Recent changes to the proposed corridor for the 500kv Victorian New South Wales interconnector have placed additional stress on some of the region’s families as they now find themselves in the firing line.

Wayne and Lara Bennett and their four children run an intensive 600-acre farming operation on the outskirts of Moulamein. The Bennett’s property sits between the majestic floodplain jewels, the Edward River and Billabong Creek, but now, the altered VNI West puts their generations of tranquillity in jeopardy.    

I sat and chatted to Wayne; our backdrop was the golden rays of the setting sun flickering through the trees lining the Edward River. The Bennetts were busy after a day of shearing. Lara and eldest daughter, Mia, were backlining the freshly shorn ewes, with Wayne pressing up the large pile of fleeces. 

“I was devastated when I got the news. I know it’s not definitely coming through here, but I just don’t trust them. I’m sure they know where it’s going and they’re just not telling us,” said Wayne between arm loads of wool.

“It’s devastating for a small family farm, but what do you do?

“It’s the worst thing I could imagine each day, walking out to see that overhead.”

Wayne is also concerned about the impacts on their farm as every acre is vital, and planes play a big role in their agricultural pursuits. He fears the giant towers will also crash land prices.  

“I grew up here and we raised the kids here. Every cent you earn you put back into the farm.

“We’ve made improvements in that and then this.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I just don’t feel safe if it does come overhead. I’d hate to be working under it or have my kids working under it for the next 40 or 50 years.

“It’d be awful from what I hear for land values in the district. But it’s probably more of the family impacts. You’ve made your nest and this is where you’re planning on seeing out your years.” 

The Bennetts are not alone in their opposition to the most recent proposal. A group representing the Moulamein/Mellool and surrounding districts say it’s undergrounding or nothing and are calling for the project to be halted until the findings are handed down from the NSW Upper House Inquiry in March 2024.

Kate Redfearn, an active member of the community group, said she was disappointed with the route redirection.

“We were really disappointed with the revised or the alternate route that they (Transgrid) sent out.

“They sent it out without any explanation and to us, it created a lot more angst, because it’s just brought more people into the corridor.

“They’ve given us no explanation as to why they’ve done it, and they sent it out at four o’clock on a Friday, so it left people pretty anxious all the weekend.”

A media release from Transgrid on October 6 stated ‘Community and landowner feedback has supported an expansion of the preferred corridor for VNI West.’

Project Director Colin Mayer said, “We have undertaken extensive engagement with locals through community information days, individual meetings with landowners and in written submissions, following our extended consultation period for the Draft Corridor Report.”

Although, Kate said the group feels they aren’t being heard and it feels like a ‘tick the box’ exercise.

“We feel they haven’t listened to us at all. We gave feedback and we want them to consider the underground option, and we think at the very least, they need to wait until the inquiry results come out.  

“We feel they’re just ticking the boxes.

“We all attended many meetings, the face to face, all that type of thing and we feel they haven’t listened to a word.

“Each time we went to meet representatives, there was someone different and they gave me different answers.”

In the federal government’s rush to exit reliable coal fired power generation, many projects seem to be facing strong criticism or fundamental failures. 

The ‘Nation Building’ project of Snowy 2.0 has tunnelled just 150m of the 15km required while seeing costs already blown out from $2 billion to $12 billion. $2 billion of the cost blow-out is estimated to be from the stuck $150 million, 2,400-tonne boring machine Florence. A Four Corners investigation revealed that the last 19 months of having the machine bogged should have been avoided, as in the weeks before Florence was launched, workers had drilled ahead to explore the tunnel’s planned route. Four Corners had been told that around 100m in, they hit soft ground. Thousands of litres of water gushed out and instead of investigating the problem, one worker says the hole was simply plugged and they launched Florence as planned. Eight weeks later, the soft ground was encountered and the machine was effectively bogged.

With such failures and a seeming lack of ability to think critically, do we need to debate some of the current challenges openly and find the best solution for the nation?  

Recently, attention was brought to a report commissioned by Rethink Humelink, titled ‘Undergrounding: Review of Transgrid Report and Costing for HVDC Alternatives’. The report presents a strong case for undergrounding and raises questions about the transparency of the decision-making process by Transgrid.

Similarly, critics to VNI West led by Victoria Energy Policy Centre head Bruce Mountain, and transmission industry veteran Simon Bartlett argue that VNI-West is ill-conceived, too costly, will restrict renewable investment and will hinder Victoria’s ambitious 95 per cent renewables target.

‘Plan B’ – what they say is a shorter and cheaper circuit that mostly uses existing easements and will deliver more renewable power to the state of Victoria.

The 83-page document titled ‘No Longer Lost in Transmission’, argues that Plan B is significantly cheaper – $6 billion versus the estimated $11 billion for VNI West and its associated projects reducing transmission charges in consumer bills and will unlock more renewables (16.8GW vs 14.4GW) while using 207km shorter route and using more existing easements, 1,300km vs 130km!

I used to wonder about the great pyramids and how civilisations ‘lost’ knowledge. I wonder no more when I see what our country built 80 years ago to the circus before me today. One word – regression. 

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 9 November 2023.

Related stories: see Transmission line.