General News
4 June, 2023
Farmer suddenly in tower zone
By CHRIS EARL TYLER Nelson had been following AEMO plans to string 500 kiloVolt transmission lines across land on the south of side of Boort. He and wife Kate had made a submission during AEMO’s six-week consultation period on Option 5. Although...
By CHRIS EARL
TYLER Nelson had been following AEMO plans to string 500 kiloVolt transmission lines across land on the south of side of Boort.
He and wife Kate had made a submission during AEMO’s six-week consultation period on Option 5.
Although their Leaghur irrigation and dryland farm was outside the shaded area on AEMO’s second bid for a preferred option released in February, Trent went to one of just two Loddon pop-up consultations to learn more about what the project meant for the area.
But on Friday morning, when Option 5A was prematurely put on the government-owned energy operator’s website, Leaghur was for the first time in AEMO’s sights and the Nelson farm firmly in the map’s shaded area.
Trent and Kate had a No Go AEMO sign ready to put on the farm gate, now expecting their first contact from AEMO any day to talk about future land use and access if the final route goes through Leaghur.
“The map now is very different to what they put out before,” Trent said. “Not many people north of Boort had been engaged but now all of a sudden we’re in the mix.”
Trent said the sudden change of preferred route came with “lots of unknowns and a lack of information”.
“We have had no interaction (consultation) with AEMO ... what will this do to land values?
“We need to raise awareness around the district. People probably think these are standard powerlines, they’re not.”
Trent also questioned the speed of the VNI West process. “Nothing good comes out of a project that rushed,” he said.
And Kate questioned whether AEMO had factored in data researched by Professor Bruce Mountain who has advocated alternatives to VNI West.
“We want consultation and information,” they said.