Nathan Luke Stevens Cleared After Worker’s Electrocution at Queensland Pineapple Farm

Introduction
A Queensland farmer has been cleared of all charges over the 2021 death of a young worker who was fatally electrocuted at a pineapple farm near Yeppoon. The decision concludes a complex four-year legal process that involved multiple appeals and highlighted serious safety failures in rural electrical infrastructure.

Details of the Incident
On July 14, 2021, 25-year-old Cody Smith was working with a team of pickers and machine operators at Lake Mary Pines in Bungundarra, about 50 kilometres from Rockhampton.

While loading pineapples onto the boom of a harvester, the machine came into direct or close contact with a sagging high-voltage power line. Six workers received electrical shocks, including Smith, who was fatally injured. Three workers escaped unscathed, while others, including Nathan Stevens, were taken to hospital.

The overhead power line was later found to be 4.52 metres above the ground, while the harvester’s height was 4.36 metres—well within striking distance. The line was normally suspended at about 7.8 metres, but a supporting stay wire had corroded and failed, allowing the cable to hang dangerously low.

Initial Charges and Trial
Following an investigation by Work Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ), Nathan Stevens and his father Colin Stevens, directors of the Lake Mary Pines trust, were each charged with failing to comply with an electrical safety duty under Queensland’s safety laws.

Both men were found not guilty in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court in March 2024. WHSQ appealed, and in February 2025, the District Court overturned the decision for Nathan Stevens, finding him guilty, while upholding Colin Stevens’s acquittal.

Stevens subsequently appealed again, with a final hearing in the Brisbane District Court on September 19, 2025.

Appeal Outcome
Judge Lincoln Crowley delivered his judgment in late October, setting aside the earlier guilty verdict and reinstating the original finding of not guilty.

Crowley ruled that the evidence could not determine when the power line had sagged to the dangerous height that caused the fatal contact:
“It is uncertain when the power line sagged to the height that it was at the time of the incident.”

The court also noted that the line had been inspected by Ergon Energy in 2020, when corrosion was identified but replacement was deemed unnecessary. The power company was separately fined $300,000 in 2023 for failing to meet its safety obligations.

WHSQ was ordered to pay court costs following Stevens’s successful appeal.

Aftermath and Industry Context
The electrocution shocked the Yeppoon farming community and prompted calls for stricter oversight of electrical infrastructure on agricultural properties. The case highlighted the risks posed by overhead power lines to workers operating tall machinery in rural areas—particularly during and after periods of heavy rainfall, which can destabilise equipment and supporting poles.

Ergon Energy and other utilities have since undertaken reviews of overhead line maintenance schedules across high-risk farming districts.

Conclusion
With Nathan Stevens cleared of all charges, the Lake Mary Pines case formally concludes after more than four years of investigations and appeals. For Cody Smith’s family, the legal outcome brings closure to the proceedings but not to the tragedy that cost a young worker his life—a stark reminder of the ongoing safety challenges facing Queensland’s agricultural industry.