Visitors shell shocked over LPG shortage

Anne and Rob Bawden’s Ford Falcon only takes liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – and nowhere in town had any. 

“Rob went to fill up the car at Shell when we arrived and they told him the gas was being fixed and it would take about a week,” Mrs Bawden said.

“We believed them and kept driving around then when we went back a week later they said it would be another week.

“We would have had enough gas to make it to Julia Creek or Camooweal if we had  known there would not be any gas – we would have been able to make it out,” she said. 

The North West Star understands there was no LPG gas available in Mount Isa for more than a month. 

The LPG was finally repaired at the Shell station on Friday morning. 

It was too little too late for the Bawdens who had pay to have their car towed to Julia Creek on Tuesday. 

The couple could not wait another day – they had to get back to their disabled son in South Australia. 

“There are other travellers who are going to get stuck out here in this situation because all of the research shows there is gas here, the Shell website was still saying it offered LPG when it didn’t,” Mr Bawden said. 

“I think it is pretty poor that nobody is taking responsibility, your local council did not even care and they have a lot tourists coming into town.”

Mount Isa City Council said they had not been contacted about an LPG shortage.

A spokeswoman from Viva Energy said the fix was delayed as the parts required to fix the LPG pump were not available in Mount Isa, and a contractor had to drive up from Brisbane to fix it. 

“We are aware that the LPG pump at the Mount Isa service station on Grace Street is currently out of service.  A maintenance call has been logged and we expect the service to be fixed later this week,” she said.

“The limited availability of certified contractors makes it very difficult to service equipment in remote areas and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience that may have been caused.”