Questions people ask us

A standard visit is a mow, the edges, and a blow-down of the hard surfaces.

The mower cuts every lawn area, trims the edges along paths, fences and garden beds, and blows the clippings off your paths and driveway. Anything more, like weeding, hedges or taking green waste away, is an extra. You agree extras with the mower in chat before the visit, so the price on the bid is the price you pay.

A typical 165 m² Melbourne lawn gets bids of about $95 to $135 for a one-off standard visit.

The price moves with three things: how big the lawn is, how long the grass has grown, and how easy the yard is to get into. Regular customers pay about 10% less per visit. Every Mowie listing shows a live price guide, measured from your own lawn, before any bids arrive, so you know what a fair bid looks like.

Yes, Mowie is free for homeowners.

Listing your lawn, comparing bids and booking cost nothing. Mowers pay a 10% + GST* commission, and only when they get paid for a job. There is no fee to join and no fee to bid.

No, you don't need to be home.

Tell us how to get into the yard in the notes: the side gate, a code, or a dog to watch out for. Only the mower you hire sees your address and gate code. When the job is done they send you a photo of the finished lawn.

You are charged after you approve the photo of the finished lawn, never at booking.

Your card is saved when you hire a mower. Nothing is taken then. After the mow, the mower sends a photo. You approve it and the card is charged. If you don't answer within 48 hours of the photo arriving, the job approves itself so the mower gets paid. You can still raise an issue after that.

Don't approve the photo. Raise an issue from the job page instead.

Add a photo of the problem. The mower gets the first go at coming back to fix it. If that doesn't sort it, a person at Mowie hears from both of you and decides before anything is charged. The outcome is one of three: the full price, a lower price that you and the mower both agree to, or no charge if the work wasn't done. This process is about the quality of the mow. Damage to your property is handled separately. A damage claim is between you and the mower or their insurer. We tell the mower first, give the two of you 2 business days to sort it out, then give you their business and insurance details. If you tell us before you approve, we hold the payment while the claim is open. That is why the Insured badge is worth looking for. Australian Consumer Law also gives you rights when a service isn't done with proper care, and nothing here takes those away.

Some are, and you can tell which ones: mowers with a current public liability certificate show an Insured badge on their bids.

Every mower on Mowie has their ABN checked against the Australian Business Register and their identity verified by Stripe. Insured mowers rank higher in the list. If you hire a mower without the badge, we say so plainly at checkout and ask you to confirm. Mowie itself doesn't insure a mower's work.

Yes. Pick weekly, fortnightly or every four weeks when you list.

After a one-off you can also tap 'make it regular' on the receipt. You can skip, pause or cancel any time from your dashboard. There is no lock-in and no minimum number of visits.

Yes, from the job page, as long as the mower isn't on the way yet.

Once the mower has arrived and started, the job is charged after the photo like any other visit.

We open one cluster of suburbs at a time across Melbourne, so every listing gets real bids.

So far that is Mill Park / Plenty Valley, Wyndham corridor, Hume / Moonee Valley, Box Hill / Ringwood / Knox, Dandenong / Casey / Monash, Merri-bek / Darebin, Banyule / Nillumbik / Manningham, Brimbank / Melton, Inner west, Stonnington / Yarra, Boroondara, Yarra Ranges foothills, Cranbourne / Officer corridor, Glen Eira / Bayside / Kingston, Frankston / Peninsula. Check the suburbs page for yours. If we're not there yet, list anyway. We'll email you the day we switch your suburb on.

Yes, if you self-manage your NDIS funding: you pay by card like any customer and claim it back with the receipt.

The receipt shows the mower's business name and ABN, the date and the amount. Say an NDIS plan is paying when you list and the receipt also names the participant and describes the support. If you have a plan manager, say so too: mowers then bid by the hour, no card is charged, and the mower's invoice goes to your plan manager, who pays the mower. Funding the NDIA manages itself can't be booked through Mowie. Mowie's fee comes off the mower's side, so the receipt is the whole price. Mowie is a general lawn mowing marketplace, not an NDIS provider, and it never handles plan funds. The NDIS lawn mowing guide has the 2026-27 hourly rate, the code and what each kind of plan can pay.

In Melbourne, fortnightly in spring and summer, and every three to four weeks in winter.

Grass grows faster in warm months and slower in cold ones, so the gap changes with the season. The real rule is to never cut off more than a third of the blade in one go. If the lawn is getting away from you between visits, mow more often rather than mowing lower. A regular visit also costs 10 to 15% less than a one-off, so the tidier schedule is usually the cheaper one too.

A typical 165 m² suburban lawn takes 40 to 60 minutes for the full service.

That covers mowing, the edges along paths and fences, and blowing off the hard surfaces. A small courtyard is 20 to 30 minutes. A 350 m² corner block is closer to an hour and a half. Overgrown lawns take much longer, which is why a first cut costs more. These times come from the jobs done through Mowie and from the mowers on it.

Often, yes. List your lawn in the morning and the mowers in your suburb see it straight away.

Each bid shows the mower's earliest day. In our launch suburbs, same-day or next-day is common outside the spring rush. Say it's urgent in your notes and the mowers with a gap that day will find you.

