Following a monumental recovery effort, Energy Queensland shares the pain, the power and the glory of back-to-back disasters.
Even for Energy Queensland’s emergency response veterans with plenty of notches in their belts, 2025 is a disaster season that will go down in history.
Energex and Ergon Energy Network joined forces to support flood-ravaged communities across the state and restored power to more than 500,000 customers after Cyclone Alfred left a trail of destruction in south‑east Queensland.
Energy Queensland Emergency Manager, Max Hogan, said the cyclone response teams had put in more than 300,000 hours of work to inspect 9000km of network, restring more than 175km of powerlines and manage the operations, logistics, and other support services that underpinned a record power restoration effort.
“It was by far the biggest emergency response that we or our predecessor network businesses have ever undertaken, with 2400 crew members on the frontline and working around the clock,” he said.
“The thing that made me most proud was our people, who collectively and safely responded and successfully delivered on our mission for the impacted communities.”
While there are common threads in emergency response, every disaster is different and Alfred was the first cyclone in more than 50 years to cross the south-east Queensland coast near the state’s most densely populated areas, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Mr Hogan said that from his perspective, the biggest challenges were the uncertainty and inevitable delays associated with a cyclone crossing. These included the volume of crews, equipment and vehicles that would be required; sourcing safe accommodation and suitable staging areas; the significant network damage caused by vegetation from outside network clearance corridors; and the site access issues created by fallen trees and flooding.
“We took advantage of Alfred’s slow track to dispatch large-scale generators to communities that would be hardest to reach, like the Moreton Bay islands, and muster as many additional troops as possible from outside the cyclone zone,” he said.
“On the flipside, it was a race against time during flooding at Nudgee, where we built a temporary levee around the zone substation and used sandbags to successfully safeguard electrical equipment from inundation.
“In the face of widespread impacts and some of the most challenging conditions you can imagine, to have power safely restored to more than 500,000 homes and businesses within 11 days is a phenomenal effort.”
The human touch is harder to quantify. Energex and Ergon have left a powerful legacy that goes well beyond the newly installed poles and wires.
The crews have inspired community spirit, gratitude, respect and even a new generation of power workers if the cheers in the street, tears of joy, gifts of baked goodies, and thank you cards are anything to go by.
In a sweet token of appreciation, Energex crews and their bucket trucks starred in a book created by Ollie’s Playhouse family day care:
“The children have put a lot of thought and care into making it and we hope it brings a smile to your faces, just as your work has brought relief to so many.
“We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for all your hard work and dedication in restoring power and keeping our communities safe during Cyclone Alfred.”
We’re not out of the water yet
There wasn’t much time to celebrate setting south-east Queensland on the road to recovery before western communities were swamped by catastrophic floods, which looked impressive from space and terrifying on the ground.
The small number of customers impacted by power outages belies the incredible scale of the floods and the complexity of Ergon’s response.
A few hundred properties equals entire extended communities in this part of the world, where townships became islands as roads became rivers. With an area twice the size of Victoria underwater, the only way in was by air.
“We had eight helicopters, a heavy-lift Blackhawk and two fixed-wing planes supporting our response, but that meant we were at the mercy of weather and flying conditions,” Mr Hogan said.
“We had to airlift generators, fuel, tools, communications equipment, food and water in, along with crews. Even when it was safe to land, with limited transport options on the ground, crews had to walk to worksites and carry their gear – which makes their job that much harder.
“We had a much smaller team responding to this event, but they punched above their weight in some atrocious conditions.”
Crews went the extra mile to relieve the burden on flood victims, including people who had been evacuated from their homes.
At Thargomindah, Ben from Ergon’s Hervey Bay depot installed a big screen TV at the evacuation centre to provide a welcome distraction from the disaster.
At Adavale, Damien from Ergon’s Charleville depot fed poddy calves under instructions from their grateful but absent owner in a moo-ving display of compassion and multi-skilling. Crews also kept watch for the pets of evacuated owners – reporting back with sightings and putting out food for the survivors.
Small acts of kindness from people going above and beyond their day jobs have generated an enormous amount of goodwill in back-to-back disasters.
In deep water
In early February 2025, north Queensland bore the brunt of a tropical low that caused record rainfall, major floods, landslides, highway closures and power outages for 33,000 customers from Mossman to Mackay, including Townsville, Ingham and Palm Island.
Ergon Energy Emergency Manager, Chris Hooper, who was leading the team tackling the northern disaster, said that more than 300 personnel were involved in this complex and challenging power restoration effort in the air, on the ground and on the water.
“We pulled out all the stops; from our specialist substation crews who flew into Ingham to get the town’s substation back online in record time, to the team in the 24/7 Network Control Centre, and our lineys and electrical fitter mechanics slogging it out in the torrential rain and mud,” he said.
“I even got back on the tools myself when we needed all hands on deck in isolated Ingham, and the reaction from customers when the lights came back on was a reminder of the powerful impact our crews have on the community.”
Disaster response and recovery is a team effort and the constant hive of activity at the Ollera Creek worksite on the highway north of Townsville was a prime example.
It was here that Ergon Energy crews rebuilt the backbone of the high-voltage network after poles and wires were washed away in the flood. At the same site, Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel installed a temporary bridge across the national highway before RoadTek crews rebuilt the bridge, also damaged by raging floodwaters.
While the bridge works were underway, Queensland Rail carted first responders, Ergon crews and local residents across the highway on the rail line.
“We never walk alone in disaster response, and we are always grateful to everyone involved for their help and support with logistics, including the ADF who used Chinook helicopters to airlift large-scale generators to critical sites in Ingham,” Mr Hooper said.
“We could not get the job done without emergency services, disaster management groups, local councils, community groups, licensed electrical contractors, and everyone who provided timely information, transport, equipment, accommodation and meals.”
At every link in the chain, communication is critical, especially for electrical safety messages and helping people make decisions for their households and businesses based on power restoration targets.
Energex and Ergon kept the community informed at every stage using every available channel – traditional media, social media, an Outage Finder and live news feeds on their websites, 24/7 Network Contact Centres, outbound text messages to life support customers, and face-to-face community outreach in the disaster zones.
During the Cyclone Alfred response, potential media audience reach was more than 170 million, there were upwards of 1.3 million engagements on the networks’ social media platforms, more than 30 million hits on Outage Finder, and in excess of 120,000 views of the live news feed. Community sentiment is arguably the most important metric and the hardest to measure, but the positive feedback and support from every corner of Queensland has been overwhelming.
A personal note to the disaster response teams from Energy Queensland CEO, Peter Scott, summed it up beautifully.
“In all my career across various sectors, I have never been prouder than of our efforts in Queensland during the three big events this year,” Mr Scott said.
“It’s been exhausting, but so meaningful for our Queensland families, friends, mates and strangers.”
