saveeumundi.org

Who is Affected by Powerlink’s Plans?

Powerlink is planning on building infrastructure that will supply at least 500% more power to the Northern Sunshine Coast. To date they have not been willing to provide the detailed energy forecasts and assumptions to justify this massive increase in power supply. Powerlink appears to be ‘future proofing’ itself – that is, it is moving to quickly build far more infrastructure than is required before the new Federal Government’s policy catches up with it, and it is obliged to become part of the climate change solution rather than perpetuating the problem by an estimated increase of 75% more greenhouse gases from electricity by 2020.

The Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (P.A.G.E.) strategy to this long term threat to the Sunshine Coast is to engage with the State Government and its agencies to provide a community endorsed plan for more sustainable and visually acceptable alternatives. This will also need to meet the short-term constraints faced by the electricity network – rather than a Powerlink imposed solution, that ignores the wishes of the community. The areas P.A.G.E. has been reviewing, include alternative routes for the transmission lines, renewable energy, energy demand management, and undergrounding of the lines.

Even if you have a “don’t care” neighbour – they won’t see the power lines directly from their homes so they don’t care – invite them to think about the devaluation of their land. In the past, people have lost as much as 75% of the value of their homes due to unsympathetic power line infrastructure being constructed in their region. We asked Ken Guy, Founder of Ken Guy Real Estate and he said this “If you live anywhere in the vicinity of this valley, the proposed powerlines through the Eumundi Kenilworth Road region will reduce your land value even if you can’t see the actual pylons. You land value is naturally taken from the surrounding properties selling price. When that drops considerably (and it will), so will yours.” Powerlink says it’s cheaper for it to plough through the countryside in the straightest possible line, and that is more important than the devastating impact this has on land owners. How many of us can afford that type of loss? Talk to your “don’t care” neighbours about how they currently enjoy the beauty of the Hinterland when they drive along the Eumundi-Kenilworth Road or the Eumundi-Noosa Road, and how they might feel about instead driving through an ugly industrial landscape.

Terms of Reference

Powerlink has now released its Terms of Reference for its proposed power line corridor. That document can be found on the company’s website:

http://www.powerlink.com.au/data/portal/00005056/content/58495001196312844726.pdf

Responding to draft Terms of Reference is not difficult. You simply need to look through the document, and think about whether it includes all the issues you want to be addressed. You don’t need to write a lot, you need only note the specific issues you would like included. If you can’t think of any area that you feel confident writing about, consider point 4.19 – lifestyle issues. Did you come to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland to live in an area of outstanding natural beauty and don’t want it turned into an ugly industrial landscape?
Then you might have something to say.

Written comments on the draft Terms of Reference must be received before 5pm on Friday, 11 January 2008 to:
Meredith Woodland
Project Manager
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Reply Paid 2907
Brisbane Qld 4001
Email: aubnewooloogatocooroy@pb.com.au

PAGE is preparing its own response to the draft Terms of Reference and later the Environmental Impact Statement, and urgently needs assistance from anyone who has expertise (or knows anyone with expertise) in the following areas:

- Health – specifically the impact of Electro-magnetic Fields;
- Town Planning;
- Law – especially environmental law but astute lawyers are needed to consider a range of issues;
- Energy policy, including sustainable energy solutions;
- Journalism;
- Fund raising;
- Technical writing – particularly if you have experience in responding to Environmental Impact Statements;
- Engineering.

If you have any other type of expertise that you think might be of benefit, will you give a small amount of your time to help PAGE save the Sunshine Coast Hinterland from the imposition of massively unsympathetic infrastructure development?

