PAGE and powerlines in the media

Source: Letter from Graham Smith, PAGE (19 August 2008)

19 August 2008

Mr. Bob Abbot, Mayor of Sunshine Coast Regional Council

Re: Powerlink Project

Dear Bob,

I am writing to thank you and your Council colleagues for recent public statements in support of the Eerwah Vale community in their campaign for more sustainable and

PAGE thanks Sunshine Coast Regional Council

lower impact solutions to the energy requirements of the area. In particular, Cr Vivien Griffin has been a consistent advocate for the local people.

As you will be aware this is a place of great natural beauty and the people who live here are passionate about maintaining this environment and the lifestyle it provides for their families.

Your support in the Noosa News last week has provided a significant morale boost to the community threatened by this unsustainable proposal. Many people have told me that it has bolstered their resolve just knowing that they are not in this fight alone.

PAGE and the community greatly appreciates the Council’s support and we look forward to a continuing relationship with Council to deliver your sustainability vision.

If you have any questions regarding the community’s view of the Powerlink-Parsons Brinckerhoff proposed project please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Graham Smith

Source: Noosa News - Grant Reynolds (15 August 2008)

The Sunshine Coast council has moved to have its say on the impact of the proposed electricity transmission line through Eerwah Vale.

Sunshine Coast Regional Council supporting community against Powerlink's project to develop a 275kV transmission line and substation in Eerwah Vale.

Wednesday's Strategy and Planning Committee discussed a recommendation that council staff prepare a response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, expected to be completed before year's end.

The staff report to the committee acknowledged the concern in the community surrounding the project, and Mr Abbot said it was a blow to the community similar to that of the Traveston Dam, the Northern Interconnector Pipeline and the rail re-alignment.

"We'll put a submission in (to the draft EIS) and support the community," he said. Council has moved now, prior to the release of the Draft EIS, due to the short time frame for public and stakeholders to review the EIS.

Mayor Bob Abbot said the rural community was "paying dearly" for state government decisions. A report to the committee said council staff had a three week time frame to respond. The majority of the new powerline will be built along an existing easement, but a number of properties will have to be resumed to make way for a line into a new substation west of Cooroy.

The recommendation will now be presented to full Council at next week's Ordinary Meeting.

To contact Grant Reynolds with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, he can be contacted at this link - click here.

Source: Sunshine Coast Daily - Zac Rogers (16 August 2008)

Powerlink project - Stop logging and high voltage powerlines

YES, premier Anna Bligh, if you want our votes in the next election you should say "no" to destroying significant flora and fauna habitat. Stop raping our forests for logging, stop imposing antiquated and dangerous high voltage transmission lines, pylons and sub-station through wildlife corridors, stop destroying our environment. Once the government stops its violence on the environment, hopefully these disturbed children and youths will have more respect also.

Zac Rogers
Cooroy

Source: Noosa News - John Cronin (PAGE) (12 August 2008)

Response to Powerlink letter to the editor in Noosa News [12 August 2008]

Once again we have an example of Powerlink attempting to justify large-scale, old world engineering solutions to our current climate change challenges, and in particular to those of energy supply and demand.

It appears to be conveniently blind to any issues in the emerging energy debate that do not support projects it has planned and justified based on an outdated frame of reference.

RESPONSE: PAGE calls on Powerlink, Energex and State government to have some genuine smart state thinking to ensure there is real innovative sustainable energy infrastructure on the Sunshine Coast.

It is pathetic to see Powerlink trying to use Garnaut and the ensuing debate to try to justify its flawed decisions.

Garnaut does not suggest what we need is bigger infrastructure, and more capacity of the kind being proposed by Powerlink, and it is a travesty for it to try to justify its plans with such a misinterpretation.

While I am encouraged by Mr Bartlett's belated reference to renewable energy, I think he should read the draft Garnaut report more closely before attempting to use it to support his argument.

On more careful reading, he would find that Garnaut in fact refers to the danger of inefficient investment decision-making resulting from "overinvestment in network infrastructure and centralised generation, and underinvestment in embedded generation like solar photovoltaic and cogeneration".

Garnaut said we need infrastructure to support low emission alternatives; that without major change in the transmission infrastructure, new technologies will find it difficult to compete; and that the degree to which consumers can express preferences for lower-emissions solutions will be dependant on the availability of appropriate network infrastructure.

He also notes the "current processes for extending the electricity network are likely to be suboptimal from a societal perspective" and states explicitly that: "... it will usually be better NOT to install ... additional capacity until there is concrete proof of need."

He goes on further to say on this subject that "this onerous burden of proof is necessary to ensure that only essential infrastructure extensions are undertaken and to avoid the possibility of multiple underused extensions to the grid". And again he said in this regard, and quoting the Australian Energy Market Commission, that electricity transmission infrastructure planning will need to have regard to the "the most efficient combination of transmission, generation, distribution and non-network options that will deliver reliable energy supply at minimum efficient cost to consumers under a range of credible future scenarios". It would also take into account demand side, embedded generation and fuel substitution alternatives.

