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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Tim McGlone

‘Everyone’s against it’: the powerlines dispute in one of Victoria’s most marginal electorates

The hill facing the Swiss Mountain Hotel, Blampied. Farmer Anthony Fraser has mowed the message ‘Piss Off AusNet’ into the hillside for almost two years.
The hill facing the Swiss Mountain Hotel, Blampied, where farmer Anthony Fraser has mowed the message ‘piss off AusNet’ into the hillside for almost two years Photograph: Piss Off AusNet

A long-running dispute over proposed transmission lines in Victoria’s central highlands is a test case that could have ramifications for the state’s transition to renewable energy.

The words “piss off AusNet” have been mown into a hill at Blampied, near Daylesford, for almost two years. They serve as a billboard for local resentment toward the proposed western renewables link, a transmission line intended to carry wind and solar-powered energy from a power station in Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west, where it is expected to power the equivalent of 500,000 homes.

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