After Sydney Water staff gently flushed the pipe, it took four National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers to corral the juvenile male in a net before he was whisked away to a vet for a check-up.
Sightings of platypus in Western Sydney are rare, said the NPWS area manager, Jonathan Sanders.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service said there were no records of a platypus rescue in Sydney in the past four years.
But cleaner waterways might be helping the animals to make a comeback, Mr Sanders said.
"It could be that we're getting a re-colonisation of old habitats."
Link -via Arbroath, where you can see a video report.
(Image credit: Kate Geraghty)