He goes on further to discuss a number of emerging factors that will impact on the economic justification for large transmission projects such as that proposed by Powerlink, such as the fact that energy losses from electrical resistance in transmission cables are significant when electricity is transported over long distances; the cost of network augmentation is driven solely by the extent of peak demand (3-4 days each year) and that embedded generation at peak periods helps to avoid or defer the high costs of network augmentation; and the fact that distributed generation that provides energy during high demand periods is significantly under compensated for its lower levels of losses, network benefits and timing of supply. This is what we have been pleading to Powerlink and indirectly to Energex and the government since the beginning of this debate.

Once again we call on Powerlink, Energex and the ministers Wilson and McNamara to get together and let's have some genuine smart state thinking to ensure we have real innovative sustainable energy infrastructure on the Sunshine Coast and more broadly in the rest of Queensland.

Dr John Cronin
PhD, MA (Mgt), GDip(Law), FAJCD
Powerlines Action Group Eumundi

Source: Noosa News. To contact the editor to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is noosaed@scnews.com.au.

Source: Eumundi Green - Graham Smith (PAGE) (11 August 2008)

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) invited Mr Peter Wellington, Independent State member for Nicklin, to meet landowners affected by Powerlink's 275,000V transmission line and 50-acre substation proposal. The meeting was held in Eerwah Vale, where the line will cut through the heart of this prime rural, tourist and scenic area of the Sunshine Coast.

PAGE and Peter Wellington MP disappointed with Queensland's Energy and Mine Minister.

Peter heard first hand of the devastation that this unsustainable proposal will have on people's lives, property values, the environment and the livelihoods of people running businesses in the area. The Coordinator of PAGE, Graham Smith, said, "Powerlink is spending public funds on an expensive public relations campaign, but refuses to provide detailed information to the community, despite their CEO publicly encouraging direct contact with Powerlink. What we get is delay, denial and misinformation."

Mr Smith also noted that "The Minister for Mines and Energy is ignoring this community. A letter detailing significant concerns over this project and Powerlink's attitude to the community sent to the Minister on 20 February this year remains unanswered."

Peter Wellington also expressed his "disappointment" over the lack of response, by the same Minister, to a petition tabled in State Parliament in February this year on the Powerlink proposal.

Peter Wellington has agreed to again take up these issues with the Minister for Mines and Energy, Mr Geoff Wilson, on behalf of PAGE and the wider community.

In our opinion, this continues the pattern set by Powerlink and now followed by the Minister, of withholding information from the public and ignoring the genuine concerns of this community. The question needs to be asked — what do the voters of Queensland need to do to be heard by this State Government?

Source: Eumundi Green. To contact the editor (Joyce Turnbull) and share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is editor@eumundigreen.com.au.

Source: Noosa News - Mike Stasse, Energy Efficiency Consultant (8 August 2008)

As usual, Geoff Cass has produced another letter (Noosa News, August 5) full of inaccuracies, which I feel must be corrected. According to the Australian Coal Association’s own website, "Production employment at Australian black coal mines (both underground open-cut) peaked at 32,559 at the end of June 2006."

Mike Stasse letter in Noosa News.

Yet, renewable energy jobs in Germany (which has barely half the solar resource of Australia) shot up to 249,300 in 2007, almost double the 160,500 green jobs in Germany in 2004. Taking into account that Germany’s population is about three times the size of ours, it would not be unreasonable to expect that here the solar industry could employ 80,000 people, and likely more. So it is complete nonsense to predict that reducing coal use and replacing it with greenhouse mitigation measure would be bad for the economy.

Mr Cass then continues with the notion that because our emissions are a mere 1.5% of global numbers, and that until China and others make a move to reduce their emissions, we should do nothing, or very little. In fact there’s a very simple way of leveling the playing field. If America and China and India refuse to play the game, then all we need to do is slap a carbon tax on their exports.

Measuring how much carbon is embodied in a product is easy, even I can do it! Then maybe we could restart our solar industry instead of importing cheap Chinese solar panels! Nukes do not reduce greenhouse emissions one iota. Battling greenhouse emissions is an opportunity we should not miss. The whole idea of the Carbon Trading Scheme is to increase the cost of business as usual. The scheme will only cost us dearly (as Mr Cass predicts) if we do nothing. However, if we take appropriate measures and change our lifestyles to more sustainable ones, then the cost of living might actually go down.

Mike Stasse
Energy Efficiency Consultant
Cooran

Source: Noosa News. To contact the editor to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is noosaed@scnews.com.au.

Source: Noosa News - Klaus Pinker (8 August 2008)

Klaus Pinker letter in Noosa News.

No matter how convincingly we citizens argue against the Traveston Dam that swamps first-rate fertile land with an evaporating shallow lake, and no matter how we protest against high-voltage power lines massively over-designed for actual demand, we are bound to lose these battles.

