Across the rolling green hills of western Victoria, a quiet rebellion is brewing. It’s not waged with pitchforks and muskets (though some locals joke they’re close),
With legal letters, community barricades, and an ironclad refusal to let 85-metre-high steel lattices march across their land.The fight is over the Victoria–New South Wales Inter-connector West (VNI West) and the Western Renewables Link — two massive high-voltage transmission projects that the Victorian and federal governments insist are essential to carry renewable energy from the state’s windy south-west to the cities and to New South Wales. The problem? The easiest, cheapest route cuts straight through some of Australia’s most productive farmland.“They’re trying to industrialise the food bowl”That’s the phrase you hear again and again from Moyne Shire in the south-west to Swan Hill in the north.
Farmers who have spent generations building soil, planting trees, and running multi-million-dollar irrigation enterprises now face the prospect of 60–85 metre towers every 400 metres, access tracks, and permanent easements that slice their properties in two.John (not his real name—he’s already been threatened with compulsory acquisition) runs a 2,000-hectare cropping and livestock operation near Ballarat.
Farmers who have spent generations building soil, planting trees, and running multi-million-dollar irrigation enterprises now face the prospect of 60–85 metre towers every 400 metres, access tracks, and permanent easements that slice their properties in two.John (not his real name—he’s already been threatened with compulsory acquisition) runs a 2,000-hectare cropping and livestock operation near Ballarat.
When the draft corridor was released, he discovered the line would take out his best irrigation pivot, cross his main driveway, and run within 200 metres of the family home.“I asked AusNet and Transgrid for the engineering studies that prove overhead high-voltage lines are the only option,” he says. “They couldn’t give me one that wasn’t 20 years old. Meanwhile Europe is putting this stuff underground as standard practice.”He’s not wrong. Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark now routinely underground 380–400 kV lines in sensitive areas.
The catch? It costs roughly 5–10 times more than overhead lines. Australian transmission companies argue that the extra $15–25 billion would ultimately land on consumers’ power bills. Farmers reply that the real cost is the permanent loss of prime agricultural land and the mental health toll on rural communities.The human costIn October 2024, a farmer near St Arnaud live-streamed himself sitting on a transmission survey peg refusing to move while contractors called the police.
In March 2025, a 68-year-old grazier chained himself to a gate when surveyors arrived unannounced. These are not fringe activists; they’re third- and fourth-generation farmers who’ve never protested anything in their lives.Communities have formed groups with names like Transmission Towers Rebellion, No Victorian Transmission Overload, and Property Rights Australia. They pack town halls whenever AusNet or the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) dare to hold a “community information session”. The mood is less consultation and more gladiatorial combat.The underground argument
The farmers’ central demand is simple: put the lines underground or offshore.Technical papers from Siemens, ABB, and even Australian manufacturers show modern XLPE cables and gas-insulated lines (GIL) can handle 500 kV with lower lifetime losses than overhead lines. Victoria’s own Labor government undergrounded the 220 kV line to the Melbourne CBD in the early 2000s without drama.Yet every time farmers raise the option, they’re told it’s “not feasible”. Then, quietly, the government announces the Sydney–Newcastle section of Energy Connect will be partly underground for “community amenity”. HumeLink in NSW is exploring under-grounding in the Snowy.
Western Victoria? Apparently too hard.Compulsory acquisition: the nuclear optionWhen negotiation fails, the state can (and does) reach for the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986. Once the minister signs a Notice of Acquisition, landowners have virtually no right to refuse. They can argue about money, but not about whether the project should happen at all.Lawyers acting for affected farmers say the compensation offers are laughable: $18,000–$40,000 per tower, plus vague promises about crop loss. Independent valuers commissioned by landowners put the real impact at hundreds of thousands per property when you factor in fragmented paddocks, lost irrigation efficiency, and reduced land values.A political lightning rod
The fight has become a rare point of unity between Nationals MPs and teal independents. Federal member for Wannon Dan Tehan has called the projects “transmission madness”, while state Liberals promise to rip up agreements if elected in 2026. Even Labor backbenchers in marginal western seats are getting nervous.In July 2025, Premier Jacinta Allan announced a “reset” — narrower corridors, more community funding, and a promise to “look harder” at under-grounding in specific areas. Farmers called it window dressing. Survey pegs kept going in.David vs Goliath, 2025 edition
The farmers know they’re up against the combined might of two state governments, AEMO, the Clean Energy Council, and billions of dollars of private investment. But they also know rural Victoria traditionally votes conservative, and the 2026 state election is looming.As one fed-up sheep farmer from Lismore told me, “They keep saying this is for the greater good. Well, the greater good doesn’t get to steal my grandfather’s farm and tell me to cop it sweet.”For now, the steel towers remain on drawing boards and in shipping containers at Portland.
But every week another community plants “NO TOWERS HERE” signs along the highway. And every week, another farmer quietly researches how to lock their gates, legally or otherwise.In western Victoria, the harvest is coming in — and so is the fight of their lives.[All events and quotes accurate as of December 2025. The battle continues.895 words
895 words
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