Ergon Energy has confirmed it is now asking landholders in the Lakeland area to “take responsibility” for maintaining the electricity giant’s power poles on their properties ahead of the 2025 bushfire season. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
Concerned Lakeland landholders are urging electricity giant Ergon Energy to rethink a plan to scrap maintenance around its power pole network on their properties in the lead-up to Cape York’s annual bushfire season.
In previous years, Ergon Energy has cleared potential fire loads around the base of the poles to minimise the risk of them catching fire and disrupting the electricity supply along the distribution network.
Now, Ergon Energy has turned the tables on landholders and is asking them to undertake the maintenance work, and has commenced installing fireproof mesh on some poles as a debris clearing alternative on the back of what it says was a successful trial in 2024.
“Ergon Energy Network has asked landholders in the Lakeland district to take responsibility for ensuring power poles on their properties are not at risk during fire season, in particular during controlled burns,” a company spokesperson said.
“While not a requirement, Ergon Energy Network has cleared around poles in fire hot spots in the past to minimise the risk of asset damage and losses.
“Fireproof mesh is being installed on power poles at selected sites across Queensland; while FireMesh significantly reduces the risk of infrastructure being damaged in a fire, it doesn’t negate the need to keep the base of poles clear.”
The electricity supplier is asking landholders to “trim or clear any long grass, foliage, and rubbish within a five-metre radius of the base of a pole, and remain with any planned burns they carry out, to minimise the chances of fire damaging power poles and property”, a request one furious landholder argued created an additional burden on the region’s primary producers and land managers.
The landholder, who spoke to Cape York Weekly on the condition of anonymity, said an Ergon Energy employee had told them the company was prepared to “let them burn” because replacing the infrastructure after a fire was more cost-effective than continuing the debris clearing across the local network.
“The local fellas have been clearing around the posts the last few years which is good, but I don’t know if someone in Brisbane’s telling them it’s too expensive now, and it’s cheaper to let them burn and then put new ones up,” they said angrily.
“That might well be, but it’s also bloody dangerous.
“They don’t have to deal with bushfires down there in Brisbane and how are we (landholders) meant to find the extra time and resources to maintain their assets? I don’t know what’s happened at the top end of Ergon, but they need to get out here on the ground and see maintaining a social licence in remote spots like the Cape is a lot more important than what a bloody spreadsheet’s telling them.
“Roadside poles are the biggest fire risk, I believe, but it looks like they’ve given up maintaining around them, too.”
The fireproof mesh Ergon Energy is installing on power poles instead of continuing a longstanding maintenance program in bushfire hotspots around south-eastern Cape York. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
