It’s been in Christine Knight’s family since 1870, and she and her husband Russell have won awards for the olive oil produced on the property, with the road to the property driving through 27,000 olive trees.
Out the back, the couple wants to create a luxury getaway, with rustic cottages placed in a garden inspired by Mrs Knight’s mother’s work on the property decades ago.
Mrs Knight said she wanted to market cottages at the back of the property as an Airbnb, and potentially host weddings at the site overlooking the paddocks.
Later this year, that view over the paddocks will become one over a construction site, and when construction is finished and the dust settles, the view will be completely different.
“What we’d be looking at is wall-to-wall on our western boundary of solar panels,” Mrs Knight said.
They live on the eastern boundary of the 1100-hectare, 440-megwatt Corop Solar Farm, which is set to begin construction in the latter half of 2021.
The solar farm will be operated by Leeson Group and will be one of the largest in Victoria.
Councillors unanimously passed a motion to approve the development at May’s Campaspe Shire Council meeting.
“We’ve got a terrific lot of things we’re doing here and that view’s going to change,” Mrs Knight said
“Basically, it sort of takes away part of the whole point of what we want to open up.”
Leeson Group has said it will plant trees along the eastern boundary alongside Lisadurne, but Mrs Knight said it remained to be seen what type of vegetation would be put in and how quickly it would grow.
“Hopefully (Leeson Group) will put the tree planting in and all the way along and that it’s looked after and does make a tall screen,” she said.
Mrs Knight spoke alongside two other residents at the council’s May meeting, but said she felt “dismayed” when it passed unanimously.
“When I realised that it felt awful. Why go all the way there (to object)? It was already decided.”
She echoed concerns of her neighbours Hugh and Sue Bowman, who both spoke about the condition and safety of the road, and voiced concerns about floodwaters on the site.
Leeson Group managing director Peter Leeson said there had been discussion in consultation with Mrs Knight about the screening along the eastern boundary of the site.
“We understand her concern and spoke to her at length about it,” Mr Leeson said.
He said there would be five rows of vegetation, scaling back in height. He said the exact types of bushes and trees to be used had yet to be determined.
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