Switchboards & safety
Go and look at your switchboard
If you see round ceramic fuses, or there’s no row of switches with TEST buttons, your house has no earth leakage protection. That’s the thing that stops a shock becoming a fatality.
Which board have you got?
Ceramic fuses, no safety switches
Pre-1980s. Rewirable fuses with fuse wire, often in a wooden enclosure. No RCD protection at all, and typically only three or four circuits for the whole house.
Circuit breakers, one or two RCDs
1990s to mid-2000s. Better, but usually only power and light circuits are protected — and when one RCD covers half the house, a fault takes out everything on it.
RCBO on every circuit
Post-2010 or recently upgraded. Each circuit has its own combined breaker and earth leakage protection. This is current best practice.
Also worth doing on an older Brisbane house
Smoke alarm compliance
Queensland law now requires interconnected photoelectric alarms in every bedroom and hallway. Mandatory for rentals and on sale.
Surge protection
Brisbane storm season puts serious spikes on the network. A board-level surge diverter protects everything downstream of it.
Pre-purchase electrical check
Board condition, cable type in the roof, earthing, and whether past work was done by a licensed electrician. Photographed and written up.