Bins, mail, indoor plants, a modest garden and keeping the home looking lived in are standard in an Australian house sit. A pool, a large lawn, an irrigation system, a vegetable garden, chickens or acreage are extras, and an extra belongs to the sitter only if the listing named it before they applied. The test is time rather than task: anything costing a scheduled block of hours every week has to be named, timed and agreed in writing, not raised at the door on departure day.
This rarely goes wrong because someone was difficult. It goes wrong because "keep an eye on the garden" means watering pots to one person and a Saturday of mowing and edging to the other, and both readings are fair.
The line is time, not task
Three questions turn a vague extra into something both sides can weigh, and none of them sound difficult in a first message.
- How often does it happen in a normal week?
- How long does it take once, honestly, including getting the gear out and away again?
- If it breaks, who is called, and what may the sitter spend without asking first?
The third is the one people forget. A pump that stops on day two, or a mower that will not start, has no obvious owner unless somebody wrote down a name and a number. The full standard against negotiable split for every task is in our guide to what a house sitter is actually responsible for. Below are the items that cause the most arguments.
| The item | Usually standard | What tips it into an extra | Settle this first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bins | Out on the night, back in the next day | A bin bay, a shared driveway, or a long walk to the road on acreage | The day, which bin, and which one alternates |
| Mail and parcels | Cleared daily and stacked somewhere agreed | Signing for deliveries, or a business address run from the house | Where mail goes, and what happens to anything urgent |
| Indoor plants and pots | Watering to a written schedule | Thirty pots, a shade house, or a collection that dies if guessed at | Which plants, how often, how much water |
| Garden beds and irrigation | Running an existing timer and reporting a fault | Hand watering beds daily through a hot January | The real minutes per day, and who repairs a failed system |
| Lawn and edges | Nothing on a short sit, one tidy mow on a long one | Weekly mowing, edging and catching, or a block that takes two hours | Whose mower and fuel, how often, the rule after a wet week |
| Pool or spa | Skimming, emptying baskets, checking the pump runs | Chemical testing and dosing, backwashing, reviving a green pool | Whether a pool service already visits, and on what day |
| Tank water, bore, septic, chickens | Reading a gauge and reporting a problem early | Any decision the sitter cannot reverse if it goes wrong | Written instructions, plus one local person to ring |
The pool is the Australian variable that international checklists skip
Pool safety is set by state law, and neither side should assume it is the other's problem. The NSW Government tells pool owners they must at all times keep a child resistant barrier between the pool and the house, keep closed the doors and gates that give access to the pool, and register the pool on the Swimming Pool Register. Queensland is blunter. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission states that anyone who props a pool gate open, or otherwise interferes with a barrier so that it no longer complies, commits an offence under the Building Act 1975 and can be fined or prosecuted.
Read together, that means the owner should not assume the duty travels with the house keys and the sitter should not assume the rules stop at the owner, so check the current position with the pool safety authority in your state. In practice the homeowner checks the gate self closes and self latches from every open position before leaving, not after getting back, and the sitter never props it, keeps furniture and pool toys clear of the fence line, and reports a gate that stops latching on the day.
What is fair to ask of a sitter is the visible work: skimming, emptying the skimmer and pump baskets, checking the pump runs when the timer says it should, and watching the water level. Chemical testing and dosing are not, and this article gives no chemical instructions on purpose. If the water needs balancing while you are away, keep the pool service running or accept that the pool will need attention when you get back, and write the service's name, number and visit day into the notes either way. Whether a hose may be used to top the pool up is a water authority question that differs by state and by year, so check it and write down the answer.
Whether the dog swims, and whether it can find the steps unaided, belongs in the handover notes, covered with the rest of the Australian detail in what to leave for a house sitter.
Water restrictions decide when the garden gets watered, and the water authority sets them
Someone who has moved from Hobart to mind a house in Bicton or Bunbury cannot know the local rules, and watering in good faith on the wrong day embarrasses everybody. Western Australia is the clearest case. Water Corporation runs a Winter Sprinkler Switch-off from 1 June to 31 August every year across Perth, Mandurah and parts of the South West and Great Southern, mandatory for households and businesses and covering bore water as well as scheme water. Outside that window, watering days are rostered by address. Every state has a version and none of them match, so the useful line in your notes names the rule for your address and the page to check if it changes.
Summer is the part owners underestimate. A January sit in the Adelaide Hills or western Sydney can mean daily hand watering to keep a garden alive, which belongs in the listing in those words. It is also worth asking whether the garden must survive at its current standard, because a timer, deep mulch and some accepted decline often beats forty minutes a day from someone who is not being paid.
Mowing has a start time in most states, and a big lawn is a job
Grass grows fastest in exactly the months Australians travel, which is where most of these arguments start. A Toowoomba block in February is not a courtyard in Carlton, and "help with the yard" describes neither. There is also a rule most people have never read. In Victoria, the Environment Protection Authority's residential noise regulations put lawn mowers and power tools out of bounds before 7am and after 8pm on weekdays, and before 9am and after 8pm on weekends and public holidays. EPA Victoria administers the regulations and councils investigate complaints. New South Wales sets its own hours, published through the EPA's neighbourhood noise guidance. Someone mowing early on a Sunday to beat the heat can be doing right by your lawn and wrong by your street, so say which mornings suit.
