Alice Springs vegetation maintenance program

Safety is Power and Water’s top priority. Vegetation close to power lines and power infrastructure presents significant safety and power reliability risks to the power network.

Vegetation contacting with or falling onto powerlines and other power infrastructure can:

• bring live powerlines down causing major safety risks for the community and our workers
• damage electrical equipment
• cause lengthy power interruptions
• require costly repairs.

Vegetation maintenance involves a qualified arborist assessing each tree before any trimming occurs.

The arborist recommends the amount of trimming required to meet the necessary clearance distances, cycle frequency, growth rate of the individual plant and local environmental conditions.

We also work with organisations such as the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA), Central Land Council (CLC), Alice Springs Town Council and others to ensure all trees are safely trimmed and remain outside powerline clearance zones.

In Alice Springs our vegetation program has 2 parts:

• routine maintenance, undertaken every 2 years in urban areas and every 4 years in rural areas
• mid-cycle maintenance, inspecting, and if needed, trimming fast-growing trees that may grow into powerline clearance zones before the next routine maintenance cycle is due.

Vegetation management zones guide how often each tree will be trimmed. These zones have been established based on land use, vegetation and climate factors, nature strip widths and historical trimming. See the zones map and frequency table below.

Clearance standards have been set to trim trees and vegetation as little as possible. It also aims to balance the risks vegetation causes to the power network while maintaining greenery, shade, cooling and privacy, where possible.

However, this minimum requirement needs to be maintained for the full 2 year trimming cycle in urban areas and 4 year trimming cycle in rural areas. This means the regrowth of each tree over the cycle must be considered when working out how much to trim. See the clearance zone diagram below.

Powerline clearance is determined by voltage, conductor type and the distance between poles.

We have engaged Infrastructure Vegetation Management Services Australia Pty Ltd (IVMS) to undertake the vegetation maintenance program.

They are a Northern Territory owned and operated company, registered with Supply Nation as an Indigenous company.

Trimming or removal of trees near powerlines is extremely dangerous and should not be attempted by untrained or unauthorised persons.

IVMS Australia employs qualified arborists and workers who have completed authorisation training.

One to 2 weeks before any tree trimming takes place, a card will be left in nearby letterboxes. It will advise that tree maintenance will be taking place and include a contact number that you can call to discuss with us any concerns you may have.

Our contractors will trim the necessary vegetation and trees and remove all branches and waste. When trimmed branches fall within private property, the contractor will retrieve the debris without entering the private property boundary if possible. If they are unable to retrieve the cut branches and waste, they will leave a card and make arrangements with the resident to retrieve it at a later time.

We are improving how we deliver our vegetation maintenance program in a number of ways. We are:

• applying vegetation clearance standards
• ensuring the use of improved cutting techniques
• talking to stakeholders like Alice Springs Town Council, Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority and residents before any tree trimming takes place.

If you would like to find out more about how the vegetation near you or on your property will be trimmed, please contact us by:

• email: customerservice@powerwater.com.au
• phone: 1800 245 092.