A GROUP of Murrabit farmers have met to discuss ongoing energy plans and form a unified voice, joined by other primary producers from along Transgrid’s proposed VNI West transmission line.
About 80 people attended the meeting along with Swan Hill Rural City Council and Gannawarra Shire Council mayors and some councillors.
Organiser Colin Fenton, a mixed broad acre and irrigation farmer in the Dingwall and Lake Meren region, said the combined group aims to present a unified front to energy corporations with development plans.
“After these meetings, there’s now a connection of the people down the 240km line who have joined together, and I think they’re going to be a pretty strong force,” Mr Fenton said.
“We’ve made our minds up that power lines aren’t going through here, and according to our figures 95 per cent of landowners are against it.
“One of the main things raised in the meeting was the concern of the loss of agricultural producing land.
“In Australia, our food production area isn’t very large, and we could have a major impact on our food production.
“It’ll interrupt irrigation activity, so farmers will have to make a completely new layout of irrigation to accommodate the transmission lines.”
Mr Fenton said the next challenge is getting urban residents to support their farming neighbours.
“Some urban people are starting to wake up and people away from the impacted sites are realising that they’ll be affected,” he said.
“The next step in the local area is having a public meeting in somewhere like Kerang to get the urban people to understand, because the energy providers have been going down the path that this is good for you, you’ll get money out of this, and there’s been very little discussion about the major impacts to our land and food production.
“There’s going to be a combined meeting with five councils in February to find middle ground on the issue.”
The meeting included speakers from as far as Ballarat and Warracknabeal, sharing their experiences and offering support.
“These are fairly seasoned folks linking us up on where they’re up to on their fights, and from here on in, I think they’re going to try and speak with one voice,” Mr Fenton said.
“People are prepared to go the extra mile to get a fair go.”
A major concern for Mr Fenton is the fast pace of proposed developments and the lack of clarity of the long-term vision.
“I’m not opposed to renewables, but the way it’s been rolled out there’s been no discussion on where they’re going, and energy representatives should’ve been out there and seeing what it’s all about,” he said.
“To get the power grid developed in the early 50s it took a long time, and we’ve got people thinking they’re going to put it in overnight.
“Australia can’t afford a short-term fix, because the next generations are going to be hit with another crisis when it fails.
“I’m in the twilight of my career, so I’m concerned about the generations that are going to be left with that legacy.
“We haven’t seen a fill plan, and we don’t know if they’ve got one – that should’ve been set out before we started.
“Every other project has a long-term plan, and we haven’t got one.”
