(Photo: Ergon Energy)
August 7, 2020
Noticed the smoke around this week? That’s because there’s been a lot of permitted burns happening around the South Burnett.
But Ergon Energy is urging property owners to take extra care if they’re conducting burns near the electricity network.
Spokesman Brian Dingle said Ergon had suffered significant damage right across regional Queensland during the past two fire seasons..
“Fires in Central Queensland, Wide Bay and Bundaberg, the Sunshine Coast, South Western Queensland and around Toowoomba all impacted our customers and the poles and wires that supply them with power – some for up to a week,” he said.
“If anyone sees a fire close to power poles or if they see a pole on fire, they should call 000.
“Just as concerning is a pole that is only partially burnt because it could be significantly weakened and fail at a later date, bringing down high-voltage wires.
“We’re asking property owners to trim or clear any long grass, foliage and rubbish within a three metre radius of their poles and closely monitor any controlled burns they carry out.”
Are Ergon going to give me a discount if I mow around “their” poles? Perhaps I should send them a bill for my mowing around “their” two poles on my property for the past 20 years.
We have an Ergon easement running along the front boundary of our acreage property near Nanango. It has no trees, just powerpoles.
I have mowed it once, it needs mowing again, the grass is about 50cm high in places and bone dry.
I will mow it again, but as far as I am concerned it should be the responsibility of Ergon, especially if my neighbours don’t mow along the front of their properties, so the fire danger does remain high.
A few years ago a crew from Ergon, contractors I imagine, cleared branches and trees away from the power lines that run through my property. I had to go to work and when I returned they’d left. But they left the trees and branches on the ground. I had to do the hard work of cutting them into manageable sizes and dragging them into stacks to later be burnt. It took me 3 days of hard work. I should have sent a bill to Ergon for that.
I wonder how many other people have had to do the clean-up work after Ergon contractors have been to their property?