Transmission line opponents standing firm

HOLD the line, don’t sign – that’s the position taken at Monday night’s community meeting in Ballan about the controversial Western Renewables Link project.

An estimated 200 people attended the Western Victorian Community Alliance meeting at the Ballan Recreation Reserve, prompting alliance spokesperson Emma Muir to comment that residents and landowners are “really fired up”.

“We will not be letting AusNet onto our farms,” she said. “This project is not suitable for our land and we will continue to close the gates and not sign.”

The Western Renewables Link project proposes a 190-kilometre overhead high-voltage electricity transmission line to carry renewable energy from Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west.

If it proceeds, it will be built, owned, operated and maintained by AusNet Services. But landowners have been outraged by the proposed route through their properties.

The ‘don’t sign’ component of the consensus at Monday’s meeting refers to not agreeing to easements on farmers’ land.

Politicians that attended the meeting included Liberal Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Bev McArthur (Western Victoria), Moira Deeming (Western Metropolitan), Ballarat-based Joe McCracken (Western Victoria) and opposition spokesman for energy and resources David Davis (Southern Metropolitan).

 

Liberal federal candidates Paula Doran (Ballarat) and Simmone Cottom (Hawke) also were present.

Speakers included Ms Muir, who lives at Myrniong, Moorabool Shire mayor Cr Paul Tatchell and Lexton CFA brigade captain Matt Briody.

Ms Muir said Cr Tatchell asked simply ‘where do you plug it in?’ while Mr Briody said his brigade does not have the training nor the equipment to deal with the “new industrialised landscape” of a transmission line.

The Australian Energy Market Operator selected AusNet to deliver the project following a tender process in December 2019.

But communities in its path are refusing to accept what they claim is increased bushfire danger from the overhead lines, an irreversible loss of agricultural land, destruction of native habitat and biodiversity, and the economic burden placed on landholders and regional communities while others reap the rewards.