By KATH GANNAWAY
THE Victorian Workcover Authority (VWA) is asking questions about how and why live electrical wires were left exposed at the base of a street lamp in Healesville.
The VWA, Yarra Ranges Council, SP Ausnet and Energy Safe Victoria became involved in the matter on Monday last week after Healesville community watchdog Gary Christie made a report to the VWA on Saturday, 30 August.
Yarra Ranges Council has defended its part in responding quickly to make the lamp safe, saying they believe vandals may be responsible for undoing work done by council contractors on more than one occasion.
Mr Christie however claims his notification to council was not acted on quickly enough, given the potential for disaster.
Damage to the ‘heritage’ street lamp, on Maroondah Highway near the corner of Wilson Street, first came to council’s attention on 7 August when, according to Yarra Ranges Council’s Director Environment and Engineering, Mark Vermalis, the council’s contractor attended and made the site safe.
“The pole had to be removed for repairs which left the base of the pole remaining and the contractor completed a certificate to indicate that he had made the base safe,” Mr Vermalis told the Mail.
Mr Christie posted a photo of the unprotected wires on his ‘Healesville Matters’ facebook page on 25 August which showed an orange ‘witches hat’ as the only apparent indication that there was any danger.
He said he became concerned when he realised some of the wires were not encased in conduit and rang council’s 1300 number to report the matter a day or two later.
“When nothing had happened by the Saturday, I rang WorkCover,” he told the Mail.
Mr Vermalis however said that docket (from Mr Christie’s report) was logged in on 28 August and attended to by a contractor at 9.57am the next morning – Friday, 29 August.
“I don’t have details of what was done, but when you send an electrician out I would expect he would know what needed to be done,” he said, rejecting any suggestion of poor workmanship.
“We don’t use backyarders,” he said.
Energy Safe Victoria has shed some light on the latest events, saying AusNet Services attended the site on the Monday and requested council to arrange a registered electrical contractor to make the lamp base safe.
“An REC attended and correctly fitted a junction box over the exposed wires. A witches hat was fitted to the box. This was subsequently vandalised, exposing the wires again,” the ESV spokesperson said.
She said ESV attended the next day (Tuesday) and asked council to fit a more robust junction box, which was done.
That vandalism, according to Mr Vermalis, raised the possibility that the earlier work done to make the lamp base safe, perhaps on two occasions, was also vandalised.
Mr Vermalis said it was a matter of great concern to council that anyone would vandalise electrical equipment.
“Electricity is not something you mess around with,” he said.
“If anyone is aware of anyone tampering with this lamp base, they should call Crime Stoppers.”
Mr Christie maintains that the serious nature of the complaint warranted an immediate response from council.
“That request should have been escalated and for some reason the system didn’t allow it to be dealt with quickly enough,” he said.
“Some things can wait, but not something like this.”
