Monica Sutherland is a member of the community-led action group Protect Dookie and the Goulburn Valley.
Photo by
Nicholas Spandler
The Dookie community is demanding answers over how one of Victoria’s most productive agricultural districts has ended up inside a proposed Renewable Energy Zone.
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The Protect Dookie and the Goulburn Valley Group has sent a formal open letter to VicGrid chief executive officer Alistair Parker, giving the agency 21 days to respond to a series of questions the community said have gone unanswered for months.
VicGrid released 36 pages of responses to questions taken on notice at the community sessions in early May, pointing towards consultant reports and the new Victorian Access Scheme.
VicGrid has also emphasised that the official consultation period for the central north zone has not begun, with a legislated minimum of six weeks needed before sign-off.
In its letter, the group said the responses failed to answer the communities concerns adequately, cutting to the heart of what locals see as a flawed process.
They said no-one has been able to tell them who decided Dookie should be included, what evidence supported that decision, or whether the district’s specific agricultural value was assessed before the boundary was drawn.
Group spokesperson Hannah Harmer said the questions they’re asking are reasonable.
“They’re the basic questions any community should be entitled to ask when decisions of this significance are being made.”
Locals said Dookie was added to the zone after other areas had already been removed from consideration.
The group notes that boundaries were redrawn in the Campaspe/Corop area following concerns about agricultural, environmental and cultural heritage values, yet the Dookie eastern section remains inside the proposed zone despite the community arguing the same considerations apply.
The proposed Central North Renewable Energy Zone. The Protect Dookie Group is calling for the removal of the eastern section of the REZ.
The open letter notes 12 points of concern, from flood risk and biodiversity to the impact on the University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus, a nationally significant agricultural research and education facility.
The group has also asked questions about the circumstances under which compulsory acquisition powers could be exercised over farmland, with VicGrid saying it was aware of no such instances for renewable projects in Victoria and that statutory powers would only be used as a last resort.
At the core of the community’s case is the agricultural value of what’s at stake.
Independent analysis in the Sequana Report, commissioned by Greater Shepparton City Council, found cropping in the district runs 80 to 100 per cent above the Victorian average.
The local community said the impacts of large-scale development would stem much further than the short term.
“Once fragmented by large-scale industrial infrastructure, this agricultural capacity cannot simply be recreated elsewhere,” the group said.
The community has been clear that they aren’t arguing against renewable energy.
Its position is that the process was not transparent, not evidence-based, and did not give the district a fair hearing.
“This isn’t simply about Dookie,” spokesperson Jodie Fleming said.
“The decisions made here will establish an important precedent for every farming community that may one day find itself inside a Renewable Energy Zone.”
Projects developed in the proposed REZ will tap into these existing transmission lines that run past Dookie.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The community is calling for the Dookie eastern section to be removed from the proposed zone, the full public release of the evidence relied on in its selection, and a guarantee from VicGrid that removal remains a genuine possible outcome of the forthcoming formal consultation process.
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