Flooding, landslides and falling trees have been impacting power supply in parts of the North Queensland coast – with Ergon Energy working to keep communities and crews safe as floodwaters rise.
Update – 12 February 2025
The power is now back on at Paluma after Ergon Energy crews were able to safely restore network supply.
All but 77 properties across the flood-hit region now have power; with most of the remaining outages in rural pockets around Ingham where network damage remains inaccessible. This includes properties at Old Wharf Rd at Macknade, Cordelia, and a dozen customers at Upper Stone where crew can’t safely get to tangled wires sagging over Stone River.
Update – Tuesday 11 February 2025
The Ingham substation is back online and despite ongoing challenges Ergon Energy is making leaps and bounds in its efforts to restore electricity to all customers.
By 8:00pm on Monday 10 February 2025, crews had restored power to all but 250 customers in areas where access was cut by floodwaters, including 84 properties at Paluma.
Unfortunately, Ergon Energy then had further faults on two feeder lines that supply areas where power had already been restored and by the morning of Tuesday 11 February there were several hundred customers without power in the flood zone.
The utility said it has been forced to switch the power off to more than 300 customers at Abergowrie, Hawkins Creek, Lannercost, and Long Pocket for emergency repairs. Crews are replacing a burnt transformer pole on Abergowrie Road.
The Ergon Energy team have also commenced fault-finding on the feeder line that supplies some customers at Cardwell Range, Rungoo, Bemerside and Ingham after circuit breakers tripped overnight. The rising Seymour River has delayed their progress in this area.
The utility said it is still looking at two options for Paluma, but both are dependent on the weather and access.
Crews will need safe access to network switches at Crystal Creek or suitable flying conditions and a safe landing site to enable a Chinook to deliver generation units with a combined weight of 17t to the community at the top of the range.
Ergon Energy said its crews are continuing to reconnect any homes that have been given the tick by a licenced electrical contractor and disconnect any that have been inundated and are yet to be inspected.
The utility is also urging dog owners to ensure their pets are not a danger to anyone going about their business in the community after a crew member was bitten by a roaming dog and had to receive medical treatment.
Update – Monday 10 February 2025
Ergon Energy crews continued to power on over the weekend, working to restore power amidst increasingly difficult conditions.
The utility said severe weather on Saturday 8 February caused a landslide, brought down trees, put bamboo into powerlines and disrupted power that had been restored only hours earlier.
Ergon Energy patrol helicopters and transport planes were grounded for much of the day on Sunday 9 February.
Power restoration to Paluma was further delayed due to a huge landslide, which wiped out power poles and wires, with trees down over powerlines on the 11,000-volt feeder line that supplies Paluma. Ergon Energy said crews will have to rebuild the damaged section on an extremely challenging site, with the utility looking at the logistics of getting generators to Paluma until the network can be repaired.
Macknade is isolated again, with about 1m of water over the road and fallen powerlines reported across Stone River in the Upper Stone area.
The latest round of severe weather prevented travelling crews from approaching Ingham from any direction. Teams in and around Ingham continued to do their utmost to safely restore as many customers as possible.
Despite the challenging conditions, power was restored to nearly 700 customers in Greenvale, Ingham, Lannercost and Bambaroo, and groundwork was laid for Abergowrie’s restoration.
Update – Thursday 6 February 2025
Ergon Energy crews have restored power to more than 20,000 customers affected by the severe weather.
The utility said its teams are pulling out all stops to get the power back on in Ingham and surrounding areas.
Around 100 crew members will be available from outside the area, ready to support local crews in the restoration effort, weather and safe access permitting.
Ergon Energy said the restoration timeframe will depend on repairs of critical equipment at the substation and damage assessment across the flood zone, with the utility supporting critical sites with generation at the direction of the Local Disaster Management Group.
High-voltage network reconstruction at Ollera Creek
Crews made good progress rebuilding the backbone of the network at Ollera Creek on Wednesday 5 February and they are continuing repairs in challenging conditions.
The utility said this section of high-voltage network supplies Paluma and can be used to back-feed some of the areas surrounding Ingham.
Ingham Substation
Substation crews from Townsville were able to get into the Ingham Substation to do initial inspections and testing on critical equipment.
Ergon Energy will need to repair damage before it can safely re-energise this bulk supply point for several thousand customers.
Damage assessment on feeder lines
Weather permitting, teams will continue aerial surveys over Ingham and surrounding areas.
Crews will also do line patrols on the ground where floodwaters have receded.
The utility said it needs to understand the extent of any damage before it will know how repairs will take.
Homes and businesses
Ergon Energy said anyone whose home or business has been flooded may have damage to their switchboard, wiring and other electrical equipment.
Water and electricity don’t mix, and utility said it cannot safely reconnect properties until they have been inspected and repaired by a licenced electrical contractor.
