By Olivia Condous
Residents who oppose the prospect of new transmission lines across the Moorabool Shire will make their voices heard at a protest rally this week.
The Moorabool and Central Highlands Power Alliance are holding a convoy rally to Ballarat on July 15 as part of their Stop Ausnet’s Towers campaign.
The rally is in protest of the Western Renewables Link, previously known as the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project, proposes to construct a 190 km overhead high-voltage transmission line throughout western Victoria with approximately 60km in Moorabool Shire.
The contractor for the project is Ausnet Services and construction is currently due to commence in mid-2024.
Protestors will travel from the Ballarat airport to the centre of the town, riding in cars, trucks, tractors and even horses.
Moorabool and Central Highlands Power Alliance chair Emma Muir said the aim of the rally was to bring the community together to talk about the issues they were facing.
“We’re trying to raise awareness of the impacts,” Ms Muir said.
Actor Stephen Curry, who has been an advocate against the towers, will lead the rally.
Ms Muir said she hoped that the rally would attract enough attention so that more people would start speaking up and asking questions.
“I hope that for the people who aren’t aware about it, it might trigger a question for them and encourage them to understand what’s going on,” she said.
“Hopefully they will start asking questions of their politicians, being an election year we definitely want to hold our politicians accountable for these projects.”
Advocates who are against the towers are fighting for the transmission lines to be underground, not to scrap the project completely.
“We’re pro-renewable, we understand what’s happening in the world,” Ms Muir said.
The organisation also recently reached a tally of 5000 individually addressed and signed complaint letters from community members.
Details: www.facebook.com/MCHPoweralliance/
