Electricity company Powercor knew about a rotten power pole in 2005, 13 years before it snapped and caused St Patricks Day fire bushfire in south west Victoria, according to lawyers acting for its victims.
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That claim that the company should have known and didn't act will be key in a Supreme Court civil trial starting on Monday in Melbourne.
It's part of the official written outline of opening submitted to the court by Hall & Wilcox, lawyers for bushfire victims and their insurers, which has been obtained by ACM, the owner of this newspaper.
The opening contains the evidence victims of 2018 bushfire will rely on in their more than $19 million case against the electricity giant and an inspection contractor.
Experts will tell the court that Powercor was on notice from 2005 that the pole had a substantial internal cavity caused by rot, but failed to take any additional precautions in the subsequent 13 years leading up to its failure.
A drill test in 2005 returned a reading of just 70mm of sound wood.
A Powercor spokeswoman said the company would not be commenting while the matter was before the court.
The case is expected to be extremely topical as Victoria approaches a bumper fire danger period, and bushfires continue to devastate much of New South Wales and Queensland.
On St Patrick's Day last year, pole No. 4 on the Sparrow Spur line near Terang snapped in high wind causing a bushfire. It was one of four main bushfires caused that day in the south-west by electrical infrastructure.
According to the claim, the collapse was due to wood rot and termites producing a conical or vase-shaped void about two metres high inside the pole.
At the time of the fire, the mountain grey gum pole had been in service for 53 years in the high bushfire danger area.
It was double staked in 1994, shifting the load point from ground level to above the stakes.
But, expert evidence suggests these works reduced the strength of the pole by 25 to 30 per cent and allowed increased moisture to enter the pole through large bolt holes - producing a more conducive environment for timber rot and decay.
In other words, a measure designed to strengthen the pole and prolong its service life ultimately had the opposite effect.
- Hall & Wilcox claim.
Expert evidence will be heard that data collected on inspections was not actioned, leaving enormous gaps in Powercor's knowledge of its ageing fleet of 580,000 power poles.
Subsequent inspectors were kept in the dark about the fact that the pole had been impacted by rot for over a decade, the court will be told. Inspections were also undertaken when inspectors were under pressure to meet targets during an impending tender/contract renewal process and some checks were completed in under four minutes, it will also be claimed.
Experts will say even visual inspections should have set off alarm bells in 2005 about pole No. 4 and defects would have been visible at all four subsequent inspections. The last inspection was carried out on November 30, 2017 - just four months before the bushfire.
The plaintiffs will claim the inspection in 2005, and every one since, were performed incompetently.
They say the drilling tests identified "well established decay" and had the inspections been properly performed, the pole would have been identified and removed from service years before the fire.
A series of fires in the Terang district on St Patrick's Day led to the loss of 18 homes, 45 sheds and thousands of stock.
The plaintiffs in The Sisters/Garvoc fire, many dairy farmers, sustained damaged of about $19.1 million and have had ongoing business losses in addition to the massive psychological toll on the victims and their community.
A class action run by Warrnambool's Maddens Lawyers in relation to the same fire was recently settled.
Other legal actions in relation to fires at Terang/Cobden, Camperdown/Gnotuk and Gazette bushfires in the south-west are also in the process of or have been settled.
