Goulburn district experiences fire and heavy storm in one day

RFS Southern Tablelands crews were called to reports of a fire on a Cullulla Road property, east of Tarago at 4.20pm Sunday.

The outbreak burnt through three hectares before it was extinguished several hours later.

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RFS Southern Tablelands operational officer Mitchell Butler said it started from a hay baler. The activity was permitted on what was a high fire danger day. Landowners are urged to have sufficient fire protection onboard.

Eight crews from Tarago, Windellama and Bungendore brigades were among those that attended. Conditions were relatively calm at the time but the temperature was about 31 degrees.

Mr Butler said the outbreak was controlled by 6pm and extinguished shortly after.

He told The Post that vegetation growth following heavy rainfall, coupled with hot, windy conditions would become problematic in the coming weeks and months.

However RFS resources have been bolstered by a firefighting helicopter based at Tumut fulltime and fixed wing aircraft, including a Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) stationed at Richmond.

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Also on Sunday night, just after 8pm, a thunderstorm cut power to a widespread area.

Essential Energy confirmed that 5000 customers in Goulburn, Marulan, Tallong, Tarago and surrounds were affected.

"Network protection equipment activated just after 9pm to isolate supply to 522 customers in Tarago after detecting a fault on the electricity network," a spokeswoman said.

"Crews were dispatched immediately to discover lightning had caused damaged to powerlines. Repairs were made and power was restored to customers by 4am Monday.

Some 2,200 premises in South Goulburn and Collector lost power at 10.30pm, after storms caused damaged to the high-voltage electricity network. The spokeswoman said crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to restore supply to all customers by 11.52pm.

A further 873 people in Tallong and Marulan lost power at 9pm after lightning damaged a transformer on Goulburn Street, Marulan. Necessary repairs were made and supply was restored by 3.24am Monday.

"Essential Energy is continually reviewing the network to plan building and maintenance activities to increase reliability, manage safety and bushfire risk, all within a cost effective framework," the spokeswoman said.

"Customers can be assured that Essential Energy takes it responsibility to provide a safe and reliable power supply seriously and regrets any interruption to our customers. Unfortunately, like any other network business, Essential Energy cannot guarantee continuous power supply due to the nature of the network and uncontrollable events such as weather, wildlife and vehicle accidents. We encourage customers who rely on a continuous supply to have a contingency plan in place and employ this plan when power supplies are impacted."

The storm dumped almost 25mm at Goulburn Airport between 9am and 9.30pm, Bureau of Meteorology data showed.

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The lightning show made for a spectacle across Goulburn and district and had photographers snapping.

It followed a similar storm on December 18 that cut power to 29,800 premises in the South East region, including Goulburn, Crookwell and district, Yass Moruya, Jindabyne, Braidwood, Verona, Cooma and surrounding areas.

Almost 3400 of these were in the Crookwell area. Many businesses could not open on Sunday, December 19 as a result of the power and phone outage, prompting calls for a second feeder line into the town.

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