General News
8 December, 2024
Farmers protest invasion of farming land by renewables and mining
Fifty farmers protest the lack of legislation to protect their properties
In recent months, a steep uprising among the agricultural community against what they describe as the invasion of farming land by transmission lines, solar panels, wind farms, and mining has seen protests increase around the region from Dooen, Donald, Wycheproof, Minyip and Stawell.
At one of these, farmers gathered in Stawell in front of the Town Hall to protest at the pop-up meeting by Transmission Company Victoria on Thursday, November 28.
Among the 50 who attended were Ben Duxson from Kanya, Mark Reading from Wallaloo, Cindy O'Sullivan and Greg Baldwin from Gre Gre, whose properties would be directly impacted by the transmission line through Joel Joel, Wallaloo, Gre Gre, St Arnaud and Charlton region.
" We have spoken to farmers on the path of about 196 kilometres of transmission line through that area, and at least 95 per cent of them said they were against it," Mr Baldwin said.
"But we continually hear in the media and from the TCV at these pop-ups that the farmers are in favour of it. It's just not true."
"We live in a fire-prone area, and with the CFA saying they will not come onto properties with the transmission lines due to added risk to their personnel, we fear we may not be able to live on the property during fire season," he said.
They said the process has been the most distressing, apart from not wanting the transmission lines on their farming land.
"We have been treated as second-class citizens that don't deserve a say on what happens on our land," Mr Baldwin said.
Mr Baldwin, Reading and Duxson are all generational farmers, and the likelihood of transmission lines on their properties hits them hard.
"It's indefensible that we have no say," Mr Baldwin said.
The transmission line will impact the Baldwin property from two angles.
In addition to the personal impact of the transmission line, they said they fear their community will be fractured with farmers pitted against farmers as the process divides those who may agree to the project against those who do not.
Lack of communication is high on their list of concerns.
They said they had not been contacted directly by anyone from TCV besides receiving a print-out in the mail.
Sixth-generation farmer Ben Duxson said, "We are not giving up; we'll lock our gates, but that could come with a fine. I can see this ending up in the Supreme Court.
"We don't want to be relocated, and we don't want to be compensated. We just don't want it on our land," he said.
Mark Reading from Wallaloo is a fifth-generation farmer, and the proposed transmission line will be 600 metres from his home's back door.
He is equally determined to get the message across to the community.
"We are reasonable people, but the relentless push is heartbreaking and time-consuming.
"We are only here today because it rained and we can't harvest, but we are in the middle of our busiest season, and we have all of this to deal with," he said.
"We are lucky that our community has stuck together over this, and we support each other, but it's tough.'
Cindy O'Sullivan said she didn't want to live in town while her partner Greg Baldwin was on the property, but she had safety concerns about the fire season and the added risks.
"The Paris Agreement states that renewables shouldn't threaten agricultural land, so why are we facing this now," she said.
The farming community has formed the Wallaloo Gre Gre District Alliance Inc. and has 100 members, primarily those whose properties are in the path of the proposed line.
Police attended the meeting in Stawell.