Our state government will not abandon these 'stupid' schemes. Beattie-and-Bligh seem to be nurturing a hidden (federal?) agenda which 'honest John' Howard underhandedly floated some years ago. His proposal, much too repulsive for open democratic discussion, festers silently among irresponsible politicians.

They reason that, once installed, a vast cooling water reservoir with adjacent oversized power pylons `naturally' invites a nuclear reactor plant to the Noosa hinterland. Voila, suddenly this mad scheme falls logically into place, doesn't it?

Chances are we ain't seen nothin' yet; the very worst is still to come. I think my fears will be validated eventually.

Klaus Pinker
Tewantin

Source: Noosa News. To contact the editor to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is noosaed@scnews.com.au.

Source: Eumundi Green (8 August 2008)

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) held its sixth community meeting on 26 July to update the community on Powerlink's proposed 275,000V powerline and substation site in Eerwah Vale.

PAGE community meeting over Powerlink's proposed Woolooga to South Cooroy 275kV transmission project.

Cr Vivien Griffin spoke about the Sunshine Coast Regional Council's attitude to the project and the sustainability vision they have issued recently. Graham Smith, PAGE coordinator, said, "It meant a great deal to the local community to hear Councillor Griffin say that `Council will support PAGE in any way that it can." Cr Griffin stated that Council had been presented with proposals for alternative energy generation. Dr John Cronin said that traditional, centralised power generation and large scale distribution to meet growing demand was a flawed approach and PAGE could help lead the push for more sustainable solutions.

There was a general update on progress and in particular about the meeting with Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson set for the end of August. PAGE executive representatives said they will be talking to Mr Wilson about the flawed consultation process, and the confused messages coming from the State Government over energy and climate policy and will be requesting a full response to the concerns raised in their letter of 20 February to Mr Wilson.

Earlier in the day PAGE representatives met with Federal Senator Claire Moore and took her on a drive along the route of Powerlink's proposed new easement next to tourist route 22 and to the top of the Ridgewood Hills. Senator Moore asked for additional information and agreed to return to the area in the near future. The senator also agreed to pass on a letter from PAGE to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and make enquiries with the state government regarding this project and the community's concerns.

Source: Eumundi Green. To contact the editor (Joyce Turnbull) and share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is editor@eumundigreen.com.au.

Source: Eumundi Green - Jeanette M (8 August 2008)

Powerlink Project - Jeanette M letter in Eumundi Green

In reference to 'Sold Out?' in your letters page of Issue 49, it appears that this letter was purely a conjecture based upon assumptions.

Firstly, "the no power line people" are very aware that infrastructure is important for a growing community, whether we like it or not. However, to build 275,000kV high voltage transmission lines and pylons with a 50 acre substation is not in keeping with 21st century sustainable studies and developments. Not only is this proposed infrastructure excessive, dangerous and expensive in every respect, it will damage significant flora and fauna areas and destroy prime productive agricultural land. The whole environment will be adversely affected.

Mr Lisle from Brooloo made a ludicrous statement when he said that "the no power line people sat around in air conditioned houses and wasted water". What a load of bollocks!

Many people are affected by the Queensland State Government owned corporation Powerlink proposal. This community in particular is becoming more aware of the necessity of pursuing sustainable infrastructure which is imperative for our future survival. We encourage alternatives to be fully investigated, without damaging this unique environment. The "unsustainable" and "potentially harmful" solution being imposed upon this community is a great concern for all of us.

In reference to water, our community is dependent on tank water. Water as you know can sometimes be more precious than gold. Human survival is dependent on water and water awareness. Dams are not the solution.

It is time we all realised that we live together on this amazing planet called Earth. We must understand that humankind is only a part of the greater whole and we have the responsibility to preserve that whole. The dynamic relationship with the Earth as a living, nurturing body, a sacred source of vitality, should be recognised and respected.

Jeanette M
Eumundi

Source: Eumundi Green. To contact the editor (Joyce Turnbull) and share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, their email address is editor@eumundigreen.com.au.

Source: Noosa Journal (7 August 2008)

Powerlink Project - Klaus Pinker letter in Noosa Journal

No matter how convincingly we citizens argue against the Traveston Dam that swamps first rate fertile land with an evaporating shallow lake, and no matter how humanely we protest against high voltage power lines that are massively over-designed for actual demand, we are bound to lose these battles.

Our state government will not abandon these stupid schemes. Beattie and Bligh seem to have been nurturing a hidden (federal?) agenda which Honest John Howard underhandedly floated some years ago. His proposal, much too repulsive for open democratic discussion, festers silently among irresponsible politicians.

Once installed, a vast cooling water reservoir with adjacent oversized power pylons naturally invites a nuclear reactor plant to the Noosa hinterland.

Voila! Suddenly this mad scheme falls logically into place.

Klaus Pinker
Tewantin

Source: Noosa Journal. To contact the editor and share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article or this issue in general, their email address is editor@journalweekender.com.au.

