If a storm has hit your place
Treat any fallen powerline as live and stay more than 8 to 10 metres away. Call AusNet on 13 17 99, and call 000 if anyone is in danger. Don't switch anything back on that's been in water until a licensed electrician has checked it.
Why storms matter so much here
A suburb of houses and gardens
At the 2021 Census, 95.4% of Mooroolbark's homes were separate houses and 38.7% had four or more bedrooms. Settlement picked up after World War II, and dairy farms were sold for subdivision in the 1960s.
June 2021
In Parliament, the Member for Evelyn said the 9 June 2021 storms ripped trees out across Mooroolbark, Lilydale, Silvan, Mount Evelyn and Montrose, and devastated the homes of around 80 families.
August 2024
AusNet's longest sustained weather event in over a decade caused around 93,000 customer outages, with the Yarra Ranges among the hardest hit areas.
The network around you
AusNet's planning report lists zone substations at Croydon, Chirnside Park and Lilydale, and in 2025 AusNet announced more bushfire protection work in the Lilydale area.
Bickleigh Vale
Edna Walling's Bickleigh Vale village is on the Victorian Heritage Register and in the Yarra Ranges Heritage Overlay (HO75), so changes there need extra care.
The jobs storms leave behind
If a branch has dragged the cable from the pole or damaged the point where it meets the house, report it to AusNet first. Once the network side is safe, an electrician checks and repairs the wiring on the house side.
Water is the other big one. Outdoor power points, garden lights and shed circuits take the brunt, and a safety switch that keeps tripping after rain is usually pointing at one of them.
Older houses with only one or two safety switches can lose the whole house to one wet circuit. Splitting circuits across more safety switches keeps the rest of the house running.
If it were our place in Mooroolbark
We'd make sure every circuit is on a safety switch before the next storm season, outdoor and shed circuits first. It's the simplest protection a house on a tree-lined street can have.
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.