Bruny Island residents say water supply was cut off after local filling station drained on Xmas eve

Residents of a Tasmanian island say they were shut off from their water supply after the local filling station was drained on Christmas Eve. Here’s why.

Close-up Pouring glass of water from a plastic bottle on blue background

Residents of Bruny Island say it is unacceptable that they were left without access to the local water supply for three days over Christmas after the filling station at Adventure Bay was drained due to a malfunction.

Tristan Barnett, who is the director of Barnett Water Supply, a water carrier on the island, said TasWater had drained the island’s one supply on December 24 because “they reckon the water didn’t meet quality standards”.

“It pretty much makes a backlog of people that want their water,” he said.

The Mercury understands the supply was restored on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Barnett said if people on Bruny had run out of water between Christmas Eve and when the filling station was restored, he would have had to have travelled to a water carter site at Electrona.

Moment during the filling of water in a glass.

“When you’ve got to cart it from Electrona, it adds a pretty considerable sort of cost to it,” he said. “We have to … deal with the lines of ferry traffic.”

According to Mr Barnett, TasWater did not notify water carriers when they drained the tank on Kellaway Rd on Sunday.

Tania Mayne, who is currently staying at her shack on Bruny, said she had called TasWater to make a complaint on Wednesday and a staff member had told her that a chlorine dosing unit had malfunctioned, which meant there wasn’t enough chlorine in the water for it to be deemed safe for human consumption.

“It’s just so dangerous to leave this island without drinking water during Christmas when there’s so many people here. It’s just not acceptable,” she said.

“For us, as shackies, it means that if we run out of water, we’ve got to go home because we can’t get any more.”

Ms Mayne said people on the island had been “raging” over the water incident.

“We’ve had meetings with TasWater and community forums and there’s been a whole bunch of stuff going down over the past couple of years about the water supply,” she said.

Adventure Bay General Store owner, Mark Allen, told the Mercury that TasWater had come to him on Christmas Day and instructed him to empty his tank because it was “dirty”.

Mr Allen said they returned on Tuesday and “did whatever they had to do” and that the tank was now back on and filling again.

“As far as I’m aware it’s [now] fine,” Mr Allen said.

“They said the bores had picked up some dirty water.”

The tank Mr Allen spoke of is situated 100m away from the store, he said.

Locals and visitors can go and fill up their tanks and caravans there usually, he added.

A TasWater spokesman said the island’s supply point had been affected by a breakdown “for a short period before repairs could be completed”.

“Those repairs have been undertaken with most residents not being affected by the issue,” he said.

“Bruny residents and visitors can be assured that the water supply has been restored.”