Source: Sunshine Coast Daily - Grant Reynolds (2 August 2008)

Powerlink Project - People power to push changes

The winds of change could quite literally be blowing in favour of a hinterland community group opposed to the erection of high-voltage transmission lines through Eerwah Vale.

About 40 members of the Powerlines Action Group Eumundi met in Eumundi last Saturday for the sixth time in the body's short history - and forget any notions of an unsophisticated "not in my backyard" campaign.

The group heard Dr John Cronin, an economic sociologist and PAGE member, speak of a change in the "frame of reference" for energy supply and demand management.

Mr Cronin said traditional, centralised power generation and large-scale distribution to meet growing demand was a flawed philosophy and the group could lead the push for sustainable solutions.

"What we need are distributed power solutions," he said. "If we could supply what we needed for most of our demand (through alternative energy production) and for peak demand we find some other solution, we have up to 80% transmission we no longer need."

Mr Cronin said it would be a shame if the Sunshine Coast could not become the "Solar Coast", and the environment and the economy could no longer be viewed as separate areas of government policy.

"This whole issue is coming home to roost," he said.

Division nine councilor Vivien Griffin nodded knowingly and offered the group the regional council's support in finding new methods for powering the Coast.

She said the council had already seen presentations for small-scale solar-thermal energy production.

Several PAGE members, who had returned from the fight to stop logging in state forest near Eerwah Vale, spoke of the Bligh government's desire to increase its "green" credentials.

Members noted the importance of "pushing the right buttons" in terms of the Bligh government's environmental reputation.

The group also hosted Dave Kreutz from the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group.

Contact: To contact Grant Reynolds with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, he can be contacted at this link - click here.

Source: Noosa News - Grant Reynolds (1 August 2008)

Community will monitor logging operations

Community members and loggers met on Tuesday in state forest west of Cooroy to thrash out an armistice to protect sensitive koala habitat and member for Nicklin, Peter Wellington said the deal was a small victory for the community.

But those involved in protecting the remaining koala population believed any logging in the area is totally unacceptable.

Koalas saved - for now in area close to Powerlink's proposed transmission line project in the Sunshine Coast's hinterland.

Logging was halted last week when Mr Wellington and community members met with the premier Anna Bligh to voice their concerns over logging in a 15-hectare area of state forest west of Cooroy.

After a further meeting between the three parties at the site on Tuesday, it was agreed community representatives would be allowed to inspect logging work to ensure the loggers have upheld their end of the bargain and timber within the specified habitat area would not be logged.

"They have given a commitment they will do no logging within 30 metres of the sensitive area," Mr Wellington said.

"At regular intervals we will be able to go back and monitor how they're progressing with their operations. They will allow community representatives to go back on-site to do a review and inspection to monitor selective felling of timber and all that they're requiring is that we phone them in advance."

Mr Wellington and community representatives had met with the premier in Brisbane last week but instead of being offered a solution, were told that if the 15 hectares could not be logged another 200 hectares of forest would have to be cleared somewhere to replace the volume of timber lost.

At the time Mr Wellington described the offer as "blackmail", but he said the latest agreement was "significant".

"We don't want to put at risk any other areas that are going over to National Park," he said.

"Once operations have finished there will be no more logging in this part of the West Cooroy forest. However the prospect of halting the logging altogether looks grim.

Resident and koala conservationist Annette House said there was little habitat left and even selective felling would put koalas at greater risk. Mrs. House said there were as few as 50 koalas left in the Noosa Heads area, and the situation was not much better in the hinterland.

"We're looking down the barrel of extinction," she said. Mrs. House said a spotter trained to treat injured koalas should be on site when logging operation was under way.

The loggers have been relying on the Regional Forestry Agreement to proceed with tree felling in the sensitive wildlife corridor.

Contact: To contact Grant Reynolds with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, he can be contacted at this link - click here.

Source: Hinterliving - Alan Hubbard (August 2008)

Mines and Energy Minister, Geoff Wilson, will meet this month with residents concerned about plans by Powerlink to install a 275,000-volt power transmission line across their properties.

Mr Wilson says he is keeping his undertaking to Local MP Peter Wellington that he would meet with members of PAGE (Powerlines Action Group Eumundi) after they had met with Powerlink. That has now happened, and Mr Wilson says he will meet the community on August 26th. He says he's very mindful of the concerns of the community.

Queensland Mines and Energy Minister, Geoff Wilson, to meet with PAGE.

"Environmental concerns are a high priority," Mr Wilson said. "Energy providers are required to apply the strictest environment standards, and that's one of the many elements taken into account during the decision—making process."

One family at Ridgewood says the 275,000-volt powerline will pass within 25 metres of their home, and they say they are concerned, particularly for the health of their two children.

James and Janet Luttrell bought their 4.85 hectare lifestyle block for their retirement, and to leave a little piece of paradise to their son and daughter. Their dream has been shattered by Powerlink's plans to have the powerline traverse their property.

Local residents claim the powerline will run from Woolooga, west of Gympie, to a 20.23 hectare block north west of Eumundi, where Powerlink plans to build a substation.

