Douglas Water and Waste workers have been praised for some nifty running repairs on a severed sewer line that almost forced tourists at a Port Douglas resort to be relocated.

Rising groundwater broke through pipes on Mudlo Street last Thursday morning cutting off toilets at Marlin Terrace's connection to the sewer. 

Heading into the ANZAC Day long weekend, the resort was booked out, with several visitors fearing they'd have to move on if the line couldn't be repaired.  

Douglas Water and Waste manager, Wouter Van Der Merwe said his team then conceived a clever plan worthy of a 'first prize for engineering excellence'.

"It wasn't that easy to fix up," Mr Van de Merwe said. "But they decided to connect up all the connection pipes through a spare wheelie bin and place an electric pump inside it." 

Workers Peter White, Clint Howarth and John Petherbridge then ran a pipe from the top of the wheelie bin to a nearby manhole 50 metres away.

"We were lucky we had the manhole there because the pump then just pushed the waste through to it," Mr Van Der Merwe said. 

The pipe connection has since restored with some additional paving work near the sink hole will be completed this week. 

Mr Van Der Merwe said his workers had anticipated sink holes appearing following heavy rain from Tropical Cyclone Ita. 

To his knowledge, Mr Van Der Merwe said this was the first time a wheelie bin had been used to fix a sewer connection. 

"The guests were quite thankful that everything went well and that they could still use their toilets," he said.