Shock, smoke or a hot smell? Stop there
If someone has had a shock or there's smoke or fire, call 000, and don't touch anyone who may still be in contact with the power. A tingle from a tap, shower or appliance gets reported to Energex on 13 19 62. A burning smell from a power point or the switchboard means that circuit stays off until an electrician has looked.
Why Gold Coast homes develop the faults they do
Damp air and a long wet season
Afternoon humidity averages 70% in January and February, and the coast gets about 92 rain days a year, with February the wettest month. Faults that only show up after rain, or on a muggy night, usually point to moisture in an outdoor fitting, a junction box or a cable joint.
Older homes in the original suburbs
Southport still has Queenslanders from around 1900 and streets of 1950s and 60s fibro bungalows. Burleigh has blocks of 1960s and 70s flats. Homes this age may have been extended and partly rewired more than once, and that patchwork is where faults like to hide.
Power down to the water
Most canal-front homes have a pontoon. Power and lights out there, along with any pool pump or garden lights, run outdoors in the wettest spots on the property, so they're an obvious suspect when a safety switch trips for no clear reason.
Storm and surge damage
Christmas 2023 left 400 Gold Coast houses damaged, and Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred brought gusts over 100 km/h in March 2025. After weather like that, look for appliances that died together, lights that flicker since, or outdoor fittings that filled with water. Storm and flood damage covers that side.
Queensland's safety switch rule can change the job
In Queensland, a licensed electrician must not do installation work in a home that has no approved safety switch protecting the power points, unless the job includes installing one or an exception such as an emergency applies. An approved safety switch is an RCD (a switch that cuts the power fast if current leaks to earth) that trips at no more than 30 milliamps.
So in an older home with a fuse box and no safety switch, a simple repair can come with a recommendation to add one first. That's the rule, not an upsell. It also lines up with what you'd face anyway if you sell, rent the place out or buy it: the new owner, or the landlord at the start of a tenancy, has 90 days to have one installed.
Tell the electrician this before they arrive
- Which switch tripped and what its label says.
- Whether it happens after rain, in humid weather, or at random.
- What runs outside: pontoon power, pool pump, garden lights, a shed.
- Any storm or surge before it started.
- Rough age of the house, and any renovations you know of.
- If it's a unit, your body corporate manager's details, in case the fault is in shared wiring.
Safe checks, and where they stop
You can
- See if the neighbours have power. If they don't, check Energex's Outage Finder or call 13 62 62.
- Reset a tripped switch once, with everything on that circuit unplugged.
- Plug appliances back in one at a time to find a faulty one.
- Press each safety switch's test button. Queensland law treats that as a test anyone can do.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Tracing a fault in wiring, junction boxes or outdoor circuits.
- Replacing any damaged power point, switch, light or breaker.
- Adding a safety switch to an older board.
- Checking anything that's been wet before it's switched back on.
Renters, and the paperwork at the end
If you rent, report the fault to the agent or landlord in writing and say plainly if it seems dangerous. With a third of Gold Coast homes rented, plenty of repair jobs go through a property manager, so expect the electrician to arrange access with them.
Once the repair is connected, the electrical contractor gives you a certificate of testing and compliance listing what was tested, when, and their licence number. If the same fault comes back, call the same electrician and ask what they tested and found.
If it were our place
We'd write down when the fault happens before ringing anyone, because on the Gold Coast the pattern is often the clue: after rain, overnight in summer, or only when the pool pump starts. Then we'd book an electrician who does fault finding most days, and ask them to test the outdoor circuits first if the house is near the water.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.