transmission line

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.

A number of landowners on the Eastern side of Allora have been approached by Wind Prospect Pty Ltd to discuss plans for turbines in or near their property. The Victorian-based wind-power company is believed to be planning construction of up to 60 wind turbines and more than 30km of high-voltage power lines and towers in the Allora area.

Confusion reigns amongst farmers and other landowners in southern Gippsland as the state government's new kid on the bloc, VicGrid, has pushed aside their negotiations with existing companies over the various transmission projects that will be built across the region under the government's renewable energy policy. This comes across the background of the blackouts caused by storms last week that brought down transmission lines and electricity poles that led to the closure of Loy Yang A power station.

The peak representative bodies for Tasmanian and Victorian farmers have joined forces to call for fair land access rules in the face of rapid renewable energy developments taking over prime agricultural land. TasFarmers and the VFF released the Farm Access Code of Conduct which is aimed at promoting respectful and sensible infrastructure development on agricultural land.

After 100 years of growing Australian food and fibre, and enhancing their farm’s environmental assets, the Ettershanks now face their biggest challenge, power lines. Under the recent release of Transgrid’s proposed route for the VNI West Interconnector, Simon and Carly Ettershank’s 2,000-hectare property now has twenty 75-80-metre-tall towers across their home.  

The Reckless Renewables Rally brought to together 116 regional community groups with a message for Federal politicians to suspend their reckless rollout ... ‘People living in our cities are being deceived. Rural and regional communities are being socially fractured, divided up and hollowed out by our own government and their energy corporation’s working in unison with home grown renewables zealots and foreign renewable energy company carpetbaggers’: Chairman of PRA Jim Willmott.

As Australians were stocking fridges and checking gas bottles before Australia Day, local farmers were receiving word that the towering transmission lines would carve through their properties. One farmer said it was the first contact they had from the company, stating “no personal contact” before receiving the news that left them feeling “side swiped.”

The State Government’s reckless rush to renewables is threatening Australia’s energy grid and the livelihoods of farmers and their communities, Member for Mallee Anne Webster says. In its draft 2024 Integrated System Plan (ISP) … (AEMO) has brought forward the expected exit of the network’s coal-fired power stations to 2038 - five years earlier than the 2022 ISP.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is concerned not enough is being done to protect the rights of landholders when it comes to the development and operation of transmission lines across farmland … newly released Land Access Code of Practice falls short of offering farmers the protections they need.