‘I got by’: Daintree residents in good humour as choppers restore power

Helicopters are being used to gradually restore power to a key farming area south of Daintree River. Find out what residents say

Power is finally being restored to the last remaining homes without electricity since the wettest cyclone in Australian history crossed the Far North Queensland coast more than 50 days ago.

Ergon Area Manager for the Far North and disaster response veteran Charlie Casa said Tropical Cyclone Jasper, which made landfall on December 13, and the subsequent floods destroyed the network in the Upper Daintree region.

The Daintree River reportedly reached 9m due to heavy rainfall following Cyclone Jasper.

On January 12, Daintree residents received the largest downpour since the cyclone, with Stewart Creek Valley gauge recording 269mm in 24 hours, while Diwan and Daintree Village both recorded 234mm of rain in the same time period.

Power was restored in recent days after power poles were flown in via helicopter.

General farmhand Vaughn Jorgensen, who works on a cattle property along the Daintree River, did not hear another human voice for days after his battery powered radio gave out as he prepared to wait out the cyclone on his boss’ farm.

General farmhand Vaughn Jorgensen, who works on a cattle property along the Daintree River, did not hear another human voice for days after Cyclone Jasper. Photo: Supplied.

“We lost the phones for a while too, for around two weeks. That’s when the cyclone came on. I don’t even have a radio or phone so I didn’t hear a human voice for a few days until I boated across and saw my boss,” Mr Jorgensen said.

“It was really quiet at home. I didn’t know what was going on with the cyclone for a few days. All the landline, mobile service was down and he was using Wi-Fi calling to know what was happening with it all.”

Mr Jorgensen said his generator had also given out just before the cyclone hit, leading him to rely on a battery powered fan for comfort in the heat.

“I bought a Makita battery fan and just used that. It was pretty hot but sort of saved me.

I had torches and all that. It wasn’t too bad. I just missed the fan and refrigerator, but I got by,” he said.

“Ergon’s done everything they could as quick as possible and I was happy with the service.

I’m just in a difficult place that’s all and the ground was boggy and wet so they couldn’t get up to us.”

Helicopters were used to plant taller and heavier power poles along a rebuilt power network after record flooding following Cyclone Jasper washed away Ergon's pre-existing network. Photo: Supplied.

Mr Casa said there were 104 customers impacted by the diaster.

“We have two supply routes to the Daintree Village, Stewarts Creek Road and Upper Daintree Road. We lost power to Stewarts Creek and the Upper Daintree so we had to work from Mossman restoring the network,” Mr Casa said.

“The network was washed away, it was completely damaged. There were a lot of access issues. We had to redesign and rebuild the network but we couldn’t do that until the water went down to get people in there.”

Taller, thicker and heavier power poles have been used rebuild the network throughout the area, Mr Casa said.

“Upper Daintree was the challenging one. We had crossings from hilltop to hilltop across the river where we had to use helicopter for accessibility because we physically couldn’t get there by road or by foot,” he said.

Many power poles were smashed when Daintree River flooded. Picture: Bronwyn Farr

“The longest line span we pulled was 800m from one hilltop to another. It was the most efficient way to do the work.”

Mr Casa praised the efforts of Ergon staff and the patience of Daintree residents who were left without power for so long.

“It’s been a hard slog to try and get power back to them, but not for lack of trying. One customer will have their power restored on Thursday and the other customer is currently away from home, but will have power back soon,” he said.

“Staff have been fantastic and customers have been absolutely brilliant. They’ve faced incredible challenges but will dust themselves off and get up and move forward. It shows the character of the people we have in our communities.”

An Ergon spokeswoman confirmed 5,500 customers in the Douglas Shire were without power at the peak of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

“By December 16 that number was down to 1500 then the floods hit and on December 17 we were back up to 3400 customers without power in the Douglas Shire,” the spokeswoman said.

Originally published as ‘I got by’: Daintree residents in good humour as choppers restore power