January 18th, 2022A marathon protest

In our August 2, 2021 edition we reported on a marathon run to protest the Western Victorian Transmission Network project. The protests continue…

BUNDING resident Kelly Conroy has run a marathon 160km over Friday and Saturday to protest against planned transmission lines through her community.
Kelly ran eight times around a 20-kilometre loop around Ballan taking in the Daylesford Road, Old Melbourne Road, Stone Hut Lane and Blakeville Road.
Kelly’s father Arch Conroy said the 160km was “close to the proposed length of the Western Victoria Transmission Network project”.
“(Kelly is running) to raise awareness for the concerns and safety of the many hundreds of communities, farming or otherwise, who will be affected by this build. This is intergenerational farmland, and these are our homes.
“All donations will go directly towards marketing and advertising and legal guidance and representation to help preserve our countryside, protect our agriculture, and put the high tension, high voltage power lines underground, where they belong.
“(We need) to bring awareness to the government that this project has to be rescoped to meet the requirements for the next 100 years.”
At the end of her run Kelly met with Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur who will take the issue to the Victorian Government.
The Western Victoria Transmission Network project proposes to build 190km of overhead transmission lines between Bulgana, north of Ararat, and Sydenham, in north-west Melbourne using 380 towers, each 75 metres tall.
A WVTN project report says the network is critical infrastructure required to unlock the renewable energy potential and economic development of Western Victoria.
The project entered the environmental assessment and project approvals phase in 2020 and that will continue through 2021 with construction planned to be completed in 2025.

Image: Helen Tatchell (The Moorabool News)