Gas Smell at Home in Melbourne: Exactly What to Do
If you can smell gas right now, stop reading and go to the four steps below. Come back for the rest afterwards.
Do these four things first
1. Don't touch a single switch. Not the light, not the rangehood, not the garage door. Don't unplug anything either — pulling a plug makes a spark just as easily as pushing a switch. If a light is already on, leave it on.
2. Open what you can on the way out. Doors, windows, anything that lets air through. Energy Safe Victoria's advice is to ventilate the area and keep people away from it. Don't spend time on this — open what's on your path to the door.
3. Get everyone outside, and take your phone with you. Make the call from the footpath or the driveway, not the kitchen.
4. Call.
If the smell is strong, you feel unwell, or you can hear gas escaping — call 000.
Otherwise, call the gas faults line: 132 691. That's Multinet Gas, the network that supplies Melbourne's eastern suburbs — Blackburn, Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Mitcham and everywhere in between. It's a 24-hour line and it's free. If you're outside the east, the number is printed on your gas bill.
Turning the gas off at the meter
If you can get to the meter safely — it's usually on an external wall or in a meter box near the front of the property — turn the main valve a quarter turn so the handle sits across the pipe rather than along it. That's off.
Energy Safe Victoria's wording is "only if safe to do so", and that qualifier is doing real work. If the smell is strongest near the meter, if the meter is inside a closed space, or if you'd have to walk back through the house to reach it, don't. Leave it and let the network do it. Nobody has ever regretted skipping this step.
What not to do, and why
The reason for the no-switches rule is that a light switch makes a small electrical arc every time it moves. So does a fridge thermostat, a plug being pulled, and a garage door motor. Natural gas needs a surprisingly small amount of energy to ignite once it's mixed with air in the right proportion.
For the same reason: no matches, no lighters, no candles, and don't try to find the leak with a flame. Soapy water on the joints is the safe version of that idea, and it's worth knowing — but do it after the immediate danger has passed, not instead of leaving.
What happens next
The network's job is to make the property safe and stop gas escaping. That's where their responsibility ends. They will not repair your internal pipework or your appliance, and they may cap the supply and leave it capped.
Getting the gas back on means a licensed gasfitter has to find the fault, repair it, pressure-test the installation and issue a compliance certificate. That's not optional paperwork — in Victoria, gas work of this kind requires a certificate regardless of what the job cost, and your insurer will want to see it if the leak ever caused damage.
It's also why you should ask to see a licence number before anyone touches a gas fitting in your house. Mine is #107733 and you can check it against the register in about a minute.
What actually causes this
Most of the gas smells I get called to in Melbourne's east fall into four groups:
An appliance that hasn't been serviced. Gas heaters in particular. The connection loosens, or a seal perishes, and you get a faint smell near the unit that comes and goes.
Old threaded joints. A lot of the eastern suburbs' housing stock is post-war, and the original gas runs were assembled with jointing compound that hardens and shrinks over decades.
Something that got knocked. A bayonet point behind a heater, a meter connection clipped by a wheelbarrow, a line disturbed during a renovation.
A pilot light that's out. Not a leak at all — just unburnt gas from an appliance that's failed to relight. Still worth a call.
The faint intermittent smell is the one people live with for months. It shouldn't be. A leak that's small today is a leak that's getting bigger, and finding it properly takes a licensed gasfitter about an hour.
If you're in Melbourne's east
I'm Newton — licensed plumber and gasfitter #107733, fifteen years on the tools, working across Blackburn, Box Hill, Burwood, Glen Waverley, Mitcham, Vermont and the surrounding suburbs. No call centre, no subcontractors. You get me.
Call or text 0414 951 362. If it's an emergency, call 000 or 132 691 first — then call me. For anything that can't wait until morning, see emergency plumbing.