Generators for Townsville

Cyclone Althea crossed about 50 km north of the city on Christmas Eve 1971. Its storm surge pushed seawater over the main street, nearly 200 Townsville homes lost their roofs and about nine in ten buildings on Magnetic Island were destroyed. In April 2000, Tessi crossed 80 km north and about 70% of the city lost power, while landslides on Castle Hill destroyed two homes.

Kirrily crossed the coast near Rollingstone in January 2024. It brought down 518 powerlines across the region, and it took Ergon five days to get network or generator supply back to every customer.

A long outage takes more than the lights. Three days after Yasi in 2011, many of Townsville's sewage pump stations still had no power, and after Kirrily some council water pumps went offline. In a James Cook University survey after Kirrily, local residents described outages of roughly two to six days.

A generator keeps the fridge and freezer cold, the fans and lights on and the phones charged. The right size keeps a split system running through the sticky nights after a storm.

• Fridge, lights, phones and a laptop: a 2 to 3.5 kVA inverter.
• Add the TV, microwave and fans: 3.5 to 5 kVA.
• Short, heavy jobs like the kettle: a portable power station rated above the appliance, so the generator can stay small.
• Most of the house, including a split system air conditioner: 7 to 10 kVA petrol, or 8 to 12 kVA diesel if it will run for days.
• The whole house, including ducted air conditioning: 10 kVA and up, usually diesel.

Our generator size calculator works it out in about a minute. Or browse 3 to 8 kVA and 8 to 15 kVA generators.

Most kettles draw more than a 2 kVA inverter can supply, but only for a few minutes. Sizing a whole generator for that means burning fuel all day in a machine that mostly carries a fridge and the lights. A portable power station can cover the short, heavy jobs instead.

Our Hyundai HY2000Si and HYPS2400 bundle pairs a 2 kVA inverter with a 2,400 W power station that runs most kettles and stores 1,843 Wh, and the pair costs less than buying the two separately. Through the day, the HY2000Si runs the fridge, lights and phones and recharges the battery between jobs. On the hot nights after a storm like Kirrily, the power station keeps the fridge and fans going quietly with the generator switched off. See every portable power station we sell.

Don't leave it until a cyclone watch is issued. Once the power goes, service stations can't pump fuel unless they have backup power. Buy before November, test-run it at home, store fuel safely and start it once a month so it's ready when you need it.

We're based in Townsville, so delivery across the city is free, or you can collect free from our showroom in Garbutt. Hyundai units up to 22 kVA, and other units we hold in stock here, can usually be delivered the next business day. Large diesel sets need a forklift, crane or tractor forks on site to unload, and we'll call before dispatch to arrange it.

Never plug a generator into a power point to feed the house. Backfeeding is illegal and can kill line workers. A licensed electrician fits a changeover switch and inlet so the generator can run your circuits safely, and in Townsville our electrical team can install it. Run the generator outdoors, well away from doors and windows, because the exhaust can kill.