A$814 in penalties has been levied against each of twelve agricultural households in Victoria's west, after inspectors tasked with surveying the route of a planned 480-kilometre power transmission corridor were not granted entry to their land. Affected landowners contend that the VNI West transmission line — running between Victoria and New South Wales — puts at risk the viability of farming operations, the condition of agricultural land, and holdings that certain families have tended across multiple generations.
Six additional landowners were issued formal notices after they did not permit inspectors onto their properties. Sanctions issued in August 2026 have drawn a wider group of landowners into formal disagreement with regulators over the way the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project acquires access to privately owned land. A court challenge has taken shape around the matter, with environmental review of the plan still ongoing.
Infringement notices were handed to the landholders by the Victorian government on 4 August 2026, following their decision not to permit authorised officers onto the properties to carry out preliminary investigations connected to VNI West. Formal notices put to the farmers claimed they had interfered with, blocked, or slowed down activities that had been properly authorised, and that no reasonable justification existed for doing so. Penalties were handed down drawing on powers contained in Victoria's Electricity Industry Act 2000, legislation that grants authorised officers the right to enter private land when carrying out designated electricity infrastructure planning work.
Objections raised by the farmers centred on when inspections would take place, how those visits might intersect with ongoing agricultural work, and what consequences the planned transmission line could bring. Landowners in the sector argue that decision-making power over who enters their holdings ought to rest more firmly with them, particularly where unscheduled visits stand to disrupt livestock routines or other farm tasks that cannot easily be postponed.
A planned infrastructure undertaking, VNI West would run high-voltage transmission lines along a corridor linking Victoria and New South Wales to bolster the power grid shared between the two states. Linking renewable energy zones with electricity grids across both states, the infrastructure would allow power to move between generation sites and the areas where demand is highest. Stretching westward from the Bulgana district, a planned double-circuit overhead transmission line rated at 500 kilovolts would cut across to a terminal station at Tragowel before turning north to meet the Murray River close to Kerang — all within the Victorian portion of the project. A link to New South Wales infrastructure would be established at that junction in the pipeline's route.
Designed to strengthen grid dependability, the initiative would also ease the absorption of renewable sources into the network and open up generation and storage capacity that can be shared across state lines. Across the broader undertaking, price tag estimates put forward by various sources have landed anywhere between A$7.6 billion and A$11.4 billion.
Farmland makes up much of the terrain the planned corridor would pass through, with agriculture serving as the backbone of the local economy in those areas. Property owners along the route have flagged objections over where transmission towers, access tracks, and easements would be positioned, along with questions about how agricultural use and land values might be affected.
Trent Carter, who runs a property at Wallaloo East where his family has farmed across five generations, raised an objection to surveyors entering one of his paddocks at a time when ewes were actively lambing. His stud Merino flock, he contended, faced potential harm from the proposed visit, with regulators having given insufficient weight to both animal welfare needs and the seasonal demands of farming operations. According to Carter, his family sought to arrange a more convenient time for the inspection, though their requests were not given adequate consideration. He made clear that his intention was to contest the penalty rather than accept a settlement.
Owners of adjoining properties have told of transmission line easements that fragment paddock layouts, add complexity to fire preparedness, and drag on sale prices when blocks are put on the market.
Kerang-area landholders named in the fines list included Colin and Mary Fenton, a husband-and-wife pair who work the land together. Land within that holding has been worked by the same family across more than a hundred years of continuous ownership. According to statements made by Colin Fenton, the pair had flagged worries about a wedge-tailed eagle nest on their land that carried protected status. Whether their objections had received proper consideration before the access notices took effect was a point he put forward for scrutiny. Worries about what the planned development might do to their property's market worth were also part of what the pair put forward. Fenton told a real estate agent he wanted to list the property for sale, though he noted that the planned transmission infrastructure posed a potential obstacle to attracting buyers.
Pooling their resources under shared legal counsel, all 12 households chose not to pay the penalties and won a postponement of the deadline to 23 October through the appeals process. At the heart of the matter lie two contested questions: whether the farmers held valid grounds for withholding access, and whether the steps taken to enforce compliance were proportionate given the situation.
Planning officers hold the legal authority to carry out designated survey activities on private land, and property owners received advance notice of those intended inspections, according to the position put forward by officials. Surveys of land and environmental conditions along the proposed route are what the Victorian government's transmission network planning body, VicGrid, contends are needed before work can proceed. Biodiversity, waterways, cultural heritage, farming practices, and a range of related considerations all fall within the scope of such reviews, with findings feeding into decisions about how a project takes shape and what effects it might produce. Before turning to statutory powers, officials indicate they first pursued negotiated access arrangements with landowners on a voluntary basis.
An environmental effects statement process is currently being conducted for the Victorian section of the VNI West project. A formal requirement for the EES came from Victoria's planning department in April 2024. Among the topics slated for review are biodiversity, native vegetation, cultural heritage, waterways, agricultural practices, land use, and the broader effects on surrounding communities. Public submissions on the EES were accepted from its exhibition opening on 5 October 2026 through to the 16 November closing date. A directions hearing before the Inquiry and Advisory Committee is pencilled in for 7 December, with the substantive proceedings set to open during the week of 8 February 2027.
Ahead of Victoria's November 2026 state election, the proposed transmission line drew pushback that parties on both sides seized upon as a dividing issue. Prior to the election outcome, the Liberal and National parties put forward a joint commitment to cancel the VNI West project, on the basis that it lacked economic viability and that other options had not been adequately examined. Proponents of the project within the state government pointed to the role new transmission lines would play in keeping the electricity grid stable as older coal-fired plants are progressively wound down.