Signs adorn the scenic route 22 between Eumundi and Kenilworth alerting motorists to the impact power stanchions will have on the vista. Residents claim Powerlink won't explain the need for the sub-station.

"There are no major housing or industrial developments planned for the area," James Luttrell said, "so what's the need for the substation?

A weekend community meeting in Eumundi was told that logging has commenced along the proposed corridor in the Cooroy West State Forest, an important koala habitat.

The meeting heard that swift action by local MP Peter Wellington resulted in Premier Anna Bligh calling a temporary halt to the work pending further investigation.

PAGE has urged the community to write a letter of concern to the Premier, who has gone on the record to invite Queenslanders to let her know their concerns about any issues that matter to them.

Her address is PO Box 15185, City East, Brisbane, Qld 4002, or she can be emailed at thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au

Source: To contact Hinterliving with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, they can be contacted at this email address - editor@hinterliving.com.au.

Source: Sunshine Coast Daily - Bill Hoffman (9 July 2008)

The stories of courage in the face of despair I heard from residents at Kandanga, Eumundi and Eudlo last week are the human face of a government that just does not get it.

The pig-headed insistence that the Traveston Crossing Dam will be built flies in the face of all logic and puts at risk some of south east Queensland’s prime natural assets and food-producing land.

Investment in a dam that will never work as an efficient source of water denies the real science of climate change, and ensures that our adaptation to that change has lost time when we can least afford it.

The underlying message from people who will lose their properties to this nonsense is that common sense will ultimately prevail.

They have no intention of accepting any voluntary offer from the government because they know in their hearts that the decision is flawed and must be changed.

Anna Bligh and her deputy Paul Lucas may trumpet the percentage of people who have sold and moved on, but that denies the existence of those who aren’t going anywhere.

It also denies history; the Wolfdene Dam was scrapped despite the state acquiring 80% of the properties needed to build it.

Putting a dam wall across a shallow valley at Traveston will block behind it the silt from the Conondale Ranges that has naturally built in every slow corner of the Mary River all the way to the sea to a height of 30 feet.

Farmer Les Hall has offered me a canoe and a shovel to test that truth but I believe him.

I also have no trouble with the logic that, if built, the dam will negatively impact both the world heritage-listed Great Sandy Strait Marine Park and the fishing grounds of Hervey Bay.

The federal government faces a real test on this issue. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has the right to block the dam on environmental grounds. The question is, will logic and common sense hold more sway than the dictates of Labor’s state political fortunes in Queensland?

The Traveston Crossing Dam is not a relevant water supply solution in an age of increasingly uncertain rainfall. The south east’s existing dams now rely on storm events for sustenance, our annual rainfall no longer enough to supply demand for water from a ballooning urban population.

Meanwhile water falls onto the roofs of homes and factories across the region and races off, untrapped, into turbid stormwater that pollutes our inshore water ways and river systems.

The concept of urban dams that capture, treat and re-use this resource seems to have an undeniable logic, but is a level of sustainability this government is oddly reluctant to embrace.

Is it that dams, as illogical and under-performing as they are, form part of a tangible asset base to sell off to some international private equity fund to allow our state government’s under-performing, inefficiency to continue unchecked?

Is this why the people of Eumundi and Eerwah Vale must suffer the intrusion of 275,000 volt power cables across their properties and why 73-year-old cattle farmer Clarry Gray is now facing the final decimation of a 100-acre farm - bought in 1962 - with its resumption for a 50 acre power substation.

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi co-ordinator Graham Smith calls the infrastructure over-the-top and the so-called community consultation process the box-ticking of a pre-determined outcome.

He is right to argue that in the face of the realities of climate change and our need to adapt, the destruction of people’s lives and livelihoods to transport electricity from coal-fired power stations is an obscenity.

Sustainable Business Alliance spokesman Justin Holbrook says sustainability means self-sufficiency. Associate professor Peter Waterman, arguably a world expert on climate change adaptation, says decentralisation of water and power supply is essential to surviving the future.

Both positions would deny the continuing consolidation of these assets by state governments quick to listen to the global monopolies forming to purchase control of them from anyone willing and foolish enough to sell.

The state’s projections for the ballooning cost of water from its own Bulk Water Authority over the next 10 years are frightening.

Is Anna Bligh’s insistence that the regional council approve subdivisions to house an additional 75,000 people in the short term fuelled by the need to build a customer base to go with the assets she may well on-sell?

Or is there another reason why, despite the community speaking with one clear voice about its desire to do things differently here, the state government continues to force outdated and clearly unsustainable solutions down our throats?

To comment on this article on the Sunshine Coast Daily website, click here

To contact Bill Hoffman with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, he can be contacted at this link - click here.

Families forced to sell up in name of progress

Source: Sunshine Coast Daily - Bill Hoffman (6 July 2008)

It’s the real price of progress and it's being paid by hundreds of Sunshine Coast families who must sacrifice their homes to feed the future.