Future Public Meeting

PAGE will host another public meeting on Saturday, 5 January 2008, ahead of Powerlink’s 11 January deadline for submissions on the draft Terms of Reference. The meeting will be at 4pm at Wyoming, on the Eumundi-Kenilworth Road (about one minute from the Eumundi overpass, on the right hand side of the road as you drive towards Kenilworth – a map is attached). There is plenty of parking available. Community members will be informed of PAGE’s planned submission on the draft Terms of Reference and invited to suggest items for inclusion. In addition, if you would like assistance in preparing your own submission for the draft Terms of Reference there will be plenty of like-minded people in attendance for you to talk with. During this meeting you will be able to join PAGE if you have not already, and PAGE members will be able to nominate themselves or vote for individuals for PAGE Committee positions (President, Secretary and Treasurer).

Public Letter Writing Campaign

Have you written letters to State Government Ministers and your Local Government Councillor? Please don’t be complacent about this. It is vitally important that the community engages with the decision-makers – the politicians who oversee Powerlink and can pressure it to change its plans. If they don’t know how much we care about this issue, they won’t know that they need to represent us on it.

The Federal Government has signed the Kyoto Protocol in the last two weeks, is committed to reducing carbon emissions and introducing a 20% mandatory renewable energy target by 2020. Powerlink state it is the company’s intention to build an “electricity highway” in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, which is clearly out of step with the community, recent State Government announcements and the Federal Government Both the Federal and State Governments need to be told about this! Your letters will definitely help bring Powerlink’s activities to their attention.
Don’t forget, you can access PAGE’s Tips for Writing to Politicians on our website (www.saveeumundi.org). In addition to writing to Queensland Government Ministers, remember that our new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is a Sunshine Coast local. So is our new Treasurer and Spokesman for Climate Change in the House of Representatives, Wayne Swann. There is also a new Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Penny Wong, and of course Peter Garrett has been appointed Federal Environment Minister. If Queensland Government Ministers don’t know about the damage to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland environment, perhaps we can get their Federal counterparts to apply some pressure to them to constructively consider the alternative solutions to the problem.

Please remember to let PAGE know when you have written letters and what responses you have received back. It’s just as important to let PAGE know if your questions and concerns are ignored by your elected representatives. Make sure you ask specific questions and also ask for a specific date by which you will receive a full answer.

Membership

The membership fee has been set at the low rate of $20 so we do not exclude any community member who wishes to join PAGE. Those who can afford more are very welcome to make donations. Expert analysis will be required once Powerlink releases its Environmental Impact Statement, and this type of professional assessment costs a lot of money. PAGE is a small community group of everyday people, fighting to prevent billion dollar corporations from making their profit out of ruining the beauty of our homes, and to force them to recognise and respond to concerns about climate change that are being expressed around the planet.

To join PAGE, you can visit our stall at Eumundi Markets (amphitheatre end) to sign up. Alternately, you can join when you come to the public meeting on 5 January.

Website

A website is being developed and an interim page can now be found at http://www.saveeumundi.org. Feel free to add this to your favourites and even make it your email signature. This and future Newletters will be available to view and download, together with information about Powerlink’s plans and information to help you write to politicians to help get the project in its current form stopped.

Eumundi Markets

PAGE has a stall at Eumundi markets every Saturday. At the stall you can view the wall-length photo of Eerwah Vale with power pylons that so shocked everyone at the last public meeting. A petition will also be available for signature, new members can join and donations will be gratefully received to help fund PAGE’s analysis of Powerlink’s Environmental Impact Statement when it is released. If you can volunteer to man the stall for an hour or two please call Margaret on 07 5442-8777.

Petition

A community member has registered a petition which will be submitted to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in February 2008. To help make the community’s wishes clear, it would be very helpful if everyone could print copies of the petition page and ask family, friends, acquaintances and workmates to sign their name. This will be available on the website early in the New Year. You can return them to the Eumundi stall or to the address noted below.

Thanks for reading this newsletter. If you can think of anyone else that would might be interested in reading it, feel free to forward to them.

Contact

Graham Smith, Co-ordinator, Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE), Email: contact@saveeumundi.org
Phone: 07 5447 0086 Mobile: 0415 621 060, Mail: PO Box 950, Cooroy, Q 4563