Country communities say they have been left in the dark regarding energy and telecommunication services after extended outages sent residents in the Tottenham area back to the “digital stone age.”  

Tottenham locals experienced a power outage that shut off telephone landlines as well as internet signal back in January, leaving households with no communication for three days, according to the NSW Farmers Association.  

Local NSW Farmers Branch Chairman, Dan Nicholls said that a month ago the town experienced the communication outage that brought a stop to the community, making it difficult for farmers and others to continue their daily work.  

"It put a stop to everything, a bit of a standstill for all business and community members. We are trying to find some solution for that and how we go about having temporary services, if we need to," said Mr Nicholls.  

Mr Nicholls explained that the outage disrupted his work as a farmer, "organising freight and that kind of stuff, livestock movement, grain movements, fertilizer and pretty much everything. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if we at least had landlines to use, but we didn't even have landlines either."  

“Everyone relies so heavily on reliable communication channels to go about their day to day lives so when there is a complete outage it effects the way we can operate. 

“If we are to keep our existing residents and business safe and connected while also trying to attract new people to rural area then reliable communications services need to be a priority,” Mr Nicholls said. 

Mr Nicholls explained the Tottenham Essential Energy depot has been closed, meaning services technicians are travelling from further away when there is a power blackout. 

Essential Energy’s Head of Operations, Brendon Neyland said that during December and January Western NSW was “subject to a spate of severe weather,” which caused damage to the Essential Energy electrical network. 

“Unfortunately, unplanned power outages can happen at any time and are of unknown duration, and we understand they can be inconvenient for customers. The extreme conditions also made accessing locations difficult and unsafe, which unfortunately caused some delayed to power restoration,” Mr Neyland said. 

Blackouts can be caused by a wide range of factors, including heatwaves, lighting, strong winds, fallen trees and those living in Western NSW are no strangers to frequent unplanned power outages. 

Mr Neyland continues and said, “our record show that approximately 15 customers in the Tottenham area experience outages on two separate occasions due to extreme weather in January, which combined together totalled just in excess of 48 hours.” 

“Tottenham and the surrounding areas are served by multiple depots within commutable distance, including Narromine, Warren, Parkes as well as Nyngan, Condobolin and Forbes, enabling employees, equipment and materials to be dispatched quickly and efficiently to where and when needed, minimising time customers are affected,”  he said.

Mr Neyland also encouraged that individuals and telecommunication providers have a backup plan in place in case of outages. 

A power blackout in Tottenham can result in no internet signal and cuts off landline connection, when this is matched with no phone service residents must travel an hour out of town to be able to communicate over the phone, a necessary part of running a business or just day to day life. 

“What we’ve talked about through the NSW farmers is, if we do have outages that affect all levels of communication but is there a temporary measure, or temporary fix, whether that’s a mobile phone tower put in place to keep the show going,” said Mr Nicholls. 

“If we are trying to encourage people to go into to regional areas, you know go bush, these days we are so reliant on communications of all sorts, that our communication services have to be good enough to attract people. 

“These services are quite basic services to the rest of Australia. But we’ve got to hold them to a high standard to be able to encourage people to come to the bush.” 

The towns named as service depots are all 50 minutes to 1.5 hours' drive from Tottenham.