A woman in her 30s fell into a manhole in a busy Newstead street and was pulled out by bystanders’ moments before an underground electrical explosion, cutting power to more than 500 homes across the suburb. The woman luckily escaped with only minor injuries in an incident that the ETU says is a result of insufficient maintenance to Queensland’s aging Electricity Network.
Reports indicate an electrical fault caused the manhole lid to dislodge, with the woman falling through as she stepped on it, just before the underground explosion occurred.
The ETU will be closely involved in the investigation into what caused the ageing underground high-voltage cabling to fail and is demanding answers on why the network reached this point.
“This electricity network needs critical maintenance to ensure safe and reliable electricity can be delivered to Queenslanders, yet this LNP State Government is cutting an estimated $800 million from Energy Queensland’s budget,” ETU Assistant State Secretary Stuart Traill said.
“The LNP State Government must act, they can’t have it both ways, they can’t cut the funding and expect to have a safe and reliable network. We have seen this happen before and nothing has been done.” Traill said.
State Secretary Peter Ong says, “This comes at a time when our Electricity Network needs to be safe and reliable heading into the 2032 Olympic Games. These are issues we have continually raised but have been neglected by this Government. Thankfully this woman only escaped with minor injuries, and we wish her a speedy recovery.”
The ETU warned of potential incidents like this to occur again, after two incidents occurred in December 2024. A woman in her 20s fell into a manhole in Surfers Paradise under similar circumstances, when an underground electrical fault triggered multiple explosions. A separate underground explosion also occurred days later linked to a high-voltage fault outside a substation in Maroochydore.
The ETU has repeatedly warned this LNP State Government that without adequate funding and resources allocated for network maintenance, more incidents like this are inevitable and have the potential to be fatal.
The ETU is demanding immediate reinvestment in Energy Queensland and is asking one question of this Government. How many more close calls before they act?
