Australia urgently needs a grid upgrade – but the march of new power lines faces a bush revolt

Farmers and other landowners in parts of rural Victoria and NSW are prepared for a bitter fight over new lines needed to make Australia’s power grid fit for the transition to renewable energy. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

If you ask Paul and Andrea Sturgess how much their view is worth, the answer is: priceless. To the electricity transmission network operator Transgrid, it’s less than $800,000.

Their property beside the Blowering Reservoir in southern New South Wales is a uniquely Australian sight. Big brushstrokes of wattle creep up the ridge, clumps of yellow sitting between burnt-out gums – a legacy of the black summer bushfires of 2019-20.