Mayor urges action on island utilities infrastructure

Redland City Council is urging the State Government to urgently repair a circuit breaker feeding power to Redlands Coast islands and investigate alternative power options to ensure power supply in the future.

Redland City Mayor Karen Williams tabled a Mayoral Minute at today’s Council meeting highlighting the vulnerability of the islands after they lost power last week.

“A faulty circuit breaker resulted in the islands losing power and Council has been told it could take up to six months to repair the problem,” Cr Williams said.

“Having limited power redundancy in the lead up to fire and storm season is concerning so we are urging the State Government to move quickly to remedy the situation.

“While Energy Queensland moved quickly to return power to the islands, a fault on the remaining power supply line to the islands resulted in power again being lost the following day, with no back-up supply due to strong winds making it difficult to transport generators on barges.

“This event highlights the vulnerability of our islands, which have a higher proportion of aged residents, making access to power and water even more important.”

Cr Williams said the recent power outage followed the loss of water to a number of local islands for several days in 2018 after an Seqwater main ruptured.

“For most residents losing water or power is inconvenient, but for our isolated island communities it can be dangerous,” she said.

“They can’t just head down to the shops to get bottled water and batteries, and transporting generators or water trucks can be difficult if the weather isn’t favourable.

“That’s why we are also urging the State Government to work with Council to investigate alternative water and power supply options in the longer term.

“The more redundancies that can be put in place, the more confident the community can be, which is important given the higher than average aged population living in these communities.”