A trio of emergency power cuts in four days

Shire Energy

Shaun Hollis

Journalist

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Power cuts have been happening across large parts of Douglas Shire in the past few days. Picture: Shaun Hollis

The power was turned off in Port Douglas and several other regions last night for about two hours to do emergency works at the Craiglie substation.

The Ergon Energy outage from 10pm to about midnight affected homes and businesses in Port Douglas, Cooktown, Lakeland, Bloomfield, Helenvale and surrounding areas.

“Our crews need to collect oil samples from a transformer at the Craiglie substation,” an Ergon statement read.

“We are timing these urgent works to minimise the disruption to the community.”

The “emergency outage” came on the back of two other power cuts in the past few days that affected Douglas Shire businesses and households.

On Sunday afternoon the power was out for about an hour in some areas across the region, including some parts of Port Douglas.

And on Friday, many businesses had to shut up shop for the afternoon.

More than 3000 Douglas Shire electricity users were hit with a power outage for about two-and-a-half hours across the region including the Mossman, Daintree, Cooya and Wonga Beach areas.

The power in the area went out at about 1pm after an “unplanned outage”, according to Ergon.

“The loss of supply is due to damage requiring emergency repairs,” Ergon stated. 

“Fault finding is in progress.”

“The loss of supply is due to the operating of protective equipment.”

Affected areas on Friday included Cassowary, Daintree, Finlayvale, Mango Park, Mossman, Mossman Gorge, North Mossman, Shannonvale, South Mossman, Stewart Creek Valley, Wonga Beach, Bamboo, Bonnie Doon, Cooya Beach, Dagmar, Forest Creek, Killaloe, Lower Daintree, Miallo, Newell, Reeds Creek, Rocky Point, Whyanbeel and Wonga.

When the power came back on at about 4.15pm, Club Mossman (the bowls club) posted on its social media: “WoooHooo!!! The power is back on… so come on in.”

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