Bullsbrook residents are preparing to take ongoing concerns about power reliability to council and relevant authorities, warning that repeated outages pose serious safety risks — particularly during summer and high fire danger periods.
Bullsbrook resident Shirley Routley said residents experience “very regular restriction of essential services of power and water,” with outages often lasting “12 hours or more on a very regular basis.”
Ms Routley said extended power outages have significant safety and communication impacts.
“No power means no NBN or Starlink services,” she said. “No phone or internet connection means we cannot place calls for emergency assistance or get updates on frequent bushfires in our bushfire prone areas.”
She said rural residential properties rely on electricity to access water supplies, including for firefighting, noting “we know we are responsible to provide our own water supply but need power to access this water.”
Ms Routley also pointed to wider community impacts during prolonged outages. “Local supermarkets close and lose significant revenue from damaged perishable goods, medical centres shut because doctors cannot write prescriptions, and families with disabled family members cannot use life support apparatus,” she said.
Responding to concerns following a recent outage, Swan Hills MLA Michelle Maynard said, “I understand the frustration and inconvenience the recent power outages have been causing and assure the Bullsbrook community that Western Power is safely working to restore power as quickly as they can.
“The short power outage experienced on 2 February by 265 homes and businesses in the Bullsbrook area was due to reduced network capacity in the area, resulting from additional demand from high weather conditions and backfeeding being undertaken due to the complex underground cable fault .
She said, “The fault on the evening of February 2 was caused by a tree impacting a power line.”
Ms Maynard also explained that power restoration can take longer during high-risk conditions.
“During periods of elevated fire danger, Western Power operates the network more cautiously to reduce the risk of bushfire and can affect how quickly power can be safely restored, as additional checks including foot patrols are required before sections of the network can be re-energised.”
Despite this explanation, residents say broader infrastructure issues remain unresolved, particularly in light of rapid population growth.
Ms Routley said “3,700 new homes both under construction and planned” were being approved despite existing services that “cannot support existing residences let alone planned new developments.”
She said the City of Swan has a “duty of care to ensure that these services are available and capable of coping with the specific requirements, particularly through very hot summer days and High/Severe Fire Danger rating days.”
While power reliability is the primary focus, Ms Routley said water access remains a related concern during summer and the Prohibited Burning Season, particularly when outages prevent residents from accessing stored supplies.
As residents prepare to formally raise the issue with council and other agencies, Ms Routley said, “The residents of Bullsbrook are currently in life threatening situation not of their own making,” and called for clear, publicly available information on infrastructure upgrade plans and timelines to ensure community safety.
