By Parker McKenzie
Businesses in Olinda were left without power for nearly 48 hours after an ancient oak tree split and severed power lines twice on two different occasions.
After the English Oak tree split on Thursday 3 November with a large section of it falling and damaging a nearby power line, businesses in the surrounding area lost power.
Owner of Rubies and Rust Marquita Telford said her business lost two days of trading after losing power on two different occasions.
“We had to take all of our stock homes and put in in our freezes, we are lucky because we don’t live in Olinda and aren’t on the same grid,” she said.
“The first part of the tree came down on Thursday, on the Friday there was a gentleman who ran out on onto the road after the rest started creaking and stopped a school bus from going under the tree as the second half was coming down.”
Ms Telford said it took 48 hours for power to be restored to her business, with part of the work taking place at 2am in the morning.
“It was a very messy and dangerous thing,” she said.
“All my staff are casuals and couldn’t work, we still have to pay rent and all our outgoings. Nothing stops as far as that is concerned, but we had no income coming in for two days.”
Other businesses went online to encourage people to shop locally to help the Olinda businesses that were impacted by the power outages.
It’s definitely triggering for us all when a huge tree comes down and takes out powerlines and this monumental oak is no different,” Emma Jennings, who owns a gallery in Olinda wrote.
“We lost two days of trading in the busy lead-up to Christmas, so even though we’ve all heard it a thousand times, it’s really important and meaningful to shop locally.”
As reported previously in the Star Mail, the remains of the tree will be used for a community project through Treasuring Our Trees.