Look for four things: real reviews, photos of their work, public liability insurance, and a fixed price agreed before anyone starts.

Reviews should come from paid jobs, not a comment from a mate on Facebook. On Mowie all four sit on the bid itself. Only customers who paid through the platform can leave a review. Insured mowers carry a badge. The bid is the price.

Some do, but mowing is usually not their main job, so it costs more.

A landscaper's hourly rate reflects design and construction work. Paying that rate for a fortnightly mow is like hiring a chef to make toast. Mowing operators are set up for it, with the right gear and a tight round of nearby jobs, so they can price it lower. Save the landscaper for the retaining wall.

Yes, mow the nature strip: in most Melbourne councils it is the resident's job, and in the City of Whittlesea it is a rule.

Mowers will include it if you ask. It is a line item on a Mowie listing. The neighbour's lawn is a different story. It isn't illegal to mow it, but ask first. People are touchy about surprise gardening, and the strip along the fence is a classic way to start a driveway feud.

Past about 1,000 m² the job usually moves to a ride-on mower at $80 to $120 an hour.

Paddock-length growth means slashing first. Several operators on Mowie run ride-ons across the semi-rural north. Trace the areas you want cut and they will price it properly. On a rural block, the CFA's Fire Danger Period sets when the grass has to be down. The acreage mowing guide covers costs and fire-season timing.

Nothing to join and nothing to bid.

You pay 10% + GST on each job you get paid for. On a $110 mow that is $11. Stripe's card processing fee comes out as well. Founding partners who join by 31 December 2026 pay 0% for 3 months from their first paid job. After that their 10% + GST is locked until 31 December 2027.

Yes. A sole trader ABN is fine.

If you don't have one, it is free at abr.gov.au and is usually issued on the spot. The form takes about 15 minutes. Skip the websites that charge to 'register your ABN' for you. They are middlemen. We check your ABN against the public register when you join. You don't need to register for GST until you turn over $75,000 a year, so don't charge it before then.

18 or over to hold a Mowie account.

You are contracting directly with customers and being paid for it, so we ask for your date of birth and Stripe verifies your ID. There is no upper age limit.

Yes, through you. A parent or guardian who is 18 or over holds the account, the ABN and the payouts.

The 15 to 17-year-old does the mowing, with you supervising the first jobs. Push mowers only. Victoria's child employment rules apply to under-15s, which is why 15 is our floor. See the family crew page for the house rules and to register your family.

Not to join. It becomes a condition of bidding after 10 paid jobs.

Upload a current public liability certificate with its expiry date and you get an Insured badge. You rank higher in 'recommended' and customers can hire you without an extra warning at checkout. It costs most sole traders a dollar or two a day. When the 10-job point is coming up, the app gives you at least 14 days' notice.

By bank transfer through Stripe Express, about 2 business days after the customer approves the photo.

Stripe is the same payouts system Uber and Airbnb use in Australia. Stripe verifies your ID and holds your bank details. Mowie never sees them. If the customer goes quiet, the job approves itself 48 hours after the photo, and the payout clock starts then.

Always. You bid what you like and the customer chooses.

We show a suggested bid built from the measured lawn, its condition, and what is winning nearby. It is a guide, not a rule.

Every new listing in the suburbs you cover lands in your feed and as a text message with a link to the full brief.

The brief shows the measured square metres, edges, photos, gate, dog, slope and timing. You can bid from the text in one tap.

Yes. You don't need to be a registered NDIS provider to mow for a participant who self-manages or has a plan manager.

Registration is only needed when the NDIA manages the funding itself. You do need your ABN, and the NDIS Code of Conduct applies to you whether you're registered or not. Once your Stripe payouts are set up you can switch on NDIS-funded jobs in your profile. On a plan-managed listing you bid an hourly rate at or under the NDIS price limit, your invoice goes to the plan manager, and the plan manager pays you. We charge the commission after that, with no card fee, and take it from your next card-paid payout. The commission is the same 10% + GST as on any job, and it comes off your side. What you can charge and how the invoice works is in NDIS lawn mowing jobs.

No. Commission applies only to jobs you win through Mowie.

Your existing round is yours, and so is any customer who finds you some other way.

If they go quiet, the job approves itself after 48 hours and you are paid.

If they raise an issue, you are offered a return visit first. If that doesn't settle it, a person at Mowie decides, normally within 24 hours of both of you responding. You both get the outcome and the reason in writing. A lower price only happens if you and the customer both agree to it. Payment isn't released until it is sorted, but you are never left waiting on silence.

Solo with decent gear, 8 to 12 maintained suburban lawns is a good day.

Past that, how close the jobs are matters more than how fast you mow. Travel is the killer. Ten jobs within ten minutes of each other beat fourteen scattered across the north. That is why Mowie opens one suburb cluster at a time. A dense round means less time behind the windscreen.

Charge a call-out, then price the area.

A 30-minute minimum at $75 to $90 an hour covers turning up. Then price the measured square metres, and add properly for an overgrown first cut. Mowie shows you the traced lawn area, grass length and access before you bid, plus a suggested bid built from what is winning nearby. There is more in how to get mowing jobs.