Hundreds of Victorian farmers and landholders will be told this week if they are located on the proposed path of a controversial high voltage power line.
Transmission Company Victoria says it has refined a 5km-50km VNI West "area of interest" into a draft corridor about 2km wide for the project which aims to connect the Victoria and NSW energy grids.
The project which led to angry protests in Melbourne last week will link wind farms in Victoria's west to energy hubs in Bulgana (near Ararat) and Kerang before crossing into NSW.
TCV says it will contact about 350 landholders from this week to advise their property or farm is within the draft corridor.
Landholders will be offered advice on issues such as farming with transmission lines, biosecurity arrangements, access agreements and compensation for easement and other payments.
Some of those landholders who were already identified as being on the proposed route have vowed to refuse the energy companies access to their land even though a cash carrot of $10,000 has been offered for access.
The power company has already been criticised for failing to publish a map of the new route which TCV says it has done "out of respect for the landholders in the draft corridor".
"TCV has committed to do everything it can to contact these farmers and property owners before publishing details of the draft corridor," it has said in a statement.
The company says it expects to make the route map public in "several weeks".
TCV is a new company created by the Australian Energy Market Operator to push the VNI West transmission project in Victoria.
TCV says it is "the process of applying for a transmission licence in Victoria" which may allow it to access private land without the consent of the landholder.
TCV spokeswoman Nicola Falcon said: "This is a significant milestone as it now allows one-on-one conversations with farmers and landholders, to listen and answer questions related to their properties."
She said communication with landowners was essential to refine the final route for VNI West.
The new draft corridor for the project averages 2km wide.
"We were hoping to get down to a narrower corridor by this stage but with the data collected through studies and consultation, we decided to focus on a broader corridor for the next phase of the project to provide more flexibility and better options to find the optimal route," Ms Falcon said.
TCV said after speaking with landowners it would refer a draft corridor to the Victorian government to consider whether an Environment Effects Statement was required.
VNI West cannot proceed without planning approval from the State and Federal governments.
TCV said it would ask for access to properties for environmental field studies in coming months, although not all the land holdings in the corridor would be required for this work.
TCV said it would fund landholders' "reasonable costs" for legal advice on land access agreements.
Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
