THE Victorian Labor government’s “authorised officers” rolled up to Mary and Colin Fenton’s farm property at Dingwall, just south-west of Kerang, in northern Victoria, expecting to get in.
Instead, they ran straight into something the VNI West machine still can’t seem to grasp – locals who refuse to be pushed around, said a Kerang local, posting on the Maryborough and Goldfields Community group Facebook page.
“Under authorisation from the Victorian Labor Government, VNI West is storming across some of the state’s best agricultural land like the bush is just a spreadsheet with gum trees on it.
“But they hit a wall. Not a fence. Not a locked gate – a wall of locals.” The power company made its first attempt to enter the property at 8.30am, while the second came later in the afternoon at another property.
“This isn’t just about one farm at Dingwall. It’s about a farming family’s right to stand on their own land without government-backed officers turning up like they’ve got some divine right to wander in.
“They’ll be back. But judging by yesterday, they might want to bring more than clipboards and confidence next time, because these locals aren’t folding quietly.”
VNI West is the new high-capacity 500 kV double-circuit overhead transmission line, which will deliver new transmission infrastructure for Australia’s allegedly “clean and low cost” electricity system based on a massive roll-out of electricity lines to switch wind and solar power between the dozens of renewable energy zones (REZs) across the states.
Western Victoria and the Murray River are classified as “wind and solar-rich” REZs that will allegedly harness more than 3.4 gigawatts of new electricity, hence the need to criss-cross farmland with electricity pylons.
The Australian Electricity Market Operator claims this network of wind and solar farms will “improve security and reliability in the electricity network as coal-fired power stations retire”.
Due to the low energy density of wind and solar electricity, it requires vast areas compared to the relatively few in number centralised, reliable coal-fired power stations that produce electricity 24×7 regardless of the weather that drives so-called renewables.
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