00:00 [Music]
00:09 Delivering power to the people, a vast new network of transmission lines is beginning to snake across the country.
00:17 The arteries of Australia's energy system are being rapidly rebuilt.
00:22 But people power may bring this expansion to a halt.
00:27 We have barred access.
00:29 We haven't yet felt comfortable to allow access.
00:32 That's our only card we can play.
00:35 I think all power to them in terms of standing on their dig to ensure that their property rights are protected.
00:40 Within sight of the Victorian New South Wales border, Daniel Link laid us surveying the massive new towers on his property, Trentham Station.
00:50 Standing tall on dry land cropping country, the high voltage transmission line is one part of a 900 kilometre energy superhighway.
01:00 Certainly in our case it hasn't impacted at all.
01:04 In fact, in December we were harvesting right alongside where they were boring holes to concrete the bases for the new towers.
01:13 So it's worked quite well.
01:16 Two years in the making, Daniel Link later says he's satisfied with the consultation process
01:22 and was able to secure a fair one-off payment from TransGrid for the acquisition of the easement.
01:28 But he gets why other farmers feel differently.
01:32 This line is on large scale properties, pastoral country.
01:38 It's not the same impact visually or aesthetically for communities.
01:43 So I think we're talking very different projects and impacts.
01:49 But yeah, certainly as I said, I would encourage everybody that's concerned to ensure that they are consulted properly
01:58 and that when it comes to hosting these transmission lines, that they extract every penny.
02:04 The energy market operator has mapped an extra 10,000 kilometres of transmission lines that will need to be built by 2030
02:12 to connect far-flung renewable energy projects to consumers as coal-fired power stations close.
02:19 This project, Energy Connect, is the first and currently the only so-called priority project under construction.
02:27 Others have stalled, facing deep grassroots resistance.
02:32 In the front line of the transmission war is the proposed Western Renewables Link.
02:37 (MUSIC)
02:51 The Myers family farm seed potatoes near Ballarat.
02:55 There's not a high-voltage power line in sight around here, but AusNet plans to build one.
03:01 When land agents knocked on Catherine Myers' door three years ago, she says she was offered a gift card in exchange for access to the farm.
03:10 I'm a pretty trusting person. I thought, oh, you know, that makes sense. They can come out and do it.
03:14 And my father-in-law actually went through the agreement.
03:17 He said, no, this is actually providing unfettered access for four years for both surface but also invasive surveys on the property.
03:25 So that $500 gift card was to allow them four years of free access to our farm.
03:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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