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These two agi pipes bring water from the front garden. A drop of .5-1.5m front to back.
Soil is solid clay. From this discharge point next to the fence the yard drops a further meter to the back fence.
I was thinking of draining the water towards the citrus tree. But water logging is a high risk.
Or drop a leaching tank into the ground. But given the soil profile you can see in this hole below from elsewhere in this garden it’s clay all the way. So I suspect water dispersion from the leaching tank may not be successful. Unless the hole is oversized and filled with gypsum and soil. Is this the best permanent solution?
Advice and practical ideas very welcome please.
There are definitely solutions here, some are more resource-intensive than others.
Create a reservoir and pump the water to the storm drain up the hill by going around behind the pergola and along the back fence uphill to the storm drain.
Running pipe under that concrete path and install another sump this side of the shed before connecting to the storm drain. Requires a reservoir container, and a pump.
I tried installing solid pipe to slotted pipe, well that doesn't work, of course. And water doesn't like running uphill by itself either especially when the pipe behind it is slotted, it leaks lol.
The key issues are the quantity of water and the dispersal of the water. Ok, so the quantity is a constant flow pretty much because when watering the front yard, most is collected as run-off because of the high clay content across the property. Despite us adding a layer of soil, it simply isn't enough to absorb the water, nor is adding gypsum as we have done throughout.
In one area under a heavy-duty vertical screen, I dug out 11/2 ft or 45cm down and filled it with compost soil, to create a garden bed. Damn hard work actually as the clay is lovely and sticky and filled with rocks, overflow concrete, scoria, etc. Nasty job. Got an Air-tasker to help 
But this is now a proper garden bed that will absorb water.
Back in the back yard, we dug holes for the citrus, again using good soil and gypsum before planting. But the rest of the backyard is hardened clay with weeds. We took off the weed layer and simply covered it with mulch.
The directions of fall in the backyard are from front to back fence, and from left to right. approx half a meter fall towards the back right corner. There is no easement and the storm drain is located behind that shed, as said earlier.
Imagine saying 'well John, in that backyard, you are going to have to remove the mulch. Then dig one foot of clay and remove it. Then you can fill it by adding 1/1/2 ft of soil, to create a proper growing surface. And drainage will be better as the new area created will absorb water readily.
I am still thinking that the pattern that you have drawn is the way to channel the water for max spread, the question is how to bring the water around like that. Agi slotted sock pipe collects water it doesn't disperse it. And the clay will not drain the water, it will pond. Hence.... here I am.
Oh, and the water pond I've dug there is attracting wasps... to the muddy water that smells...
Thanks everyone for your suggestions and time to help me with this, I am very grateful.
Hi @John57,
If water is directed into a slotted ag-line, it will then leak out of it through the slots along the length. It's not just a one-way system where it only collects, hence my suggestion of using it to distribute. However, it sounds as if you're not confident that even if the water was distributed evenly that it would be absorbed in at all.
I think your best option is a large soak pit that potentially is deeper than the clay layer. You might like to check out our post hole diggers as they would help get you past that clay.
Mitchell
I can try agi drain as a dispersal pipe
and yes I’m not convinced that sitting agi pipe into clay soil will achieve anything
looks like a civil engineering problem 🧐
G’day Mitch and Dear Readers
I am updating this situation and post photos of the final solution adopted.
I had a agi drain installed to channel the water down the slope and out under the fence away from the neighbors yard. Water flows into the reserve to the garden there.
The earlier situation where I had dug a channel towards an orange tree located adjacent to the where the peach tree is now killed the orange tree. Basically too much water. And I’d tried to fix that by digging another channel from the orange tree back to the fence. I’d made a River! That again gave too much water to the tree. So I had to get a proper agi drain professionally installed. Removed the dead orange tree and back fill the hole with clay. Then dug a fresh hole adjacent for the peach tree preparing that with layers of gypsum, soil, fertilizer and created a raised plant that you see there now, protected by sugar cane.
Hope someone finds this useful.
Hello @John57
Thank you so much for the update. It's good to see that you've found a solution to your water runoff. Has your drainage solution been put to the test yet? I don't know if you've had some heavy rains in your area, but I'm sure our members are keen to hear if you're still getting puddles in your garden.
Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to hearing that your garden is nice and dry.
Eric