Many are reluctant sellers, forced to shift from dream homes or their lifetime residences because of a population boom that requires infrastructure to service it.

Many thought they could escape the impact of population, traffic jams and road rage by heading bush.

Lewin Cleary will lose part of his land as a result of the planned Traveston dam. Photo: Che Chapman/175848

The Traveston Crossing dam has claimed 600 homes, the Landsborough to Nambour rail corridor another 200.

Hundreds more face having easements declared for the northern connector pipeline and Energex and Powerlink overhead electricity wires.

News that they are being sacrificed to the greater “good” comes to landowners through the mailbox in a letter detailing the state government’s intent and its legislative authority.

Some accept their fate and the government’s offer, move out and get on with it, carrying the bitter knowledge that despite the movie fairytale, their home was not their castle.

Others pick up the phone and call a lawyer. There are grounds for objection, but they are few and do not include dissatisfaction with the price.

The government offers to negotiate to acquire the properties it wants and states a willingness to pay market value.

However, there are always two valuations and the government’s is always the lower. If middle ground can’t be reached the land is just taken and compensation initially assessed by the government and can be paid as an advance payment with the land owner having the right to then have a market value determined by the Land Court.

Where it decides infrastructure is of a critical nature, as is the case with the northern connector pipeline, easements are simply taken by the government and an amount paid.

There is no room for negotiation and no grounds for objection to the easement though land owners can recover compensation.

Lawyer Peter Boyce, of Butler McDermott in Nambour, who represents scores of property owners affected by resumptions for the water pipeline, the rail corridor, Powerlink and Energex overhead power lines and the Sunshine Motorway, said there was no recognition given to the fact that most were not willing sellers.

He argues that residents who lose their homes due to forced resumptions should be paid a premium rather than have to debate the market value of their land.

“There is no recognition of their lack of choice,” he said.

“The government says it will pay market value but our valuations are always wrong.”

Mr Boyce said the government recognised hardship faced by people in the direct line of the new rail corridor between Landsborough and Nambour and valuations were being obtained for 30 to 40 properties.

He said the process was progressing smoothly but there remained issues for some properties with how much land the government actually wants.

And where agreement on value cannot be reached, owners have to then wait for long periods of time to enforce their right to compensation through the Land Court.

The emotional stress and strain on people through this process have seen a number of people end up in hospital or in the care of psychologists and psychiatrists.

Mr Boyce said attempts to secure the same deal for rail corridor property owners as offered by Queensland Water Infrastructure for those inside stage one and stage two of the Traveston dam project had been rebuffed.

Stage one property owners at Traveston have been able to lease back their former homes for $1000 a year until 2011. Stage two property owners can secure leases at 25% of market rent until 2035.

That is a good deal in any language but it is not a precedent the government is willing to extend to others.

Retired Kandanga hobby farmer David Sims was having none of the offers made to him and said he will fight to the last day in the courts to stop his land being taken.

Mr Sims said one of the first property owners to sell when the Department of Natural Resources handled negotiations had received a congratulatory letter from Peter Beattie and the promise of a 20-year lease.

“Last October he was told to vacate,” he said. “He’s spent $5000 on legal fees and looked around to find a replacement property would cost him $200,000 more than he had been paid.

Mooloolaba physiotherapist Kay Marshall and her husband, builder Terry, received only market value for their retirement tree farm on the Kandanga-Mary Valley Road and nothing for the crop.

They are in the process of making the shift to the farm at Glastonbury they bought with the government payment.

The experience is painful.

“Growing trees is long term and we were only half way to harvesting,” Kay said.

“Glastonbury is steep country, there’s lantana to be eradicated, sheds to build. We haven’t touched the tip of it. I get depressed every time I go to the old place and see the amount of work we will leave behind.”

As far as she is concerned, all roads lead to Brisbane and the long-term agenda is to sell off the state’s water assets.

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi spokesman Graham Smith said plans to run a 275,000 volt transmission line through Eerwah Vale and to build a 50 acre substation were over the top. He said the Powerlink proposal would destroy the environmental and capital value of hundreds of homes.

Attempts to talk to the minister for mines and energy have met with no response and Mr Smith said the so-called consultation process was little more than a box-ticking exercise with a predetermined outcome.

A letter sent to the minister Geoff Wilson in February has still to be answered.

"Residents are angry, concerned about their lifestyle and livelihoods, their property values and the potential health risks," Mr Smith said.

"Peter Wellington said it the other day. This government has stopped listening."

Mr Wellington, the independent member for Nambour for the past decade said there was a significant amount of money in the state budget for the purchase of land by negotiation.

He said politics played a part in how much was offered.

"At Traveston there was a clear political agenda. With the rail corridor for example there is no similar agenda to provide compensation or lease-back terms. It is nowhere near as generous."

At Eudlo, 88-year-old Brian Nielsen is waiting to understand his future.

The home in which he and his wife raised three daughters and has lived for the past 52 years is in the way of the Landsborough-Nambour rail duplication.

