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Below is an email sent on 3 March from PAGE to Stuart Topp (Powerlink) on Powerlink’s legal basis for accessing the forcibly acquired easement over private property.

Stuart,

I have been asked by a number of PAGE members to request information be included within the upcoming draft EIS relating to the legal basis upon which Powerlink is basing its right to access the proposed transmission line and the associated easement in the event that it is approved.

As you are aware, the alignment of the proposed transmission line that you have selected would present access challenges to stay wholly within the forcibly acquired 60m easement due to the difficult nature of the terrain. It follows that you have suggested that Powerlink will seek off easement access through landowner’s private property in order for Powerlink to construct the towers. In addition, will Powerlink seek ongoing off easement access over landowner’s private property? In conversations with you in the past you have stated that Powerlink prefer off easement access to be “informal agreements”. Specifically can you outline the nature of these agreements by providing general background information including answering the questions below:

• How the informal agreements negotiated and documented?
• What are the terms and conditions usually applied under these informal agreements?
• Does Powerlink pay compensation for these informal agreements?
• What is the proposed tenure of the informal agreements?
• What is the liability of Powerlink under such an agreement for damage caused by Powerlink when on private property?
• What mechanisms are in place for landowners to claim compensation if damage is caused by Powerlink?
• What liability is placed upon landowners in respect of Powerlink and its agents while on private property under these informal agreements?
• How does a landowner cancel the informal agreement?
• What happens to the informal agreement when the original landowner sells or transfers the property?
• What specific terms and conditions will Powerlink agree to?
• What specific guarantees will Powerlink provide against damage and the spread of noxious weeds for example?
• Will Powerlink respect landowners’ right to restrict access on occasion as necessary?

In the event that a landowner is uncomfortable or unwilling to enter into an “informal” agreement, with Powerlink, please state how Powerlink intend to access the proposed transmission line easement for this project proposal if it is not wholly staying within the forcibly acquired easement?

Assuming that the answer to the last question is the acquisition of yet another easement to access the first easement please state the legal basis upon which Powerlink would attempt to proceed with a secondary forced easement acquisition? Have these costs either as internal real costs for Powerlink or as externalities (yet more costs borne by the landowners, but uncompensated by Powerlink) been included within the project costings to be set out in the draft EIS?

Regards,

Graham Smith,
Coordinator
P.A.G.E.