--- title: "Is Dial Before You Dig Free? What BYDA Plans Cover" description: "Lodging a Before You Dig Australia enquiry is free. Here is what the free plans cover, what they leave out, and what a Queensland site still needs." canonical: "https://www.vac-it.com.au/post/is-dial-before-you-dig-free-what-happens-next" last_modified: "2026-09-04" language: "en-AU" --- # Is Dial Before You Dig Free? What BYDA Plans Cover Published: 2026-09-04 Author: VACIT Lodging a Before You Dig Australia enquiry is free. Here is what the free plans cover, what they leave out, and what a Queensland site still needs. ## The short answer Yes. Lodging the enquiry is free. Before You Dig Australia states plainly that “it is FREE to lodge a BYDA enquiry”. Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) is a national referral service. You describe your dig site, BYDA notifies the asset owners registered in that area, and those owners send you their plans. The qualification matters as much as the answer. BYDA also states that “in some instances, infrastructure asset owners may charge for the supply of infrastructure information”. And the free plans are not a map of where the services are. They show that something is in the vicinity. Everything that turns “in the vicinity” into “here, at this depth” happens on site. ## Key takeaways - Lodging a BYDA enquiry costs nothing, and should be done at least one business day before work starts. - BYDA does not send the plans. Asset owners do, and they may charge for supplying information in some instances. - Plans indicate that infrastructure is in the vicinity of your site. They do not pinpoint its exact location. - Queensland’s excavation duty asks for the location of underground services including their depth, which is more than a plan showing vicinity can settle. - The name changed. Dial Before You Dig became Before You Dig Australia on 1 July 2022. ## On this page - [How the free enquiry actually works](#how-the-free-enquiry-actually-works) - [Where the costs start](#where-the-costs-start) - [What is Dial Before You Dig called now](#what-is-dial-before-you-dig-called-now) - [What the plans do not tell you](#what-the-plans-do-not-tell-you) - [What Queensland law asks for](#what-queensland-law-asks-for) - [What happens next on site](#what-happens-next-on-site) - [Planning a Queensland dig](#planning-a-queensland-dig) - [Sources reviewed](#sources-reviewed) ## How the free enquiry actually works You lodge the location and extent of your proposed work through the [BYDA website](https://www.byda.com.au/). BYDA then notifies the registered asset owners whose infrastructure may be affected, and those owners send you their plans and information packs directly. A BYDA plan is an asset owner’s own record of what it has in the area, supplied in response to your enquiry. The lead time is short but it is not instant. BYDA’s own best practice guidance is to “always lodge a free BYDA utility plan request at least one business day before starting your project”. Where several asset owners are involved, allowing more than the minimum leaves time to read the plans before the crew is on site. Consider a job lodged the day before the start, with several asset owners in the area. The minimum lead time is met and the job may still not be ready to dig, because a set of plans is only complete once every notified owner has replied. One point catches people out: if the plans do not arrive, BYDA is not the one to chase. As BYDA puts it, “the plans are not issued by Before You Dig Australia, they are sent out by the asset owners”. The contact details are on your enquiry confirmation sheet, and following up is on you. ## Where the costs start Two things sit outside the free enquiry. The first is the information itself, in some cases. BYDA answers that asset owners may charge for supplying infrastructure information in some instances. The free service is the referral, not a guarantee that every asset owner supplies at no cost. The second is everything that happens on the ground. BYDA does not locate services on your site. Its own best practice guidance is to “consider hiring a skilled locator or one recommended by the asset owner” where assets are in the vicinity and you cannot locate them. Hiring is the operative word: that is work you arrange, and no free plan replaces it. ## What is Dial Before You Dig called now Before You Dig Australia. The state and national Dial Before You Dig entities became a single organisation, and the name change took effect on 1 July 2022, with the word “Dial” dropped. If you last lodged an enquiry under the old name, lodge through the current portal rather than an old bookmark. ## What the plans do not tell you This is where free plans get misread. BYDA puts it this way: “plans provided by the asset owner only indicate the presence of infrastructure assets within the vicinity of the project site; they do not pinpoint the exact location.” Three further limits sit alongside that one. **Not every asset owner is a member:** BYDA warns that “not all of Australia’s infrastructure asset owners are BYDA Members and assumptions should not be made that the plans received represent the only assets affected by your project site”. A complete-looking set of plans is not, on BYDA’s own advice, a complete picture of the site. **Plans expire:** They carry an expiry date on the plan or information pack, and once expired a new enquiry has to be lodged. A set pulled for a job that slipped past that date is not a current set. **They record general locations, not measurements:** That is BYDA’s own description of what asset owners hold, and it is why a plan cannot be scaled off to find an asset. ## What Queensland law asks for Queensland’s [Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011](https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/sl-2011-0240) puts a duty on the “person with management or control of the workplace”. Section 304 requires that person to “take all reasonable steps to obtain current underground essential services information about the areas mentioned in subsection (1) before directing or allowing the excavation work to commence”. They must also provide that information to anyone engaged to carry out the work. The definition in the same section is the part worth reading twice. Underground essential services information means, among other things, “the location, including the depth, of any pipes, cables or other plant associated with the affected essential services”. Location including depth. BYDA plans, by BYDA’s own description, give vicinity without exact location. Setting the two side by side shows what the free step leaves open. | What a BYDA