Then four points settle it: whose mower and fuel, how often, what happens after a week of rain when one mow becomes two, and whether a mowing service already comes.
Bins are the smallest job on the list and the one most often missed
Bin night is set by your council and none of it is guessable. Brisbane City Council asks residents to place bins at the kerb by 5.30am on collection day, at least 30cm apart, lids closed and wheels facing the property. The City of Sydney asks for bins out the night before and empties them any time from 6am to 6pm, including public holidays. Two capital city councils, two different instructions, and a sitter who has only ever lived under one of them.
Write down the collection day, which bin goes out, which one alternates and on which week, where the bins live in between, and one neighbour who will know if something looks wrong. On a four week sit a missed fortnightly bin is not a small problem, and it is the sort of thing a sitter will not raise because they assume the mistake was theirs.
Mail comes in daily, does not get opened, and gets redirected on a long trip
An overflowing letterbox is the cheapest advertisement there is that nobody is home, so clearing it is a security task rather than an errand. Ask for it daily and name the spot it gets stacked. A sitter should not open the owner's mail, sign for anything needing the owner's signature unless asked, or action anything that arrives, including a bill that looks overdue. Photograph the envelope, message the owner, let them decide. For a longer trip, Australia Post sells the problem away: its mail redirection and mail hold services start at $30.70 to hold mail for a week, and redirection within Australia runs from $40.50 for a month to $202.50 for twelve months, with proof of identity required, all read on 23 August 2026. Deliveries the sitter orders for themselves are normal on a long sit. Agree it once, and agree that whatever arrives leaves with them.
Keys, codes and the rooms that are off limits
Access is the same failure in different clothes: obvious to the owner, invisible to the sitter. Hand over in person where you can, and walk it through together rather than describing it over the phone.
| The item | The homeowner | The sitter |
|---|---|---|
| Keys | Give only the keys needed, and show the door that sticks | Do not copy or lend them, and keep the address off the keyring |
| Monitored alarm | Ring the monitoring company and add the sitter as authorised for the dates | Learn the code and the false alarm number before the first night |
| Keypads and smart locks | Issue a code unique to the sitter, not access to the whole home app | Ask which code is theirs and use only that one |
| Off limits rooms, sheds, safes, vehicles | Name them in the listing, and lock what should be locked | Ask once, then leave them alone |
| The end of the sit | Collect every key and delete the temporary code | Return every key, in person where practical |
The alarm call is the one worth making. Adding the sitter's name for the dates takes five minutes and prevents the worst first night in house sitting, which is a patrol arriving to find a stranger who cannot prove they belong there. Deleting the temporary code afterwards is ordinary practice, not a verdict on anyone, and experienced sitters expect it. Cameras are a separate conversation and belong in the listing before anyone applies, covered in cameras, police checks and privacy.
If it needs a diary entry, it belongs in the listing
Anything a sitter has to plan their week around, meaning a regular mow, a pool visit, a bin run on acreage or a daily watering round, is a scheduled commitment rather than a courtesy. Put it in the listing with an honest time estimate. You will get fewer applicants and better ones, because they will have read it and said yes to the real job.
Once you agree the list, write it into a house sitting agreement so neither of you is relying on a memory of a conversation at the kitchen bench.
Common questions about house sit extras
- Is a house sitter responsible for mowing the lawn?
- One tidy mow on a long sit is usually treated as standard, along with basic garden care, meaning watering pots and beds to a written schedule. Regular mowing, or a large lawn that takes hours, is a scheduled job and belongs in the listing before anyone applies, with the mower, fuel and frequency named.
- Should a house sitter look after the pool?
- Skimming, emptying the baskets and checking the pump are fair to ask. Chemical testing and dosing are not, and most owners are better off keeping a pool service running while they are away. Pool barrier rules are set by state law rather than by your arrangement: NSW publishes obligations for pool owners, and Queensland treats interfering with a barrier as an offence by anyone, so check the position with your state's pool safety authority.
- Who puts the bins out during a house sit?
- The sitter, in almost every Australian sit, because keeping the home looking lived in is part of the exchange. The homeowner writes down the day, the bin, the alternating week and where the bins go afterwards, since council sets it and it differs street to street.
- Can a house sitter open the owner's mail?
- No. Bring it in daily, stack it somewhere agreed, and photograph anything urgent or official so the owner can decide. Past a month, an Australia Post redirection or hold is simpler than asking a sitter to guard a growing pile.
This article is general information about setting expectations for an Australian house sit, not legal advice. Pool barrier requirements, water restrictions and noise rules are set by your state or territory, your water authority and your council, so check the current position for your own address.
Your next step
The quickest way to see whether the extras have been declared is to read the listings. Browse the open sits and look for the ones naming the mower, the pool service, the watering round and the bin night, because a homeowner who wrote those down has already had this conversation. How Sitterly works covers the rest: listing is free for homeowners, no money changes hands for the sit, and there is no per booking commission. We do not vet or approve members, supervise sits or mediate disputes.
“Sitterly supports the connection. Homeowners and sitters remain responsible for their own arrangements.”
- Sitterly, About page
