The community of Kilkivan, near Gympie, has united in a "bitter" battle to keep a proposed power line corridor locked out of their region.
More than 50 locals gathered on Tuesday night as part of the Kilkivan Action Group, to discuss their concerns and plan their arguments as state government-owned Powerlink drafts a corridor selection report for a route to connect the proposed Borumba pumped hydro project to existing substations west at Tarong/Halys and north at Woolooga.
The northern connection includes three options - the western, central and eastern corridor proposals - with the western option impacting the properties of commercial cattle grazier Ian Davies.
Mr Davies said the group was determined the corridor would not run through their region.
"The driving force of this group is to keep these power lines out of our properties," Mr Davies said.
"The people are angry that we have been treated in such a way by Powerlink and there is a massive amount of solidarity and determination with us, we are not going to be picked off one-by-one.
"People are well aware of their rights and they won't be entering our properties and we will lock the gates, it's going to be a bitter fight."
Mr Davies said locals felt the consultation process had been poorly managed with many locals only hearing of an information meeting hosted by Powerlink after it had been held.
Acting as spokesperson for the group, he said there were concerns the 70 metre wide corridor would devalue property prices, be a visual eyesore and workers entering farming properties would create a biosecurity risk and spread noxious weeds like giant rat's tail grass.
Mr Davies also felt the three proposed power line routes didn't use enough state-owned land.
"They have got alternate routes where they can go through state land," he said.
"They seem more than happy to go through private land, disturbing those trying to make a living off the land, but are reluctant to go through state land.
"The state land is not being utilised anywhere near the extent they could, it's power for the state, use the state land."
He also feels having three options was leading to division amongst property owners not wanting power lines in their backyards.
"I feel they have tried to divide and conquer," Mr Davies said.
"There is conversation going on between groups on the proposed routes, we are maintaining dignity."
Powerlink responds
The Borumba scheme will use water and solar energy generation to create 2 gigawatts of power over a 24 hour period (peak state use is 10 GW) and is part of the Palaszczuk government's $62 billion energy and jobs plan that aims to use renewables to supply 80 per cent of Queensland's energy by 2035.
Powerlink executive general manager delivery and technical solutions Ian Lowry wanted to thank landholders for their feedback and reassure them the draft process for connecting the hydro pump to the grid was still ongoing.
"We have received 1700 items of feedback on the corridors," Mr Lowry said.
"We have a lot to assess and consultation continues until the end of March, then a draft report suggesting a corridor will be published on April 27.
"On property values, as the project progresses we will engage and consult with any landholder that is directly impacted to determine fair and appropriate compensation payments."
Mr Lowry said farm biosecurity was "extremely important" to Powerlink and strict land access protocols were applied to individual properties.
He stated the three proposed corridor options were not designed to divide the communities but was an attempt to explore and "find a balance" that worked for the region and also said the draft would be amended to "use as much state land as possible."
"One of our key criteria is to avoid or minimise impacts to high biodiversity values," Mr Lowry said.
"And that doesn't matter if it is in a state forest, park or privately held land because there is clearly privately held land where there are high biodiversity values habitats.
"Whether those habitats are on private land or state land we have got to have the same regard for them in terms of the corridors."
Powerlink will be releasing the draft corridor selection Report on 27 April, 2023 which will identify the recommended corridor and after releasing the report, a comprehensive engagement process will take place with landholders, the community and other stakeholders to gather detailed input on the recommended corridor and the wider report.
Following a review of all feedback received on the draft corridor selection report, a study corridor will be determined as part of the final corridor selection report in mid-2023.
