Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Magpie sparks power cut chaos

By Kathryn King
Whanganui Chronicle·
18 Apr, 2012 10:03 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A lone magpie was the cause of a power outage affecting 6000 properties yesterday.

The incident occurred on the No2 Line property of Denise Duncan, who said the bird had been sitting on a guidewire when it somehow touched two wires at the same time.

That caused the electricity to arc, electrocuting the bird and causing an insulator on the guidewire to blow apart.

There would have been a big bang but, because the bird had been perched on a high-voltage line running across their farmland, the only ones to hear it were a mob of cattle, which took off at a run, she said.

The insulator fell to the ground, where it set fire to a wooden-staked fence and surrounding grass covering an area of about 18sq m.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mrs Duncan said they saw the cattle running, and then noticed the smoke and went to investigate.

They realised as they neared the fire that it was connected with the powerlines and a wire was hanging loose, so they turned back and called the fire service.

Thankfully, the ground was not too dry, because the area was difficult to get to and required firefighters to approach from a property on Durie Vale Rd. From there, fire officers had to walk about 450m to the site of the fire, she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Customers in Wanganui, Kaitoke, Kakatahi, Kaurangaroa, Mangamahu, Whangaehu Beach, Whangaehu Valley and Wanganui Matarawa were reportedly affected by the outage.

Power was restored to most areas by 2pm.

Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said such bird strikes were not uncommon and happened on average about once a month across their entire network.

Such outages occurred when birds either touched two wires at the same time, or one wire and an electrical "ground" - like the pole- at the same time. This caused the electricity to run through the bird, and caused faults on the network. The Wanganui Chronicle building was among those affected.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings

Whanganui Chronicle

How Whanganui achieved lowest property rates rise in NZ

Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui-based AI service features on world stage


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings
Whanganui Chronicle

Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings

'We’ve got a site earning minimal income for ratepayers, so we need to do something.'

14 Jul 04:59 AM
How Whanganui achieved lowest property rates rise in NZ
Whanganui Chronicle

How Whanganui achieved lowest property rates rise in NZ

14 Jul 04:21 AM
Whanganui-based AI service features on world stage
Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui-based AI service features on world stage

14 Jul 01:25 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP