By Callum Ludwig
The story of Yarra Junction resident Alice Underwood and her mother’s battle to get access to electricity for their home spread far.
So far, a retired electrician living in Queensland came across it and decided to do something about it.
Richard Lukoszek received a notification in November 2024 from Change.org about Alice’s story and said his first reaction was disbelief, given he was raised in Melbourne and knew first-hand how the city had spread along with all normal city services such as water, sewage, power, communications and public transport.
“This is where I came across your article and it gave me an insight into the long frustrating battle the family had been going through over the last 10 years. I subsequently spoke to Energy Victoria, and they confirmed there was no plan to extend the line and that power would never reach them,” he said.
“I felt the family’s frustration and knew this would be a very long, frustrating and fruitless endeavour, your article confirmed what I already knew that a lot of people in comfortable public office roles, wake up every morning, go to work with absolutely no intension to fulfilling their mandate to make everyday citizens lives a little better than it was the day before,”
“It was then and there that I was hooked and decided that this family would not be without power another year.”
Mr Lukoszek has CEC (Clean Energy Council) accreditation, 45 years of experience in mining and heavy industry and spent the last 13 years in the renewable industry designing and installing off-grid battery storage systems, domestic and commercial solar systems and large-scale solar farms in New South Wales and Queensland
Mr Lukoszek said it took a few weeks to track Lisa (Alice’s support worker) down through Linked In but he sent her a connection request and she accepted.
“When we spoke, I could feel a sense of relief yet disbelief in her voice, so I asked if I was to come to Victoria, could she arrange for me to meet the family,” he said.
“She did, and after a lot of tears and hugging, I mapped out a plan for them; after Christmas, I finished my trip to South Australia and back to Queenslan,d then got busy ordering parts and
arranging deliveries,
“We are now at the stage that everything has either arrived or will be by early April, I have a family reunion the first three weeks of April and then the plan is to load up my trailer and drive to Victoria to make a start, I expect it to take three weeks and after that, the Underwood power issue will be just a part of their history.”
Mostly used in remote locations with little to no chance of every gettin connection to the energy grid, Mr Lukoszek has already put together the battery cabinet and inverter structure for the system, with the ground-mount, batteries and panel structure to be done onsite when he arrives in May.
Alice said she was really amazed and really grateful when she heard about Mr Lukozszek’s offer.
“I’m just blown away by people’s kindness and Richard is a lovely guy and I hope it all works out,” she said.
“It’s a long way to travel, all the way down here, from Queensland, he’s doing so much effort to try and help me.”
Despite the ‘last power pole’ on their street being only 500 metres from their home, Alice and her mother had been quoted between $83,300 and $98,800 by Ausnet to extend the electricity infrastructure to their home, an unaffordable sum on Alice’s disability pension and her mother’s age pension.
Alice’s support worker Lisa said the offer was like they’d found an angel.
“He’s just the loveliest man and he is committed to getting electricity on this property for Alice,” she said.
“I had to take her little iPad home and charge it at my house and bring it back in the morning, and it’s little things we have to do like that just so she can have her iPad charged, that we take for granted.”
In more positive news, Alice’s fundraiser last year raised $2800 and helped fund restumping for the house which had previously been on a severe slope.
Mr Lukoszek said this is a life-changing moment for the family.
“Because nothing has really changed at their home, I am constantly sending progress updates about orders, deliveries and the structure I’m building in my garage for them,” he said.
“Once we turn it on the first time will be a very emotional moment, this will enable them to really start thinking about the house as up until then, not having power was a showstopper in getting any other work done,”
“We all just take it for granted but I have seen from other work I’ve done just how much change to people’s lives hinged on having access to electricity, it facilitates a lifestyle change but to this lovely family just having a fridge is life-changing.”
