Crisp said getting powers back on in some areas hampered by access, including roads blocked by trees.
Yes, including trees under other trees requiring access by cranes to move. So access roads need to be cleared enough first to get the heavy vehicles in.
2 Likes
4 Likes
Gums are nasty at dropping branches whenever they’re too hot. Or too cold. Or too dry. Or too wet. Or…
They’re not necessarily any worse at falling over.
I went up to help with clean up around Sherbrooke for a bit today. Firstly, carloads of idiots jumping the 1000 steps is closed due to storm damage signs to go up 1000 steps 
I grew up in Dandenong and live in upper Ferntree Gully now but all my extended family live/lived around Tremont, Ferny Creek, Belgrave and Selby and I’ve not seen it this bad before.
If you’ve headed up Mt Dandenong tourist to sky high in your time. It’s still closed from about a kilometre past devils elbow all the way to Olinda. They have no power. All the businesses are shut (that area was decimated by Covid lockdowns as not nearly as many people live in the local travel zones as what they are geared up for when we aren’t in lock down)
It’s probably going to take several weeks to clean it up good enough to start letting people up the mountain again.
Please (when it’s safe to do so) duck up on a weekend for a pie and coffee or a hippy frock (my cousins parter runs a great shop for that In Sassafras). They could really use the business.
9 Likes
I was walking around Kilsyth South/The Basin today and it really struck me - the whole peak where Sky High is on Mt Dandy has completely changed silhouette. Enough trees must have come down on the ridgeline to alter the profile completely. It looks like a 7yos teeth, all big gaping gaps.
The walking trails must be an absolute mess. I regularly walk the various tracks in the Doongalla creeklands up to the Dandenong creek trail, and one trail has been blocked off since December when a vicious localised storm dropped three dozen trees across the path, and Parks Vic are so underresourced that they still haven’t managed to clear it up. It must be indescribably worse now. A lot of those trails might not be usable for a year. I just hope the monstrous old-growth tree at the end of Camellia Track survived. That’s an unbelievably vast old thing and must predate white colonisation by a long time. It’d suck if it’s come down…
8 Likes
You can see how the mountains changed just driving up Burwood highway towards Upwey
Friend in Kinglake. Getting their power back on Thursday. Fark.
1 Like
Mates at Menzies Creek have been told, maybe Thursday, but don’t hold your breath.
1 Like
Don’t really want to politicise this but can you imagine the old SEC leaving Victorian’s without power for so long?
These distribution companies run with so little resources now that wait times for any planned work is just ridiculous so no wonder in an emergency there just aren’t enough people on the ground.
Years later we are still getting Jeffed.
3 Likes
Dunno but, here in the outer east, power cuts were far more regular and for longer durations when I was a kid than they are now. I recall several times a year having to stumble around the house in the pitch black (no mobile phone torches in those days…) to open our dedicated “power cut” drawer and fish out the candles and torches… It was especially prevalent on windy days, and in temperature extremes (really cold or hot days).
I say this as someone who lives in an area which does have an iffy power supply at the best of times. We have regular short cuts and brownouts, to the point where I make claims against Ausnet every year for not meeting their charter. Have a look on their website folks… it’s an option if you make note of regular outages…
1 Like
bloody hell, my parentals got off lightly! what a ■■■■ situation 
2 Likes
Some of these spots are pretty ■■■■■■ in regards to where houses are, and where the infrastructure is.
Above ground lines running along streets lined with old, 40m high gum trees = bad idea. Not reliable, not safe.
Bushfire planning/building regs have gotten a lot tighter for new builds, but can’t touch legacy stuff.
1 Like
Your Olindas and Kaloramas are also primed for a Black Saturday type event.
Logistically and geographically worse than Marysville or Kinglake.
2 Likes
Olinda, Kalorama and Sassafras have been advised it could be up to a month without power. The entire power infrastructure system has been destroyed. From the lines, poles, transformers to substations. Trees are being cleared but more fall in cleared areas. Some trees are so big, they need the professional and ‘monster’ chainsaws and there just isn’t enough equipment and experience in using them to go round.
At this point, only the CFA HQ in Kalorama is the only place with power due to their back up gennie.
4 Likes
my aunt lives in Olinda. Guess she’ll be hanging out at my cousin’s place a bit longer!
2 Likes
It used to be a regular event in the more rural areas of the Macedon Ranges, at least the Koomars and open wood fire kept us warm,
Pockets of the Ranges are still without power.
Pics of Kalorama on ABC, devastating
Chorus of chainsaws there, hope the birds and other tree dependent wildlife have found a haven, what with the trees left standing denuded of branches
1 Like
my cousin in Monbulk just got power back 
5 Likes
Just saw Rachel reporting on 9. Did you know that the fallen trees will take decades to grow back? Wow! I thought once a tree fell that was it. Thanks for the lesson Rachel.
4 Likes