He had intended the 21 acre property to be his children’s inheritance.

"I was never going to sell," he declared this week.

"I’m disgusted and disappointed. I have three wonderful daughters who deserve this place. I’m going to need to look for somewhere else, but I can’t relocate until they pay me."

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Wildlife + pylons = gone

Source: Noosa News - Grant Reynolds (30 June)

Chances are, the great majority of us have never laid eyes on the mysterious creature know as the quoll.

The quoll’s habitat include the Noosa hinterland and the large tracts of land around Eerwah Vale dedicated to conservation, but the area will soon to be home to 45m-high pylons for a new powerline.

Spotted Quoll

Resident of the area for more than 30 years and horticulturalist Annette House has been fighting to have the area protected for a long time and she said Powerlink’s decision to construct a new powerline through the area had made the case for conservation all the more urgent.

"Conservation should be the first consideration because there’s so little of it left," Mrs House said.

Mrs House said a number of residents had tried to negotiate nature refuge agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency but were knocked back “because of the risks associated” with the powerline.

Under a nature refuge agreement, the land is voluntarily entered by the owner and becomes a class of protected area under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.

Numerous residents had signed up for Land for Wildlife, an arrangement with the former Noosa Council to protect the environmental values of the surrounding land, but it does not contain any statutory protection.

Mrs House said there were biodiversity “hot spots” through the region that could be joined up through Land for Wildlife to create one large conservation area and the area was also home to healthy koala population due to its undisturbed state.

"The biodiversity is such that we have to do it regionally, if the powerline goes ahead or not," she said.

"There are mosaics of remnant vegetation everywhere."

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Powerline answers sought

Source: Noosa News - Grant Reynolds (27 June)

The member for Nicklin, Peter Wellington, is calling on the minister for mines and energy, Geoff Wilson, to uphold his end of the bargain and meet with Eerwah Vale residents to discuss their concerns about a proposed powerline through the Noosa hinterland area.

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi representative Graham Smith said the minister’s office had told the group they had to meet with Powerlink first, then a meeting with the minister could go ahead.

Mr Smith said the meeting with the state government owned corporation was scheduled for July 14, and Powerlink confirmed that a meeting with PAGE representatives would take place in mid July.

Mr Wellington met with PAGE members on Monday and said he would write to the minister and remind him of his obligations.

He also offered to table a question in parliament when it resumed on July 15, asking the minister to respond to a PAGE petition, with 487 signatures, that had been presented to parliament on February 14.

“The normal process is that if you do a petition and it meets the basic requirements the minister responds within a month,” Mr Wellington said.

“We don’t know why the minister is playing hard ball, the petition wasn’t unanswerable.”

Mr Smith said the group wanted to express its concerns about the way the process was being handled and to seek an explanation from the minister in regards to a letter from Powerlink CEO Gordon Jardine to Mr Wilson, dated January 4, 2008, in which he described PAGE’s campaign as scaremongering, deceitful and dishonest.

Mr Wilson has issued a statement in response to the request from Mr Wellington and PAGE.

“Once PAGE has met with Powerlink, if there are remaining issues the group wants to raise with me, I will be happy to make arrangements to receive a delegation led by Mr Wellington,” he said.

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Source: Noosa Journal - Isobel Coleman (26 June)

The battle to stop Powerlink running 45m high power pylons and 275,000 volt transmission lines through rural Eerwah Vale homes has received a boost with MP Peter Wellington joining the charge.

Mr Wellington, Independent State Member for Nicklin, met with residents in Musavale Rd, one of the areas most affected by Powerlink’s planned development.

CONCERN: Peter Wellington MP meets with residents in Musavale Road, Eerwar Vale.

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) appealed to Mr Wellington for help amid fears by members that their objections were falling on deaf ears.

PAGE coordinator Graham Smith told The Noosa Journal: "Powerlink is spending public funds on an expensive public relations campaign but refuses to provide detailed information to the community – despite their CEO publicly encouraging direct contact with Powerlink.

"What we get is delay, denial and misinformation."

PAGE has slammed Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson for failing to respond to a letter sent earlier this year.

"The Minister for Mines and Energy is ignoring this community," said Mr Smith.

"A letter detailing significant concerns over this project and Powerlink’s attitude to the community sent to the Minister on February 20 this year still remains unanswered."

Mr Wellington expressed his "disappointment" over the lack of response, by the same Minister, to a petition on the Powerlink proposal tabled in State Parliament in February.

Meeting with locals on Monday, Mr Wellington heard how the proposal by the state government-owned corporation would destroy lives, property values, the environment and local businesses.

Powerlink’s plan will affect around 30 properties and run through a designated wildlife corridor which, residents say, is home to the rare southern day frog and the tiger quall – classified as vulnerable fauna and facing extinction.

Among those set to lose their land and livelihoods is 73-year-old grandfather Clarence Gray, who must give up 50 of his 100 acres to house a sub-station.

