Boulia Residents Endure Prolonged Power Outages Due to Lack of Permanent Electrician

In an outback town known for the glowing Min Min lights phenomenon, residents and businesses are spending up to 14 hours in the dark.

Persistent electricity outages have been plaguing Boulia in North West Queensland for the past few weeks.

For 18 months, the town, 300 kilometres south of Mount Isa, has been left without a permanent Ergon Energy electrician, which residents believe is adding to the rise in outages.

Bob Spilsbury has owned and operated Boulia's Min Min Store for about 50 years and said the issue was hurting his hip pocket.

"We've just got to look after our customers; we've got to look after our stock to save ourselves a loss in the future."

Mr Spilsbury said after Ergon Energy's resident powerhouse superintendent left Boulia, there was now no-one attending the site at any time.

"It all comes back to no-one here in attendance to look after the minor problems, which become major problems," he said.

He said the blackouts were having a big impact on his sales, including the loss of cold goods.

"We haven't been able to trade for two or three days running because [there's] only a couple of hours a day when the power has been restored. It's a great pain to be quite honest."

Mr Spilsbury said it was understandable to expect outages in the outback, from breakdowns or upgrades, but without an attending electrician, prolonged blackouts had become a persistent issue.

He said that now, when a problem arose, electricians had to travel from Winton, about 360 kilometres away, and with the travel, sourcing the problem, and sourcing the solution, it "more or less takes a day" to fix any issues.

"When you're living in a remote area like we are, you have got to be prepared for an electricity outage, or roads closed," Mr Spilsbury said.

Businesses' bottom line

Boulia Shire Mayor Rick Britton said the Boulia blackouts were adding pressure to an already slow start to the outback tourism season.

"We can't have sales unless you've got cash," he said.

Boulia's flagship festival, the infamous Camel Races, is due to be hosted in the coming weeks, bringing thousands of travellers into the town of 350 residents.

"[Ergon Energy] is going to put two staff in Boulia [during the event] until they can try and rectify the problem for us," Cr Britton said.

"So, it's something that we need to work with Ergon [Energy] going forward."

He said the temporary workers on the ground bore the brunt of the community frustration.

"We have been … talking to the people up the top, and they're helping us at no end to try and rectify the problem," he said.

"The pressure on the workforce that Ergon has on the ground … I feel for those blokes, they're trying their [best]."

Depot's 'not feasible' in every town

An Ergon Energy spokesperson said temporary repairs to improve reliability had been carried out as crews believed they had identified the cause, and permanent repairs were expected to be completed in the coming days.

"Given Queensland's size and the number of communities we service, it is not feasible to have depots in every town," the spokesperson said.

"While outages can occur from time to time on any power network, our crews work to restore power as quickly as possible."