Farmers roll into St Arnaud: Tractor rally protest against VNI West

Farmers will rally their tractors and trucks in St Arnaud in Victoria’s west to protest transmission lines carving up their land.

Protests against 500kV transmission lines carving up farmland, which started in Ballarat last year, are set to spread to St Arnaud. Picture: Craig Hughes

Farmers are preparing to drive a convoy of tractors and trucks into St Arnaud on Monday afternoon in a bid to roll back state and federal government plans to build a 500kV powerline across hundreds of rural properties.

The Australian Energy Market Operator, which is overseeing planning for the 400km Victoria-NSW Interconnecter West transmission line, has stated construction of the 500kV powerline – which will be strung from 60-80m towers from Bulgana to Dinawan – will have “comparatively little impact on high potential agricultural land”.

But local farmers are incensed by the proposal, with tractor rally organiser Jason Barratt saying it “will have massive impacts on our farming community if these powerlines are allowed to go ahead”.

The rally is set to coincide with a meeting hosted at the St Arnaud town hall, where the AEMO team will answer questions from the public.

Farmers are being urged to meet at 2pm in a paddock at the Petrie family’s farm on Banyena Rd to then drive to the town hall at 2:30pm, or drive directly to the meeting and park their trucks and tractors in the street.

Fellow farmer Bill Baldwin, who is helping organise the rally said farmers had to make their voices heard and urged as many as possible to get their vehicles to the town hall by 2:30pm on Monday.