory, and the WaterMark scheme’s consumer page says to check with your local plumbing authority that a plumber is licensed for the job. Who can connect a sink
The guides
Six tiles, six questions
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Tile 01 · Water ratings
What the stars on a kitchen tap mean
The WELS label, its flow bands in litres a minute, and why the scheme suggests a middling rating for the kitchen.
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Tile 02 · Certification
The WaterMark on a tap, and why the sink skips it
What a certified tap carries, where to check it, and the short list of sink parts that need no mark at all.
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Tile 03 · Lead
Lead-free tapware: the limit and the dates
The 0.25% limit, the timeline to 1 May 2028, and the morning flushing habit enHealth suggests.
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Tile 04 · Licensing
Who can connect a kitchen sink
Three states’ rules set side by side from their own regulators, and where to ask in the other five jurisdictions.
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Tile 05 · Saving water
Saving water at the kitchen sink
Plugs, drips, mixer handles and flow controllers, with the figures the government’s own guides give.
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Tile 06 · The phrase
Everything but the kitchen sink
What the idiom means, why its starting point varies by source, and how the sink became a word for plays about ordinary life.
Which rule reaches which part
The sink, part by part
National rules and state and territory rules both reach one kitchen sink. This table sets out the national ones; the states come in the guide to who can connect a sink.
| Part | What the rule says | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen tap | Must be WaterMark certified before installation, as tapware listed on the Schedule of Products, and installed by a licensed plumbing practitioner. | Australian Building Codes Board, through the National Construction Code |
| Kitchen tap | Must be registered under WELS and labelled with its water rating, including in store and online. | The WELS scheme, run by the Australian Government with the states and territories |
| Copper alloy tap in contact with drinking water | From 1 May 2028, needs the Lead Free WaterMark to be installed: a weighted average lead content of not more than 0.25%. States and territories may vary the dates. | Australian Building Codes Board |
| Sink bowl | Excluded from WaterMark certification; its waste outlet requires certification. | Australian Building Codes Board |
| Sink strainer plug | Not required to be certified. | Australian Building Codes Board |
At the tap
First thing in the morning
The Environmental Health Standing Committee, enHealth, lists three measures householders can take to reduce their potential exposure to lead in drinking water:
- use water from the cold tap only for drinking and cooking;
- let the cold tap you drink and cook from run for 10 seconds or more at the start of each day;
- after more than 48 hours away, run it for at least 2 minutes; that flushed water can be collected and used for the washing up.
The same statement says town drinking water in Australia is known to be safe, and that lead can dissolve from some brass fittings when water sits in them for long periods. More in the lead-free tapware guide.
About this guide
A guide, written from the rule books
kitchensink.com.au is a plain-language guide published by Dotto. It names the government bodies that set the rules for taps, sinks and plumbing, and links their own pages. It does not rank brands or shops, and it carries no prices.
The guides are general information, not plumbing, legal or health advice. Rules change, and states and territories can vary national arrangements, as the ABCB notes for the lead free dates, so the linked page of the body that sets a rule is the one to check.