Dinner addresses powerline pressures

By Lachlan Ellis

The mental health impacts of the ongoing battle to get a controversial powerline route put underground has perhaps not been talked about enough, but a recent event has allowed locals to open up.

A complimentary dinner was hosted at St Anne’s Winery in Myrniong by the Moorabool and Central Highlands Power Alliance (MCHPA), and sponsored by Moorabool Shire Council, on Wednesday 26 October.

While MCHPA members are used to attending protests and community meetings to discuss the Western Renewables Link (WRL), this was a different kind of event, inviting the community to connect and discuss mental strengthening strategies.

Guest speaker was psychologist Shawn Price.

MCHPA Chair Emma Muir said the dinner was a fantastic and well-received event, and she hoped to have similar events run in the future.

“We discussed mental health, staying connected, and looking after your community. It was a pretty informal evening, it was an opportunity for people that are impacted, directly and indirectly, to get together for a chat,” Ms Muir told the Moorabool News.

“After two and a half years of fighting this, I can only speak for myself, but it’s taken over a huge amount of our lives, and it can be pretty depressing. I think we should probably do more events like this, we need to focus on our mental health as a community.”

Ms Muir thanked Council for its ongoing support of the cause.

“There’s a lot of stuff Council does behind the scenes. They’ve been very supportive of our Alliance and have committed to helping us with submissions when the EES takes place, which is a big win for us. We meet quite regularly to update one another on the situation, on what they can tell us as some of it’s confidential,” she said.

“I think Council is doing a lot that the average community member might not be interested to know, it’s not always visible stuff…but they’re quite supportive of us and the community.”

Around 90 people attended the dinner on Wednesday night.