plan gives you | What section 304 names | | --- | --- | | Presence of infrastructure “within the vicinity of the project site” | “The essential services that may be affected” | | General locations, not precise measurements | “The location, including the depth” of the pipes, cables or plant | | Whatever conditions the asset owner noted on the plan | “Any conditions on the proposed excavation work” | | A record carrying an expiry date | Information that is current when work is allowed to start | Nothing in the left column is wrong or unnecessary. It is the practical starting point and the step everything after it depends on. It is simply not the same object as the right column, and site work is what closes the difference. ## What happens next on site BYDA sets out the sequence as plan, prepare, pothole, protect, then proceed. Lodging the enquiry is the plan step. Everything after it is yours to arrange. Prepare. BYDA’s own wording for this step is to review the utility plans, contact the asset owners if you need assistance, “look for onsite asset clues such as pit lids, marker posts and meters”, and “engage a skilled locator who can assist you in locating assets electronically before potholing”. Locating sits inside Prepare, ahead of any potholing. Pothole. BYDA’s wording is conditional: “pothole, if permitted, using the asset owner’s stated method as specified on the plans and information pack”. The asset owner decides the method. [What potholing involves before excavation](https://www.vac-it.com.au/post/what-is-potholing-before-excavation) covers this step properly, including where [vacuum excavation](https://www.vac-it.com.au/services/vacuum-excavation) fits. Protect and proceed. Barricade and mark what has been exposed, tell the crew what was found, then start the wider dig. For the locating work, [VACIT provides full service locating](https://www.vac-it.com.au/services/service-locating) and full utility mapping across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and South East Queensland. ## Planning a Queensland dig Whether the plans have arrived or you are still working out what the job needs, the question that follows is who confirms what is actually in the ground. Talk to VACIT about locating your site. Call 0439 761 096, or send the site location, any plans you have received, the areas you need looked at, and any access constraints when you [request a quote](https://www.vac-it.com.au/request-a-quote). You can also find [VACIT’s Google listing](https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=ChIJwWrNfAxpkWsRR12_XlINk9I). **General information only:** This article is not legal, engineering, locating, or work health and safety advice. Follow current legislation, the asset owner’s instructions, and the controls set by the people responsible for the workplace and the excavation. ## Sources reviewed Before You Dig Australia, [home page](https://www.byda.com.au/). Used for the referral mechanism, the notification of relevant asset owners, and the online enquiry portal. Retrieved 4 September 2026. Before You Dig Australia, [FAQs](https://www.byda.com.au/faqs/). Used for the free lodgement statement, possible asset owner charges, plan expiry, who issues plans, the skilled locator referral, the enquiry confirmation sheet contacts, the statement that asset owners record general locations rather than precise measurements, and BYDA’s referral-only role. Retrieved 4 September 2026. Before You Dig Australia, [Best Practice Guides](https://www.byda.com.au/before-you-dig/best-practice-guides/). Used for the one business day lead time, the vicinity limitation, non-member asset owners, the verbatim Prepare step including engaging a skilled locator before potholing, the “consider hiring a skilled locator” wording, the conditional potholing wording, the Protect step, and the plan, prepare, pothole, protect, proceed sequence. Retrieved 4 September 2026. Before You Dig Australia, [Latest News, May 2022](https://www.byda.com.au/2022/05/04/latest-news/). Used for the effective date of the name change, “the change will take effect officially on the 1st of July 2022”, and for the decision to “drop the Dial”. Retrieved 4 September 2026. Before You Dig Australia, [Transformation from DBYD to BYDA](https://www.byda.com.au/2022/03/17/transformation-from-dbyd-to-byda/). Used for the merger of the state and national DBYD entities into a single organisation. Retrieved 4 September 2026. Queensland Government, [Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, section 304](https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/sl-2011-0240). Used for the duty to obtain and provide current underground essential services information, and for the definition naming location including depth. Retrieved 4 September 2026. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Dial Before You Dig free in Australia? Lodging the enquiry is free anywhere in Australia. Asset owners may charge for supplying information in some cases, and any on-site locating or potholing is separate work with its own cost. ### I am a homeowner, not a contractor. Does any of this apply to me? The enquiry is free for anyone, and the free plans have the same limits whoever requested them. What changes is who carries the duty. Section 304 puts it on the person with management or control of the workplace. If you have engaged someone to do the work, the arrangements for locating are part of what you agree with them. If you are digging yourself, the plans have told you something is in the vicinity and nothing about where, so the question of how you confirm that is still yours to answer. ### Does it cost money to dial before you dig? Not to lodge. Asset owners may charge for supplying information in some cases, and the costs that follow are for the work the enquiry cannot do: locating and exposing services on your site. ### What is Dial Before You Dig now called? Before You Dig Australia, or BYDA, since 1 July 2022. ### Do I still need locating if the plans show nothing near my site? Plans indicate assets in the vicinity and not every owner is a member, so an empty plan is not a clearance. Under section 304 the person with management or control of the workplace must take all reasonable steps to obtain current information and must provide it to anyone they engage to do the excavation, and both that person and any business given the information must have regard to it. ## Contact VACIT - Phone: [0439 761 096](tel:0439761096) - Email: [info@vac-it.com.au](mailto:info@vac-it.com.au) - Online enquiry: [Request a quote](https://www.vac-it.com.au/request-a-quote) ## Sitemap - [Browse all VACIT pages](https://www.vac-it.com.au/sitemap.md)