Households and businesses in a northern beaches suburb faced with lengthy power cut

A Cairns restaurant owner in a northern beaches suburb has had to throw out entire fridges of food after a massive power outage hit the area. Find out more.

More than 600 customers were affected by an eight hour power outage which impacted businesses from restaurants to supermarkets in Clifton Beach, from Sunday night to Monday morning.

Sylvia Radenovska, owner of A Taste of Italy, said Clifton Village Shopping Centre was shut overnight, and that anyone with fridges and freezers would have been affected.

“Our early morning person who comes in to make the dough before we open later for lunch went in and noticed everything was warm,” Ms Radenovska said.

Their fridges had to be cleaned out with nearly $1000 of stock gone and huge bins filled, she said.

Ms Radenovska planned to contact her insurance company with photos of the damage.

Sylvia Radenovska; owner of A Taste of Italy in Clifton Beach. Picture: Emily Barker

For customers at Coles, it was a rude surprise when they found the store temporarily closed due to the blackout.

One customer on Facebook said their Coles delivery had been cancelled and they were given a $15 credit for inconvenience, as they were told a lot of food had perished and it would likely not be filled for days.

A Coles spokeswoman confirmed that due to a major unplanned power outage, the Coles supermarket in Clifton Beach experienced a short disruption to trade.

She thanked the local community for their patience and understanding.

Emma Oliveri of Ergon Energy Network said the power outage was weather-related and had impacted a number of customers in different time frames.

“At Clifton Beach 639 customers lost power just before midnight on Sunday and power was fully restored to all customers before 8am on Monday,” Ms Oliveri said.

“The outage was caused by a large tree falling and bringing down high-voltage powerlines.

“Crews worked through the night and in challenging conditions to do emergency network repairs so power could be safely restored.”

Clifton Beach powerlines down due to bad weather. Picture: Supplied

Photos of the repairs showed a falling tree causing multiple spans of powerlines to go down, including some across a swollen creek in difficult terrain.

Ms Oliveri said Far North Queenslanders should be prepared for power outages, especially in storm season and severe weather.

“While we have crews on-call to respond to emergency outages 24/7, it takes time to find and fix faults,” she said.

Originally published as Households and businesses in a northern beaches suburb faced with lengthy power cut