Powerlines run across our paddocks. Considering the distance covered, its surprising there is only one pole on our property. It's just an oddity of the landscape.

There's a pole in the neighbour's paddock, right on the fenceline. It could have easily been located 2 metres further and it would have been in our paddock. (It would have been a bad spot, cutting into the wide-lane perimeter track that is used by bigger trucks during harvest.) I don't think its location is anything to do with any decisions made by whoever installed the powerlines...I expect the powerlines were in place before a much larger farm was segmented into smaller acreages.

So, the one pole in our place is in the highest spot in our olive paddocks. It sits high on an embankment, then the powerline travels downwards to the river. The next pole is on the other side of the river, again not in our paddocks. The powerlines droop over the tops of the trees. Inspectors come in at least four times a year and check the lines against our olive trees. They are always very nice, working with us rather than against us, so if there's time they will let me prune the trees that have grown too high. Sometimes I leave it to them to do...if the tree needs a harsh prune anyway.

They mulch it all up. They are always very professional and polite.

This time, the inspection was about the pole itself rather than the powerlines. The pole was an old wooden hardwood pole. In the time we've been here its been treated for white ants more than three times. Its at least three because they hammer beautiful enameled markers into the pole to keep an onsite record of previous treatments. As I remember it, its been five treatments, but the last time I looked there were only two "T"'s in the pole.

That termite treatment then becomes another issue. We were audited by the Meat and Livestock Association a few years back. A steer I sold at market had the paperwork ticked on "Never had anti-biotics". While it was a true statement, at that particular sale there were a LOT of cattle with the same tick. The MLA audited all of us. I got a bit stressed about it, assuming it was, say, like a health inspector looking to find fault in a kitchen. In fact it was a beneficial experience. The chap doing the audit arrived with the mindset of training me rather than punishing/investigating me, and I learned a lot.

One thing that came out of it was that power poles should be fenced off from livestock, because...surprise...cattle have a tendency to rub up against a heavy wooden pole. If its been treated for termites there is an increased possibility the beast will come into contact with something toxic. As a result I fenced it off. Anyway, the powerline inspections and treatments have had more than one consequence.

So, this inspection was about the pole, but it was more of a site visit to scope the work needed to replace it. It had already been decided it had had its time and was being replaced with a concrete pole.

There is a tree missing near the pole, but otherwise its surrounded by mature olive trees planted on a 8 x 9 metre grid. The pole is a long way from the road through our place and the front gate, so they would need to get a big delivery truck in to drop the pole off, then on the day quite a few utes and trucks, digging machinery, cherry picker. It was a big job.

The project manager came to the house to speak to me about it, asking about access to the pole location, and see whether I had any suggestions. I showed him the wider perimeter track, which avoided scraping through the grove itself, and the big truck turning circle that had been created by default from some missing olive trees.

He came back to the house later and spellt out the need to prune the big pine tree at the point they would have to turn off our road. I get it, they have a job to do, so I wasn't going to be difficult about it, and said "Sure, if you have to. Its the best shade under that tree and my cows use it every day, but do what you have to do."

He was very polite about it, but pointed out that the tree had been planted AFTER the powerlines were put in.

So, over the next two weeks a crew came and dropped off the pole, and with it a mechano set of big-voltage electrical fittings. A few days later someone worked out in the paddock assembling the fittings, creating a like-for-like replacement pole. The tree got pruned, a letter went out locally to every residence warning of the day-long power outage.

We've only just had a steer go into the freezer. I expect a chest freezer full of frozen meat would hold its temperature pretty well, but I set up a generator so we could maintain power for the day. I took down the fence around the pole. Lastly, the night before the big day I moved the cattle and penned them into a paddock away from all the action. That left all the gates open so the parade of trucks could come and go without the constant hassle of gates.

As it turns out they sent multiple crews out, and did poles all over the area, not just the one on our place.

It all went well, and they had finished by three o'clock. There's a bit of scuffed turf around the pole, and tyre marks through the long grass, but otherwise you'd be hard pressed to know what a big job had been completed.