Warning for visitors to Phillip Island

Power remains out across large parts of Phillip Island this afternoon (Friday), just as an influx of visitors from Melbourne were due to arrive.

Some Cowes east and Silverleaves residents had power restored this afternoon, while the SP Ausnet alert said most in this area would be restored by 7.30pm tonight.

But large parts of the island remained in the dark – including Newhaven, Cape Woolamai, Rhyll, Sunderland Bay and southern areas of Cowes – with the SP Ausnet outage tracker this afternoon indicating it would be restored on Saturday, “11:59PM 30/10/2021”.

This includes more than 1850 homes at Cape Woolamai, 660 at Surf Beach, about 640 at Rhyll and 450 south of Cowes.

Earlier the outage tracker had stated 12:00AM 01/01/0001, which referred to incidents still under investigation.

It was hit and miss for many areas, with Cowes west and Ventnor not losing power.

Gale force winds overnight and this morning saw power cut to homes about 8am.

Businesses in Cowes were also impacted, with sections of Thompson Ave continuing to have electricity but Chapel Street businesses not so lucky.

The last power outage in June, just before the Queen’s birthday long weekend, saw homes and businesses without electricity for many days.

So today’s outage had many concerned, with lockdown restrictions ending at 6pm tonight in time for the Melbourne Cup long weekend.

Driving conditions remained hazardous this afternoon, with trees blocking roads. While winds had eased, gusts were still blowing up to 35 knots, expected to ease to 25-30 knots about 5pm.

Early this morning the Phillip Island SES reported they were inundated with callouts, with trees down across the island and rooves damaged, with the state SES phone number failing to work during the day because of the volume of calls.

Penguin parade

Phillip Island Nature Parks this morning closed the Koala Conservation Reserve, Churchill Island, Oswin Roberts Reserve and the Summerland Peninsula “until we can assess any storm damage, and safely re-open these sites”.

This afternoon PINP said The Penguin Parade would be going ahead this evening, with the visitor centre open from 6pm.

But there was no access to the Nobbies or Summerland Peninsula today as the road was closed, while the Koala Conservation Reserve and Churchill Island remained shut.

Some businesses, such as the Island Kebabs food truck (pictured) were forced to close because of damage.

Businesses

Phillip Island Ten Pin Bowling, which had only just opened a week ago with eased restrictions, was closed this morning but opened again this afternoon when power was restored.

North Pier Hotel was closed for lunch because of the outage and this afternoon said they hoped to be open in time for dinner service.

Pino’s Trattoria said their phone and internet had been down all day but had been restored this afternoon.

Sayuri Innes from Youki’s Japanese Restaurant on Chapel Street said their business lost power about 8am but was able to operate because she bought a back-up generator after the power outage that happened at the June long weekend.

“I thought it would never happen again but we bought one just to be sure and so we’re now able to use lights, the till and cook,” Sayuri said.

“We did have extra staff on in expectation of lots of visitors but I told four not to come in, just because we are running on basic power.”

Sayuri said in June they threw out thousands of dollars’ worth of food, but thanks to the generator they were able to salvage it.

Power was also out at Wonthaggi Secondary College about midday today with parents encouraged to pick up their children.