General News
11 November, 2024
Renewable energy, controversial transmission lines tackled by new mini-series
Neighbours star Ryan Moloney features in new on-farm series.
A new season of The New Joneses mini-series is tackling the controversial conversations about renewable energy in regional Australia.
Transmission towers are the topic of the first episode of season four, which deep dives into the practicality of farming under transmission lines with a visit to Simon and Susan Tickner's property at Warracknabeal.
Neighbours star Ryan Moloney, also known as "Toadie" from the popular Australian drama is the new host of the mini-series about sustainable living met the Tickner family on their property.
Mr Tickner has been farming under transmission lines for over 50 years and said the controversy around new transmission line development in Victoria has contributed to a lot of misinformation about the impacts of the towers on farming operations.
"It's not a lot different from working around a large gum tree in regards to what the farm loses from a productivity point of view," he said.
"We live with them and we think their actual impact on our farming operation is minimal.
The Tickner family runs a cropping operation across 3500 hectares, with 16 transmission towers cutting through a 5.5 kilometre corridor on their property without much interference Mr Tickner said.
"There are some pretty wild claims being spread about the impact [transmission lines] have on property prices and what you can and can't do underneath them and restrictions on farm use and a lot of that just isn't true," he said.
"I find that a bit frustrating because we just haven't experienced that."
Speaking about the proposed VNI western renewables link, Mr Tickner said he is a big advocate for what renewable energy does for the regional economy.
"You often hear that the only people who want the renewal projects on their farms are the ones who get paid for it and that's certainly not the case," he said.
"The Murra Warra wind farm is the biggest levy payer in the shire so the local government income certainly benefits from that, and there are significant job opportunities through construction and a number of broader long-term benefits.
"For a lot of people it's a new concept and the early engagement with regional communities from the government was terrible so I can certainly understand why that hasn't sat comfortably with a lot of people."
The Tickner family doesn't get paid for the transmission line that runs through their property but Mr Tickner said the offer to landholders for the new transmission build was "pretty generous".
"If we had 5.5km of the western renewables link running through our place that payment would be worth about one million dollars to us over the next 20 years.'
Founding director and producer of the series Tamara DiMattina said the show hasn't always had a farming focus but the season was an interesting insight into rural issues surrounding renewable energy.
"Simon has been someone who is vocal about farming under transmissions lines and I could see that was a topic that was dividing people and he has been doing this for 50 years so he's a good person to speak to," Ms DiMattina said.
Speaking about Ryan Moloney's involvement with the series, Ms DiMattina said he offered valuable insight and questions, owing to his background in civil construction.
"Ryan was such a loved Australian hero on our screens - people recognise him - and he's also really interested in the topics, even if he wasn't an expert," she said.
"When I started this series, I wan't aware of transmission lines being a controversial topic; I'm a city girl.
"It's a complicated issues and there has been some really poor consultation with farmers and those people have had legitimately bad experiences.
"But if we were going to look at moving away from fossil fuels, then you can't have renewable energy without transmission lines so we had to unpack the complexity and the nuance there.
"There's lots of misinformation in the world now and we wanted to share some positive stories."