As part of the restoration process, Ergon Energy crews will do door-to-door checks and disconnect individual properties that have been inundated for their safety.
Update – Wednesday 5 February 2025
As floodwaters at the Ingham Substation are receding Ergon Energy is planning to mobilise a specialist crew in from Townsville to inspect and test critical equipment, weather and safe access permitting.
Weather permitting, the utility will be doing further aerial surveys of the overhead network that supplies Ingham and surrounding areas.
Ergon Energy is also dispatching more generators by barge and air at the request of the LDMG, who will determine critical sites to be connected.
Crews are also rebuilding the backbone of the high-voltage network at Ollera Creek in challenging conditions.
The utility said Townsville crews are hoping to be able to restore customers at Majors Creek by the end of the day (Wednesday 5 February) now teams are able to get in by road.
Ergon Energy also said there’s a damaged transformer it can’t reach near Cardwell, which is preventing total network restoration to the community, but teams will try again Thursday 6 February.
Update – Tuesday 4 February 2025
Power has now been restored to Palm Island, Balgal Beach and Bluewater and all bar one customer has power at Magnetic Island. Most of those supplied by Giru substation are back on supply, and Ergon Energy said it will again try to resolve damage impacting the remaining 57 customers on Tuesday 4 February.
Ergon Energy crews also worked through the night to get as many Cardwell customers as possible safely reconnected. More than half the town are now back online; however the utility said it will need to make further repair, and there are properties that can’t be safely reconnected due to flooded wiring.
The utility said that despite ongoing rain, flooding, and access nightmares, its tenacious crews got the lights back on to thousands of homes and businesses on Monday 3 February.
However, Ergon Energy said that it still can’t get into Paluma, the Greenvale/Mount Garnet area and other pockets where bridges are still under metres of water and roads are a mess.
Crews are continuing to watch the rain gauge and fluctuating flood levels in low-lying parts of Townsville and will restore network supply as soon as it’s safe to do so.
The disaster in Ingham is extensive. After a break in the weather on Tuesday afternoon, Ergon Energy commenced aerial fault-finding patrols of Ingham and surrounding areas to assist with restoration planning.
Update – Monday 3 February
The substation supplying several thousand customers in Ingham and surrounding areas was de-energised for public safety as floodwaters rose. Ergon Energy said that it has to wait for floodwaters to recede before crews can assess the state of equipment, but initial restoration planning has commenced for Ingham and surrounding areas.
The utility said that this will be a long haul, but it aims to leave no stone unturned to get the power back on as soon as practically possible. Additional crews, vehicles and equipment are available to support what is likely to be a marathon restoration effort, but the utility said that access is its biggest challenge.
Ergon Energy now has crews on Palm Island assessing damage to the electricity network from a landslide. The restoration timeframe will depend on the extent of damage and repairs required.
There has been limited proactive de-energisation occurring in the black zones in Townsville, and Ergon Energy said that the bulk of the emergency outages in this area have been caused by network damage, including fallen powerlines.
Flooding has cut access to some sites, causing delays, however Ergon Energy said that it now
has crews on the ground at Balgal Beach after police gave the all-clear to head in by chopper early on 3 February 2025. The utility said it is hoping to have all customers back on, where safe to reconnect, by the end of the day.
The Cardwell substation was also de-energised for public safety after flash flooding overnight.
Access is also challenging, but where able crews are assessing damage and making sites safe.
They will commence repairs and restore power where safe to do so.
Over in Giru, Ergon Energy said it is waiting for a break in the weather so crews can do aerial fault-finding patrols, however, it will not be able to provide an accurate restoration timeframe until it knows the full extent of the damage.
Crews have also commenced repairs over a widespread area in Magnetic Island.
Sunday 2 February
The Bureau of Meteorology said that torrential rain and damaging winds have continued since Friday 31 January, and multiple areas have been hammered with 24-hour rainfall totals of up to 600mm – with some areas seeing 250mm in just six hours.
As of 2 February 2025, more than 9000 North Queensland residents are without power due to the ongoing severe weather and flooding.
Townsville, Palm Island and Ingham have been heavily impacted and to ensure public safety Ergon Energy has begun proactively shutting off power ahead of inundation.
“We’re only de-energising where it’s absolutely essential – we know it’s tough to be without power, but the safety of customers, emergency services, and our teams, has to come first,” the utility said
“Nothing’s more important than safety; for you and for our teams.”
In Ingham Substation, which supplies around 6700 properties, has been switched off for public safety due to rising floodwaters. The community of Palm Island is also without power after a landslide damaged the electricity network.
Ergon Energy also has 20 two-person crews de-energising sections of the Townsville network for safety where necessary. This is being done on a case-by-case basis, depending on conditions, which Ergon Energy said can change dramatically and quickly in a flood event.
For more information, check Ergon Energy’s outage tracker.
