Quairading: Residents living in WA’s power outage capital hope their voices are finally heard

Welcome to Quairading — WA’s heart of darkness. Just 150km east of Perth, or two hours drive, the town at the centre of the State’s Wheatbelt region holds the unenviable title of WA’s power outages capital. Western Power data shows across the 2022-23 financial year, the small community of 582 people endured 16 blackouts, with an average downtime of almost three days. When The Sunday Times visited the town this week, the figures were hardly a surprise. “If Perth lost power for four days, everyone would remember the four days they lost power. We lose it so regularly that it is literally part of our life,” Quairading grain farmer Tarnya Fraser said. “These communities are full of vibrancy and full of opportunity and time and time again, the limiting factor of that vibrancy and opportunity can be just what everyone considers to be that basic right — access to power, internet (and) telecommunications. “Our co-op business, a community-owned business, 10 years ago invested in the generator because it was such a persistent issue back then. And nothing has changed.” That generator has allowed the co-operative to become a hub for locals to hunker down during outages — charging devices, keeping food cold and connecting to important services. Reasons for the problem vary widely, with some in the town blaming ageing infrastructure and being on the end of an electricity network which comes via Cunderdin. In 2022, amid a third outage in nine days, Western Power was forced to install a temporary generator between the two towns just to shore up supply to Quairading. But after a decade of suffering network reliability issues, the community at the end of the line is at the end of its tether, Ms Fraser, a Quairading Farmers’ Co-operative board member, said. “Time and time again — it actually makes me feel really emotional — because you drive around and there are beautiful petunias at the Town of Victoria Park, and I know the money is in a different pool. But the money gets spent there on nice things and we don’t even have the basic things,” she said. “I just feel like we are not important. Why would we be listened to, why would the conditions here matter to anyone?” Already in 2024 there have been four outages in the town, including as part of the freak storm that saw Kalgoorlie powerless for several days. For Shire of Quairading president Jo Haythornthwaite, the tell-tale sign of an outage isn’t the lights going out, but rather the hum of generators turning on. Many businesses and homeowners in the town, she says, have turned to self-sufficiency to keep the lights on and the food cold during outages. “The minute the power goes out, you hear it in town, all the generators just flick on,” Ms Haythornthwaite said. “We’re a First World country, not a Third World country. It’s just so frustrating because electricity is a basic need. An outage affects everything. It affects business. It affects people, and definitely morale.” Ms Fraser agreed, saying the community had become so used to the outages that they prepared ahead of time. “If there’s spates of hot weather, or it’s going to be super windy or there’s going to be a big storm, that is a mental trigger for me to go and make sure I’ve got petrol ... because we could be out of power for four days and once the power goes out, we can’t get petrol in town,” she said. The relentless loss of power makes business in the town difficult — simple government and financial services grind to a halt. Across town at the post office, owner and postie Mick Grage runs a small gift shop along with mail services and the town library. While the post office has emerged as the new home for banking in regional towns as branches close their doors, Mr Grage said power outages meant digital transactions were cut off. “There’s no option for any money anyway, the ATMs go down and quite often the mobile phone service goes down,” he said. “Even if you have a generator as soon as the co-op does, they can’t usually offer banking services or cash out because it needs to communicate with the east coast.” While a nearby phone tower had a backup battery, prolonged outages meant mobile coverage dropped out within hours of an power blackout. A report for the North Eastern Wheatbelt Regional Organisation of Councils — which does not include Quairading, but councils of a similar size — found a two-day outage cost the economy $3.4 million, while a six-day loss of electricity would hit output by more than $11 million. For the team at the Community Resource Centre, offering technical support for the town’s residents and and access to Centrelink services shuts off when the power goes out. Customer support officer Phoebe Caporn, 21, said the town spirit often meant her friends bunkered down together at a house with a generator to stay in touch with the outside world, and keep each other company. CRC accounts manager Melanie Mills laughed when discussing a newly installed electric vehicle charger outside the centre, pointing out that the town cannot use petrol pumps for vehicles or generators during an outage, let alone an EV. “It’s 2024, I don’t think we should be limited on the basic necessities of life whether it be power, food, water, flushing toilets. People (in Perth) don’t understand the predicament that we’re in,” she said. Ms Haythornthwaite, elected in October, said she was not sure how much use the new charger, installed by the State Government, was getting. “Obviously as time goes on, and we’ll get more and more,” she said. “But yeah, there is a bit of an anomaly I guess there, in the sense that it can’t be used in (in an outage).” Despite being just two hours from Perth, Quairading feels left in the dark by Western Power and the State Government. One sticking point was the amount of compensation offered for outages, given the current cost of living crisis. “$120 for an extended power outage — that wouldn’t even begin to cover what people would lose over the four days in terms of like things in their fridge and freezers,” Ms Fraser said. Another issue is the harsh political reality of the town’s location in the ultra-safe Nationals seat of Central Wheatbelt. “I like to think it’s not related but I’m no fool. We’re a very conservative area when it comes to political leanings. And there’s probably no benefit whatsoever from a political perspective for a non-conservative government to put anything out here,” Ms Haythornthwaite said. Energy Minister Reece Whitby said energy security across the region and reliability was a top priority. “That’s why my office, in conjunction with Energy Policy WA, is progressing a soon-to-be-detailed network resilience package in the aftermath of widespread regional outages caused by severe and unprecedented weather events in mid-January,” he said. “In response to community concerns about power reliability, the State Government in late-2022 invested $1.1 million through Western Power in addressing transmission-related issues affecting the Shire of Quairading. “These works included upgrades to the Shire’s main transmission line, replacement of more than 50 poles, re-tensioning of six bays of conductor, and several high voltage insulator, cross-arm and stay replacements.” Mr Whitby defended the compensation payments, which increased from $80 to $120 in 2022 before doubling them to $240 last month. “As is the case throughout Western Australia, anyone who loses power for more than 12 hours can apply to receive an Extended Outage Payment,” he said. Western Power, which lists other Wheatbelt shires as among the worst for reliability, states on its website it is working on maintaining 59 poles and replacing one drop-out fuse, six electricity meters, 52 wood poles and 10 overhead switchgears as part of upgrades this financial year. A spokesperson confirmed since the start of 2024, the community had experienced 14 outages which lasted more than an hour. “Geographic remoteness of some regional communities creates significant challenges for network reliability, as the location, length of, and weather conditions, impacting these network assets can lead to increased outages,” a Western Power spokesperson said. “This is particularly true for areas like the Shire of Quairading which is located on a long distribution feeder line. “Increasing the resilience of our infrastructure is a key priority for Western Power, particularly in communities which have experienced reliability impacts in recent years.” Ms Haythornthwaite said discussions were also underway about the possibility of installing battery energy storage systems at properties in the shire, but that solution could be up to five years away. But the community, so accustomed to losing power, does not dwell on the darkness, but rather, the light. “The community is here to support the industries of growing food. That’s a pretty big calling,” Ms Fraser said.. “We don’t get treated like essential services but essentially that’s what this community is doing.” Mr Grage, whose work takes him to all corners of Quairading, finishes his comments with a simple summary. “It’s a great place. It’s a great place to live. It doesn’t always get electricity, but apart from that, it’s good,” he said.

Quairading: Residents living in WA’s power outage capital hope their voices are finally heard

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