A spate of incidents with electric powerlines has led to increased work health and safety vigilance on Phillip Crocker’s property at Muckadilla in southern Queensland.
In the town known to locals as “Mucka”, about 40 kilometres west of Roma, Phil recounts four hazardous incidents on and adjacent to his 2700-hectare cropping operation.
Each incident originated from the overhead electric power transmission lines supported by power poles that run along the boundary and through the centre of the Crockers’ farm where they grow wheat, barley, chickpeas, sorghum and oats.
In 2010, Phil hit a powerline that had fallen from a power pole while driving his ute in the rain on a public road beside his farm’s boundary. Luckily, the powerline was not live. Then, in 2013, a fallen powerline burnt down a power pole in a paddock about 300 metres from the farmhouse and shed. In 2015, an employee driving a self-propelled spraying machine in one of the Crockers’ paddocks found a powerline had detached from a burnt power pole.
Summary posted with permission of GRDC. Please find full article below>>
‘Lucky’ Phil urges powerline safety | Groundcover (grdc.com.au)