The antenna on your new Bunbury home.
You moved in on Friday, plugged the TV into the wall plate on Saturday, and got nothing. It is not a fault. In most new WA homes that plate has never been connected to anything, because the antenna was never in the build.
Why the wall plate in your new house does nothing.
This is the most common call we get from the growth estates, and the answer is always the same. Most WA project builders rough in coax from the roof space down to one or two wall plates and finish there. The plate exists. The cable exists. There is nothing on the roof, nothing joined at the top end, and nothing tuned. From the lounge room it looks like a fault. It is not, it is the scope of the contract you signed, and the antenna was either a tick-box upgrade you did not take or it was never offered. The good news is that when the builder has run the coax properly, the hard and expensive part of the job is already done and finishing it is a straightforward visit.
Read the builder upgrade before you tick it.
If the antenna is offered as a contract upgrade, look at what it actually specifies rather than the price. In our experience these packages are a standard galvanised antenna fitted by whichever contractor was cheapest that month. Inland, at Millbridge or Picton, that is a perfectly reasonable antenna and it will last fifteen years. On a Dalyellup street a few hundred metres from the surf, it is a consumable. AS 4312 puts the surf-facing strips of this coast in the harshest atmospheric corrosivity bands in Australia, and a galvanised antenna in that environment is realistically five to seven years before the elements and fixings are structurally finished. You will be replacing it while you are still paying off the house. If the upgrade specification does not use the words marine-grade, stainless and sealed, you are not buying the antenna you think you are.
Get the sequence right.
- Wait for handover. Before handover the roof belongs to the builder. Sending our installer up there during the build is a warranty argument and an insurance problem, and no builder thanks you for it.
- Do it all in one visit. Antenna, lead-in, every set tuned, and any wall mounting together. A single mobilisation is much cheaper than three.
- Mount before the furniture arrives. If a TV is going on the wall, the cheapest time in the life of that house to conceal the cabling is right now, while the walls are bare and nothing has to be moved.
- Say what the builder ran. Tell us how many plates there are and where. If the coax is in, the quote drops. If it is not, we price the points properly rather than surprising you.
- Check the earth. AS 1417 requires the mast bonded and earthed. On a brand-new house it is easy to do right and nobody ever checks it afterwards.
A worked example from a new estate.
A recent Dalyellup handover, single storey, Colorbond roof, builder coax to the lounge and one bedroom, and a 65-inch TV to go on the lounge wall. Because of the street’s distance to the surf we fitted a marine-grade array with stainless fixings and sealed connectors rather than the standard head, connected and weather-sealed the builder lead-in, earthed the mast to AS 1417 and tuned both plates: $460. The wall mount with the cabling concealed in the stud wall, done in the same visit while the room was still empty, added $280. Total $740, fixed in writing, one visit, and an antenna that should still be there in fifteen years. The builder upgrade on that contract was cheaper on paper and specified a galvanised head.
Reception in the new estates is not the problem.
Worth saying plainly, because people worry about the wrong thing. The newer estates around Bunbury are generally easy for reception. Treendale, Millbridge, the newer Dalyellup releases and the Eaton growth pockets are open cleared land with a reasonable path to the Mount Lennard transmitter, and a standard array with no amplifier is usually more than enough. The genuinely hard reception around here is the old stuff: treed Gelorup blocks under mature tuart, and pockets shadowed behind the scarp. So in a new estate the question is almost never how do I get a signal. It is what hardware survives on this street, and that is a salt question, not a signal one.
Where to go next.
For full 2026 numbers see the pricing guide and the antenna installation cost guide. If you want extra outlets beyond what the builder ran, the extra TV points guide explains what drives the cost and why splitting matters. To sanity-check any contractor, including the builder’s, read how to choose an antenna installer in Bunbury. Book an antenna installation through the quote form. We cover Dalyellup, Eaton, Australind and the wider South West.
Common questions about antennas on new builds.
Does a new home in Bunbury come with an antenna?
Almost never as standard. Most WA project builders rough in the coax to one or two wall plates and stop there. The antenna itself, the mast, the lead-in and the tuning are either an upgrade item on your contract or they are not included at all. Plenty of families move into a new Treendale or Dalyellup house, plug in the TV and find the wall plate is dead because there is nothing on the roof feeding it.
Should I take the builder antenna upgrade?
Read what it actually specifies before you sign. Builder antenna packages are usually a standard galvanised antenna fitted by whoever is cheapest that month, which is fine inland and a poor choice within a couple of kilometres of the ocean. If the specification does not say marine-grade with stainless fixings and sealed connectors, you are buying a five to seven year antenna for a house you plan to live in for twenty.
When should the antenna go on a new build?
After handover, not before, and there is a good reason. Before handover the roof still belongs to the builder, so sending an installer up there creates an insurance and warranty argument nobody needs. The right sequence is: take handover, get the antenna fitted and every set tuned in one visit, and do any wall mounting at the same time while the walls are still bare and the cabling is easy to hide.
How much is an antenna on a new Bunbury house?
A single-storey new build with builder coax already in the walls is usually $280 to $450, because the hard part is done and we are fitting the antenna, the lead-in and the tuning. A double-storey or a coastal home needing marine-grade hardware runs $450 to $650. If the builder ran no coax at all, add the cost of the points, which is $120 to $240 each.
Do the new estates around Bunbury have good reception?
Mostly yes, and better than the old parts of town. The newer estates at Treendale, Millbridge and Dalyellup are on open cleared land with a reasonable line to the Mount Lennard transmitter, so a standard array is usually plenty. The catch is not signal, it is salt. Dalyellup in particular is close enough to the surf that the corrosion category, not the reception, decides what hardware you should be fitting.
New builds across the South West.
Just moved into a new build?
Tell us the estate and how many plates the builder ran. Antenna, tuning and wall mount in one visit.