Overview

With the release of the area of interest for VNI West in May, Transmission Company Victoria (TCV) is focused on building connections with the communities that could have this essential infrastructure on their properties and farms.

TCV is committed to ensuring that the rural towns and communities that may support VNI West are recognised and share in the benefits of the project.

Our community engagement program is already well underway, including more than 370 comments added to the interactive map on our new TCV website.

This information is being collated along with insights from our meetings with councils, local workshops, as well as the comprehensive environmental, cultural, engineering, agricultural and land planning analysis to guide the process to narrow the broad area of interest for the project to a 500 m – 1km corridor and then an indicative route by Spring.

In July we are hosting a series of public information sessions to answer questions and gather important local intelligence. For more details of these events or to register to attend click here.

Community Reference Group

TCV is setting up a Community Reference Group (CRG) as a forum for community members to work with the VNI West project team and share what is important to the different towns and regions that may have this infrastructure located on their lands.

TCV is committed to ensuring that local perspectives and the priorities of rural communities are reflected in the community benefit program for VNI West.

If you're living in one of the LGAs in the area of interest for VNI West - Buloke, Gannawarra, Loddon, Northern Grampians and Pyrenees - and are an active member of the community with a willingness to engage constructively, please apply to join the CRG.

The CRG will meet every two months from July 2023 and meetings may take place in person or online. A maximum of 20 people will be appointed to the CRG.

Community Events

Between 3 July and 15 July, the VNI West project team will host a range of community events, providing local communities an opportunity to learn more about the project and ask questions.

The events are being held in Boort, Kerang, Charlton, Navarre and St Arnaud. Please visit the TCV website for more details and to register your interest.

Interactive Map

The interactive map provides an opportunity for communities to identify what’s important to them, including existing land use, environmental considerations, cultural sites and more. Details will be used alongside a broad range of planning, engineering, ecological, cultural heritage and visual amenity studies to chart the course for VNI West.

The map will be on available on our website until 22 July and we encourage all community members to make their mark.

Alternatively, there will be opportunities to add details to the map at any of the events in July.

Our team is available to answer any questions or help add details to the map. Please get in touch through the details below.

Landholder Guide

This week we published our Landholder Guide, which provides important answers for landholders on issues such as land access, compensation and farming around transmission.

TCV is committed to treating all landholders with respect and decency to ensure that they are fairly compensated for having this essential transmission on their farm or property.

At a minimum, payments will include:

• Loss in market value of the property resulting from the easement
• Financial loss suffered as a result of the natural, direct and reasonable consequences of the acquisition of the easement
• Payment for reasonably incurred independent professional advice (for example, legal or valuation advice)

In addition to this, farmers and property owners with the VNI Wet infrastructure on their land will benefit from the Victorian government’s announced payment of $8,000 per annum per linear kilometre for 25 years.

For further information on landholder payments please refer to the Landholder Guide. All landholders potentially impacted will be appointed a Landholder Liaison to discuss their unique property and situation.

TCV recognises that landholders are key stakeholders for VNI West and mapping out the best route for this project relies on an understanding of how landholders live and work on the land.

If you are a landholder or a community member with questions about the Landholder Guide, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

What's next?

Work to refine the area of interest is continuing with desktop studies utilising databases including, ecology, Aboriginal cultural heritage, surface water and flooding, visual amenity, land use, agriculture, transport, aviation and heritage studies.

These focus areas are being used to build a constraints map, which will assist in identifying areas with the potential to support transmission infrastructure.

As part of our commitment to share information early and work as transparently as possible through the route refinement, we will share initial findings from this constraints mapping work in coming weeks.

This will enable community members, including landholders, to understand how we’re narrowing the area of interest to a corridor and some of the major issues that influence this work. Following this, we will release details of the 500m to 1km corridor once efforts have been made to contact landholders in this area.

Get in touch

If you have a question you would like to ask, please get in contact through the details below.

Email: enquiries@transmissionvictoria.com.au

Free call: 1800 824 221

Website: transmissionvictoria.com.au

Kerang Office: Shop 15, 47 Victoria Street, Patchell Plaza, Kerang.
Open 12pm to 4:30pm on Tuesdays and 9am to 1pm on Wednesdays.