I can't get the wiring right for an old Australian indoor light fitting.?

Question

I have taken out an old fitting from my bedroom ceiling. I am now left with 4 red wires, one white wire, 3 black wires and 3

green wires. all of which are tied into buches of matching colours. I attached the new fitting but left out the switch wire as when I turn the breaker back on the light will not turn off at the switch.

The white wire comes out of a bigger wire that has another red wire with it, I pressume this is the switch wire. Were does the white wire go? All the others are standard 1 red 1 black and 1 green. Why would I have 3 power cables all ending above my bedroom light fitting? Is this just S****y trade work or is this what was done 35years ago everywhere?

Any help would be greatly recieved. My wife has now officially got the s***s. This was suppossed to get done in a weekend. ooops.

Answer 1

heres how it works:

Reds all go together into the loop terminal. They are perminant active

Greens all go together into the earth terminal

Black all go together into the neutral terminal

White is the switched active, goes to active terminal.

If you are just wiring up a BC batton holder, it won't say which is the active or the neutral terminal, because polarity doesn't matter (By the way, it's not S****y trade work, it is a standard way to do it)

Answer 2

Tony H has nailed this....... that is exactly the way it should be, and yes this way of connecting permanent actives is still done like this, nothing wrong with it, white wire is switch wire, black are neutrals and green are earths. Get a sparky to do it for $100 if you arent sure.

Answer 3

I am not a sparky, just a handy person like you. That white wire sounds a bit strange to me. I think you will find a terminal on modern fittings with L for loop on it, this as far as i know is just a spare terminal used to join wires that are heading off somewhere else, those bunches of wires you have are probably just a junction as in the loop terminal.If you want to know what each of the actives do, disconnect them one at a time from the bunch tape them all up again and then see what does not work any more.My guess is that before i have finished typing this, you will have already had a few disgruntled sparkies telling you not to do the work yourself, I am a fitter, so I am used to getting flak from sparkies.