Bringing Power And Colour To Jumbun

Jumbun kids (and Chase, the dog) get creative with Ergon Energy’s Kate Austin and Karina Hoppe during a colourful school holiday art and power project. Photo credit: Helen Cook

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By Helen Cook

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With October signalling the approach of The Wet, children at Jumbun have been adding a splash of colour to a project that could make a big difference when the full force of the season arrives.

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Jumbun is a small Aboriginal community on Girramay Country, on the Cassowary Coast, home to people from the Girramay, Jirrbal and Gulnay nations, about 40km south-west of Tully.  

During the school holidays, community members have been painting power poles with colourful cassowaries, flowers, birds and other images inspired by their surroundings. But behind the painting is a bigger story.

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Heavy rain, storms, cyclones, fallen trees and vegetation can interrupt electricity supplies across the whole of the Wet Tropics. Jumbun is particularly vulnerable because it sits at the end of a powerline running from the Tully substation.

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“Every single power outage on that powerline, about 40 kms of it, the Jumbun community experiences,” Ergon Energy Senior Community Engagement Advisor Kate Austin said.  

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This wet season, however, Jumbun has something new in its corner – a low-voltage microgrid designed to keep much of the community powered when the main supply is interrupted.

At its heart is a large battery “box”.

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“If there’s a fault on the network upstream, we can isolate the residents here in community and power it from the battery,” Kate said, allowing Tully crews to make repairs while “keeping the power on to the community”.

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Around 25 homes, together with the health clinic and community hall, are connected to the system, while two houses outside the microgrid configuration have been fitted with rooftop solar.

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Jumbun is one of two Queensland First Nations communities involved in network-connected microgrid trials, alongside Mossman Gorge, where a high-voltage system has been installed. The trials will help determine whether the technology could benefit other communities at the edge of the grid.  

The pole painting is part of a wider program helping residents, particularly children, understand the new technology and the importance of conserving energy.

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And the biggest canvas is still to come.

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The microgrid box will be wrapped in artwork by local Jumbun artist Tonya Grant, depicting the story of Split Rock and giving the new infrastructure a distinctly local identity. The artwork is expected to be installed within the next month.

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