{"id":39587,"date":"2026-06-27T10:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39587\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T10:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:15:09","slug":"attempted-copper-theft-from-energex-leaves-13000-south-east-queensland-customers-without-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/39587\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempted copper theft from Energex leaves 13,000 south-east Queensland customers without power"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attempt to steal copper from a south-east Queensland substation caused a fire and left about 13,000 customers without power overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State-owned Energex said a fire at its Browns Plains substation caused a power outage for customers in suburbs including Boronia Heights, Hillcrest and Regents Park from 2:45am.<\/p>\n

Energex field delivery general manager Kev Lavender said it appeared someone had broken into a cable pit outside the substation and attempted to cut through an 11,000-volt cable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We suspect that anyone who’s been involved in cutting through a live 11,000-volt cable could have serious injuries, and it could’ve resulted in a fatality,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Attempted<\/p>\n

The fire at the cable pit caused power outages in a number of suburbs. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Mr Lavender said at the peak of the outage, about 13,000 customers had been impacted, but by 10:15am power had been returned to almost half of those affected.<\/p>\n

Mr Lavender said Energex had seen an increase in attempts to steal copper across the network as well as in new housing estates and developments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have had nearly 1,000 attempts at cable theft across Queensland in the past 12 months,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Thousands were left without power after a fire at Energex’s Browns Plains substation. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Mr Lavender said Energex had been replacing a lot of its copper cables, and it appeared the one that was cut overnight was aluminium.<\/p>\n

He described the behaviour as “selfish”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This has happened a couple of times now with our high voltage network, so 11,000 volts and above,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s really scary for us that we’ve got members of the public willing to put themselves and others at risk.”\"Brown<\/p>\n

The fire at the Browns Plains substation led to outages for customers in suburbs including Boronia Heights, Hillcrest and Regents Park. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Major highways left in the dark as copper theft surges<\/a><\/p>\n

The practice is costing Queensland ratepayers millions of dollars in repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Queensland government introduced legislation to parliament earlier this year aimed at strengthening penalties for metal theft, including new offences relating to possession of suspected stolen metal items.<\/p>\n

The changes also place additional obligations on scrap metal dealers in an effort to make it harder for stolen copper to be resold.<\/p>\n

Mr Lavender said the public should report any suspicious behaviour around Energex’s infrastructure to police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt to steal copper from a south-east Queensland substation caused a fire and left about 13,000 customers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,13408,32149,9875,211,212,32150,32151,32152],"class_list":["post-39587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-copper-theft","tag-energex","tag-power","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-power","tag-queensland-power-outage","tag-south-east-queensland-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}