Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 23 November 1994
Parliamentary Record 6
Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997
1994-11-23
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES - Wednesday 23 November 1994 A D JO U RN M EN T M r PA L M E R (Prim ary Industry and Fisheries): M r Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn. M rs H IC K E Y (Barkly): Mr Speaker, as honourable members would be aware, Darwin experienced a storm a couple o f nights ago that resulted in power failure in many parts o f the northern suburbs. I live in Ludmilla and my home was without power from about 7 pm until approximately 9 pm that night. I understand that Nightcliff and Coconut Grove were without power for some 5 hours. It is certainly o f concern to me and to people who have made representations to me that the power supply should have been cut for so long. Although the storm was fairly intense, it was not o f a serious nature or representative o f anything approaching cyclonic conditions. At the time, I had at my home 20 students from Murray Downs School and Rockhampton Downs School in my electorate with their teachers and teacher aides. They were at my residence in Darwin for a barbecue and to swim in the pool. It was certainly a lively night, given the lightning and thunder, and the kids were out o f the pool fairly quickly. However, we were in the dark for those 2 hours. Luckily, we have a gas barbecue and were able to cook the food on that. I would like to pay tribute to the teachers and the teacher aides who were present with those children. It was extremely dark and we had to improvise with candles. Since I do not live full time in that house, I do not have the sort o f equipment, such as gas lanterns etc, that one might normally have. The children were extremely well behaved and orderly. They came out o f the pool when there was lightning about and made sure that they dried themselves thoroughly. They sat quietly and, when we ran out o f things to do because it was dark and they could not play the games children usually play, the teachers entertained them. In turn, they entertained the teachers with songs, riddles, story telling and so on. Those children certainly acquitted themselves very well on that occasion. They did not panic nor did they take advantage o f the situation by acting foolishly. The children came to the Assembly on Tuesday for the sitting. They are bush kids. Very few o f them had actually been to Darwin before and they certainly enjoyed the experience. They are a credit to their communities, their schools and their teachers. I was very pleased to see them. However, I was not very pleased that we had to conduct our barbecue in total darkness for the 2 hours that we were without power. Ironically enough, the power went off about 5 minutes after their arrival and when they had just gone into the pool. It came back on the minute their bus left my premises. I hope the minister responsible for PAWA will be investigating with his organisation why the power was off for so long at Ludmilla and, more particularly perhaps, at Nightcliff and Coconut Grove where, I understand from the member for Nhulunbuy, the power was off for about 5 hours. I consider that a very serious length o f time to be without power. Given the kind o f weather that we will experience from now on, this is unlikely to be an isolated incident. I am sure that we will experience far worse storms in the nights ahead than the one we experienced on Monday evening. 1849