Alpine Shire planning staff recommends support for Dederang BESS

A local council will meet tomorrow to decide whether to support or reject a lithium battery plant in North East Victoria.

Alpine Shire planners have backed a 400MW lithium battery plant in the Kiewa Valley, dismissing farmland earmarked for the proposed site as lower grade agricultural land and also downplaying the bushfire risk.

The seven-member council will meet on Tuesday to make its first public position on the proposal that came to light in late 2023 and has been the subject of fierce opposition from Dederang farmers and residents.

A report was released late on Friday, recommending the council endorses lodging a formal submission to the Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny supporting the planning application from Mint Renewables to build the facility on the Yackandandah-Dederang Road.

Dederang landowner Sharon McEvoy has been at the forefront of the fight against a lithium battery proposal in the Kiewa Valley. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Councillors have the option of rejecting the staff recommendation, but adjoining landowner Sharon McEvoy said the council had decided to “support big business and not the local community”.

“It’s near impossible for us to win without their support,” she said.

“It’s pretty devastating. It’s a very big issue and they have never had any kind of open forum with the Dederang community.

“We’ve had our public meetings, but there have been no to-and-fro discussion with council.”

In the report to council, corporate and community director Nathalie Cooke said the land was “not as productive as other farming land located further south in the valley and is considered as having a low to medium level of agricultural land capability”, suited to cattle and sheep grazing.

“The need to avoid the removal of this land from agriculture is less of a concern than had the land been assessed as being of high value or strategically significant agricultural land,” she wrote.

“While the preservation of any agricultural land is important, it also needs to be acknowledged that there is an informal hierarchy which exists when contemplating making farming zoned land available for other uses.”

Paul Ingram, John and Sharon McEvoy, Chris Hicks and Mick Fisher-Smith have opposed the lithium battery proposal in the Kiewa Valley. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Mrs McEvoy said the assessment was a “joke”.

“We see the three cuts of hay and silage that are made nearly every year.

“It’s the best piece of land on the block.”

The report also said Dederang was “considered one of the lower risk bushfire prone areas in the municipality”.

“The proposed BESS, onsite substation and ancillary infrastructure have been co-located with other critical infrastructure in an area which is clear of dense vegetation and the risk of high intensity bushfires.”