Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep, 600mm here in NSW as well.... and "taped" to indicate buried power...

Can be less, but must be concreted over the top...

Actually its 500mm for depth, with a marker tape not more than 200mm above the conduit.
If under a continuous concrete paved area with minimum thickness of 75mm its reduced to 300mm depth.
The above is only if installed in heavy duty conduit, or various armored cables.

If use orange flexible conduit, medium duty conduit or direct buried additional protection is required.
Continuous concrete having a thickness of not less than 75 mm.
Cable cover strip - Special marked orange PVC strip about 200mm wide.
Plus some other cement and special brick options I don't remember but have never seen used.

Obviously 600mm is better and most electrical inspectors I have dealt with will start the measurement at natural ground level. ie they will scrape away any mulch etc.

While it may cost more personally I would not piggyback off an existing circuit with god knows what running off it. The more equipment on a circuit the easier for a trip to occur. Have a fault at the pond and not only lose your fish but also all your food in the fridge?

Any electrical equipment in a swimming pool, spa, paddling pool, fountain or water feature is required to be on residual earth leakage, (RCD). I leave you to decide if your pond could be classed as the above.
There is a couple ways around this using extra low voltage and isolating transformers.

Sorry for the wall of text, tried to simplify as much as possible.

I got told 300mm for the trench.... better make it 500mm. I think I will get the/a sparky to connect at both ends. Got all sorts of safety switches at our house, but only enough room for one more on the board - that one will have to go to the backroom lights as one nearly set our house on fire.

Work is going slowly on the system as I don't have much time to spare - especially as I just got 6 broiler chicks and 10 eggs for the bantam to sit on. I've been busy preparing for them and doing my normal hectic schedule. Hopefully I'll have time to go to the big B this weekend and pick up some stuff. Not rolling in money at the moment as have needed a few things so it will be going slow and steady. At least I can dig a trench.
Kids are learning to deal with the fact that the living chickens become the type of chicken that you eat (and that their mummy slipped some snails into the dinner last night ). By the time we get fish they will be very blase about catching their dinner.

The only way to do it Fey Wind... Good to see kids learning where their food comes from.

Well.... digging trench. Took a browse through Energy Australia's regulations, and it looks like 600mm is the go . After much slogging I calculated how much earth I'd be moving to help keep me motivated. 10cmx60cmx about 15m = about 1m3 That's almost as much as my pond!

Anyway, been digging this and hit a pipe. Fortunately just a stormwater pipe which drains into a gravel pit. So I will patch that with silastic and flashing (my neighbour had to have his sewer pipe cleared of roots and the plumber did this to seal up the access hole) and if there is any leakage, I've sorted out that I will dig a bit wider in one area (before the powerpoint) and fill with gravel.

The current plan is to put an out door power point (which I bought from B for $40 and has a 5m extension cord) near the pond and re-wire it to a 20m extension lead. All up it will cost $94. This project is getting expensive.... and I still haven't located the locator tape.

Oh well, aquaponics is worth it.