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transmission line
“Farmers grow food – not power lines”
Jenny Pollard. The message was clear as farmers from around the Charlton district greeted representatives from the Transmission Company Victoria (TCV) with farm machinery bearing signs of dissatisfaction, as last Wednesday’s meeting about the Victoria to NSW Interconnector West (VNI West) at the Charlton Shire Hall opened to the public.
In-depth discussions with TCV specialists: Communities “drop-in”
More than 120 landholders and community members “dropped in” to Transmission Company Victoria’s (TCV) community information sessions last week for one-on-one discussions on all aspects of the VNI West project. Held in Kerang, Charlton and Stawell, the informal five-hour sessions were a direct response to community feedback...
Shire meets with farmers
Carey Brennan. On Thursday, April 11, approximately 80 farmers filled the Donald Memorial Hall supper room to hear from the Buloke Shire and several speakers, to find out exactly what the Victorian NSW Interconnector (VNI) West Transmission Lines project means for this district.
Stripping right to appeal is an insult to regional communities
Independent Federal Member for Indi, Helen Haines, has written to the Victorian government expressing her dismay with its decision to remove the right for third parties to appeal renewable energy planning decisions through VCAT ... In her letter to the Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosia and Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny, Dr Haines expressed concern that under the current system, there are not enough safeguards to ensure communities are heard and their issues acted upon by developers.
Farmers attack energy fast-track
The state government’s new policy to fast-track renewable energy projects by accelerating planning approvals has been strongly attacked by Victoria’s peak farming body and one of the state’s leading planning experts. The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) said the policy was a slap in the face after years of sham consultation with farming communities, while the RMIT Emeritus Professor of Environment and Planning, Michael Buxton, said it would lead to “terrible decisions”, with wind and solar farms being “placed in the wrong location".
VicGrid study area released
VicGrid has released its study area for the new transmission infrastructure through South Gippsland that will transport energy from offshore wind into the Latrobe Valley (LV) electricity grid. The study area starts about six kilometres from the coast near Giffard and travels north-west past Stradbroke West, to Willung, across to Flynns Creek and on to the Loy Yang power station.
Interstate farmers unite in the face of transmission lines
Victorian and Tasmanian farmer peak bodies have produced a policy for developers who want to build infrastructure, such as transmission lines for renewable energy, across their farmland. They warned that since the year 2000, Australia’s available arable land had been reduced by 15 per cent, much of it lost to infrastructure development and urban sprawl. The policy has been released as Gippsland farmers face plans for pipelines and transmission lines across their land as part of the state government’s energy policy, which aims to link offshore wind farms to the Latrobe Valley energy network.
Power poles
Walk out your front door and look down the street. If you are in the regions or in suburbia, then you will look at a tall wooden pole that carries the cables that gives you electricity. Have you taken much notice of them? Probably not, but the pole is native hardwood harvested from a native forest where, through the application of science, it was encouraged to grow that straight. Timber power poles are selectively harvested from regrowth or working forests.
Renewables fast-track steam rolls farmers: VFF
The VFF says the Victorian Government’s fast-tracking of renewable energy projects by accelerating planning approvals is a slap in the face after years of sham consultation with farming communities. VFF President Emma Germano said the green-lighting of major renewable projects adds to a poor-track record of consulting landholders set to be impacted and risks further alienating already frustrated farmers across Victoria.
Aerial checks start this week
A Transgrid helicopter will take to the skies across the Riverina-Murray, Sunraysia and Far West regions from this week to inspect high-voltage electricity transmission lines for the network’s annual bushfire prevention program.
