Tony Morrison is a member of the Hume Link Alliance in opposition to the proposed above ground Transgrid transmission line. The views presented are his opinion.
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The proposed Hume Link powerline will expose the region to a risk of devastating bushfires.
Faults in electrical networks are one of the single biggest causes of major bush fires.
Australian and US scientists found in a 2020 review that electricity network related faults cause two-to-four per cent of all rural fires in Australia. However, under extreme fire weather conditions, up to 50 per cent of major bushfires are ignited by faults in networks.
The Hume Link Proposal is for a massive 360km, 500Kv powerline connecting the Snowy Hydro 2.0 via Taralga to Sydney.
A study by Wollongong University found powerline-caused ignitions were the most over represented cause of ignitions in NSW, with most houses destroyed. In neighbouring Victoria, the threat of electricity assets and towers to bush fire prone communities and wildlife is well recognised.
The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009) highlighting that the state has a history of electrical assets causing bushfires. In 1969 and 1977 the failure of electricity assets - including the clashing of conductors, conductors contacting trees and inefficient fuses caused major bushfires.
This is a genuine risk. For the sake of a quick and lazy resolution, Hume Link is sacrificing the opportunity to create an efficient and less dangerous system, i.e., undergrounding; and this needs to be negotiated before Transgrid, the overseas foreign-owned operator, is given the green light to proceed with this dangerous overhead transmission line proposal to deliver electricity to Sydney.
Transgrid has made 85-metre tall power towers its preferred delivery, which will dwarf everything in their surrounds. Hume Link Alliance is urging Governments to take a leadership role to prevent a bushfire catastrophe if this transmission line complete with its monstrous towers is ever built.
Experience throughout Australia over recent years is proof enough that a catastrophe will occur.
History was repeated with a vengeance when on February 7, 2009, five of the 11 major fires that day were caused by failed electricity assets; among the fires was one at Kilmore East which killed 119 people. It's impossible to find words to describe an event like that.
Additionally high voltage powerlines effectively stop the management of bushfires in the vicinity because the space above and below them is a no-go zone.
For safety reasons, neither trucks nor aircraft are allowed near powerlines during a fire.
In California, which has similar fire history to Australia, its largest electricity provider has begun undergrounding its electricity assets after the state regulators found that its equipment was responsible for several fires that destroyed the town of Paradise and took 89 lives in 2018.
Underground electricity transmission is best practice around the world. It is more reliable, safer, more efficient and will not be impacted by extreme weather, and importantly will not add to the risk of catastrophic bushfires.
Should a bushfire occur, the rehabilitation of that could run into the hundreds of millions.
The Hume Link Alliance is looking for support both financial and moral and to pressure Governments to underground Hume Link Transmission power lines.
So far, it hasn't done the work with no critical analysis either in costing or in the planning of Hume Link to underground it; It is a lazy approach. Our research indicates undergrounding maybe twice as expensive as overhead transmission lines, (not 10 times more expensive as detractors of undergrounding falsely claim).
It is a number the Minister for Energy says he would consider, and which he needs to be convinced about, and that is Hume Link Alliance's challenge.
Further information and methods of support may be obtained through our website stop hume link towers or on Facebook.
