The wind never really stops on Peter Watts\u2019 hill. On his grazing property, 90km north-west of Bendigo, it sweeps in across the plains and picks up strength as it climbs. \u201cI can go up there any time of the day,\u201d Watts says. \u201cIt might be completely still down here but it\u2019s always windy up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For five generations, the hill was just part of the landscape. Then, in 2002, scientists told him it was the \u201cperfect spot\u201d for a windfarm. Developers came knocking a decade later, proposing to build six turbines on the hill, each one 95 metres high<\/p>\n
After a stretch of drought, the offer of steady income was appealing. Watts signed a 33-year lease, but he says it wasn\u2019t the money that sealed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were such a good group of people to deal with,\u201d he says. \u201cNothing was ever a problem. If something came up, they\u2019d come sit down with you and work through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some farmers are happy to earn income from wind turbines on their properties. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
When the question arose about how to connect to existing Powercor lines, a small substation was built. When access became an issue, a road was built on the edge of Watts\u2019 property. Even neighbours who were, as Watts puts it, \u201cgrizzly\u201d about the view of turbines on the hill were brought into the fold \u2013 they were offered about $2,500 a year for the life of the project, and there was $25,000 in annual community grants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did the work, they got the backing of the community, and that\u2019s what helped get it over the line,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Watts\u2019 windfarm was among the first in the region. As Victoria pushes towards a target of 95% renewable energy by 2035<\/a> and prepares for the closure of major coal-fired power plants, dozens of similar projects are spreading across the state\u2019s west. Now, renewable energy is shaping as a defining issue in the November state election.<\/p>\n Grazier Peter Watts holds an underground cable that carries power from the windfarm on his property. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley\/The GuardianComplaints about consultation<\/p>\n The Victorian government, which set its renewable energy target in 2022, is facing what it describes as planning roadblocks. More than one projects has ended up at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal since 2015, causing significant delays. The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, last year said about $90bn of investment was sitting in the pipeline.<\/p>\n To speed things up, the government fast-tracked approvals, limited third party appeals and created a new state body called VicGrid to oversee planning across six renewable energy zones. Controversially, it also passed laws to allow VicGrid and its contractors access to private land<\/a> \u2013 without a landholder\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n Andrew Peverill, who owns a farm in Glenloth in north west Victoria, says it felt like the government was \u201cploughing through\u201d its plans without listening to regional communities.<\/p>\n Photograph: Stuart Walmsley\/The Guardian<\/p>\n His farm sits in the path of VNI West, a proposed 240km transmission line linking Victoria to New South Wales. About 2.3km of the line will cut across his land, which is used for broad acre cropping and running merino sheep.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of land in Australia it could go on that it wouldn\u2019t affect much,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s really good ground [here] and the further south you go, the better it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n Peverill supports renewable energy \u2013 like most farmers he has solar panels on his roof \u2013 but not this development.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the way it\u2019s being done,\u201d Peverill says.<\/p>\n VNI will eventually connect into the Western Renewables Link<\/a>, another major transmission project managed by AusNet, which links Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne\u2019s north-west. Opposition to the project has been on display for five years near Daylesford in central Victoria, where a farmer has sprayed \u201cpiss off AusNet\u201d onto a hillside.<\/p>\n Some locals have made their opinions about AusNet\u2019s plans very clear. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Labor insiders privately concede the projects could cost it the seat of Ripon in western Victoria, which takes in most of the path of the Western Renewables Link<\/a>. The seat is held on a margin of less than 3%. Other regional seats on the two routes have traditionally been Nationals\u2019 heartland but One Nation is gaining ground. Barnaby Joyce, the former Nationals MP who defected to One Nation in December<\/a>, visited Horsham in February and he criticised VicGrid\u2019s expanded powers.<\/p>\n The backlash to renewable energy developments in regional Victoria \u2013 particularly in the state\u2019s west \u2013 is strong. The outgoing Victorian Farmers Federation president, Brett Hosking, who lives in the line of VNI, says community engagement has been \u201cwoeful\u201d. Some volunteer fire brigades say they won\u2019t attend fires at properties hosting renewable infrastructure<\/a>, while farmers have protested outside parliament and heckled Allan at an address<\/a> in Ballarat in 2025. Anger about a new emergency services levy has added fuel to the fire, with the government in December forced to freeze the rate hike for farmers for two years<\/a> because of the backlash.<\/p>\n Photograph: Stuart Walmsley<\/p>\n Peverill was among a group of farmers who last year blocked VicGrid from entering their properties to carry out ecological surveys. More farmers are blocking surveys this year.<\/p>\n In a statement, VicGrid said the surveys were part of preparing an environmental effects statement, and that more than 170 landholders had allowed it to access their land since 2023, receiving payments of between $10,000 and $50,000. It has also issued 26 notices of proposed entry for properties between Stawell and Murrabit where access was refused \u2013 a property owner who bars entry could attract fines of up to $800.<\/p>\n Windfarm turbines are clearly visible in many parts of rural Victoria. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley\/The Guardian<\/p>\n For Pervill key questions about VNI west remain unanswered: how the line will affect GPS-guided farm machinery; why government payments are capped at 25 years<\/a> when towers will \u201cbe here forever\u201d; and the potential fire risk and affects on waterways. He also argues there\u2019s been little effort to follow property boundaries instead of cutting through the middle of farms.<\/p>\n VicGrid says there are 6,500kms of transmission across Victoria, most of it on farms that remain productive, and says there are no record of any turbine starting a bushfire in the state.<\/p>\n But even Watts is critical of VNI, describing it as the \u201copposite\u201d of everything that made his windfarm experience positive.<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies that have been friends for years and years have gotten to the stage where they can\u2019t even look at each other,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent polling commissioned by Renew Australia for All found 66% of those surveyed in the western Victoria renewable energy zone supported the transition, while 13% opposed. Many farmers are in the latter camp.<\/p>\n One group, Farmers Fightback, has characterised the transition as a plan to \u201cmake foreign billionaires much wealthier\u201d, noting VNI will be built and operated by a Spanish multinational. The group accused VicGrid of \u201cthe most egregious overreach\u201d in Victoria\u2019s history and its attempts to access land as a \u201ccoordinated campaign of intimidation\u201d.<\/p>\n