It wasn't quite planes, trains and automobiles but it wasn't far from it when our Telecommunications technicians set out to reconnect the town of St Albans in New South Wales follow a record-breaking flood. 

The people of St Albans, a small historic town 94 kilometres from Sydney, had become isolated from surrounding areas when flooding took down power lines, causing widespread communications outages and blocking roads. 

The Ventia Essential Telecommunications Services team of Theo Drakos and Robert Zabek were tasked with getting the town reconnected, a critical job given the communications networks in the area carry emergency services traffic. 

With mains power unable to be restored in the short term, the team first needed to install a temporary generator to restore power to the local telecommunications site. 

Reconnecting the site was one thing - but getting to it was another. With no road access, the team looked to the sky in order to reach the town. Working with the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service, Theo and Robert, along with their equipment, were taken to the site via helicopter. 

Once on the ground in St Albans they connected the generator and tested the systems, liaising with our client along the way to verify the site — and therefore the local communications network — was back up and running.

The technicians then set out to return, but with all air traffic out of St Albans cancelled, they had to make their way out via boat, taking them along the Hawkesbury River to Wisemans Ferry where they were able to reconnect with their vehicles for the final journey home.  

'Our Essential Services team are renowned for going where they need to go, in order to keep communities connected', said Ventia National Manager NOC Services Michael Dalton.

"It's not often the journey involves air and water travel but it's another example of how we overcome challenges and work with other services in order to get the job done."