Others, like cancer victim Sue Agnew, will lose land, views and property value and must live with high voltage powerlines just 100m from their homes.

"In our opinion this lack of information continues the pattern set by Powerlink and now followed by the Minister, of withholding information from the public and ignoring the genuine concerns of this community," said Mr Smith.

The question needs to be asked – what do the voters of Queensland need to do to be heard by this State Government?"

To contact Isobel Coleman with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, she can be contacted at editor@journalweekender.com.au.

Now cancer survivor Sue faces threat from powerline

Source: Noosa Journal - Isobel Coleman (19 June)

Sue Agnew was recovering from major surgery for breast cancer when she heard Powerlink planned to run its proposed powerline right through her family’s Ridgewood home.

Sue Agnew was recovering from major surgery for breast cancer when she heard Powerlink planned to run its proposed powerline right through her family’s Ridgewood home.

FEAR FOR THE FUTURE: Cancer survivor Sue Agnew faces threat from powerline.

She told The Noosa Journal: "The shock of being diagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery and chemotherapy was bad enough. To then receive a letter saying Powerlink was taking a chunk of our home for these enormous towers was heartbreaking."

Sue has this week written to Minister for Health Stephen Robertson telling him she feared "the silent dangers of this new menace moving into our neighbourhood".

"I have four children here," she said. "This is where my husband and I want to spend the rest of our lives. Now we don’t know what to do."

In her letter to the Minister Sue expressed her "distress at plans by Powerlink to run a huge, unsightly and possibly dangerous power line through a beautiful remnant of Australia’s natural flora and fauna legacy."

"The prospect of the massive power line has gone from bad to worse. The latest planned alignment of this power line runs on our neighbouring property, close to our shared boundary, and just 100m from our residence. I remain deeply concerned about the health risks and feel that some of the responses and justification Powerlink has put forward for its actions require closer scrutiny".

Sue said: "We are not talking about small poles here – these are 45m high towers with multiple lines carrying 275kv of power."

Sue, husband Gary and children Louise, 17, Lucy and Kate, 15, and eight-year-old Tim have 20 acres in Jorgensen Road. Currently running horses and chickens, the family had plans for a hobby farm.

"I’m not sure what we will do now though," said Sue.

"We put all our spare cash into this when we bought it in 1999 and it will probably become unsellable once the powerline goes in."

To contact Isobel Coleman with your stories, to share your thoughts or to provide feedback on this article, she can be contacted at editor@journalweekender.com.au.

Source: Noosa News - Grant Reynolds (3 June)

Officially, a link between exposure to high-voltage powerlines and major health disorders has the scientific world collectively shrugging its shoulders – but like warnings about the ills of smoking decades ago, the Hartwell family don’t want their new-born twins to be "the I told you so".

Tanya Hartwell is 34 weeks pregnant with a double bundle of joy on the way and the family is concerned about the risk of cancer and leukaemia related to electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) from a powerline proposed to be built 200 metres from their home.

"They (the twins) could come in half an hour, it could happen in a week. This is stress we don’t need," Michael Hartwell said.

With twins on the way, west Cooroy resident Michael Hartwell is opposed to proposed transmission lines so close to his property. Photo: Geoff Potter/n20599c

"When you know you’re going to have your hands full, not knowing what our future is going to be with this thing hanging over our heads is terrible."

The state government owned-corporation proposes to build a powerline from the north of Gympie to a new substation at Eerwah Vale with most of the land for new easements coming from the Eerwah Vale area.

Around 263 properties will be directly affected by the new powerlines and Eumundi residents have been locked in a battle with Powerlink over its plans.

A 2007 study by Lowenthal, Tuck, and Bray published in the Internal Medicine Journal, found there was a possible link between exposure and lymphoproliferative (LPD) and myeloproliferative (MPD) disorders, both linked to various types of leukaemia.

The study states that "results raise the possibility that prolonged residence close to high-voltage power lines, especially early in life, may increase the risk of the development of MPD and LPD later."

Powerlink chief operating officer Simon Bartlett said EMF readings at the edge of a Powerlink easement were similar to those at home or at work.

"At 100 metres from the powerline, the EMFs are so small that they cannot be measured," he said.

"Clearly, at 200 metres, the EMFs from the powerline are also immeasurable – they do not add anything to the EMFs that already exist in the house.

"When Powerlink acquires a new easement like the one under investigation in the Eerwah Vale area, we try to keep the powerline more than 100 metres away from homes."

As for the debate, Mr Bartlett said there was no conclusive evidence of a causal association between EMFs and health risks such as cancer, but Powerlink applied an approach of "prudent avoidance" in situating new powerlines – hence the 100-metre approach.

Mr Hartwell said he’d collected enough research to tell him he didn’t want his children to be anywhere near the Powerline, but like many others whose land is not directly affected by the 40m high pylons, Mr Hartwell does not qualify for compensation and faces the prospect of his land being devalued by up to 50%.

State member for Nicklin Peter Wellington described the consultation process as a sham.

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