A controversial transmission line project spanning the NSW Hunter region has received conditional approval from the New South Wales government after its route was amended to avoid landholders and endangered frogs.
The Hunter Transmission Project (HTP) will connect renewable power generated by two renewable energy zones (REZ) adjacent to the Hunter, the Central West Orana and New England REZs, to large population centres on the east coast.
The 500-kilovolt transmission line will span more than 100 kilometres from Bayswater in the Upper Hunter to Olney near Lake Macquarie and will include the construction of 200 large towers, with 90 per cent to be built on government or mining land.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he understood the approval would be controversial, especially among impacted landholders.
“It will probably hit us politically but we don’t have a choice,” he said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns speaking in the Hunter region this week. (ABC News: Bridget Murphy)
“We have to make responsible decisions to deliver power for consumers and businesses, and if we don’t make decisions like that then you’ll see power prices go higher than they already currently are.
“We have to keep pressing ahead with energy needs for the state, and if we don’t it will have big impacts on jobs and the economy.”
Frog habitat impacts
Parts of the state-approved HTP route will run through parts of the Olney State Forest and the Watagans Ranges, which is one of three known homes of the endangered Littlejohn’s tree frog.
EnergyCo executive project director Peter Redwin told ABC Newcastle Breakfast that the department had redesigned the route to “minimise impacts on their breeding areas”.
Breeding habitats for the endangered Littlejohn’s tree frog are within the Watagans area. (Supplied: University of Newcastle)
“We know of 62 breeding ponds that have been there and we are not going to impact 60 of those,” he said.
“In addition to that we are actually helping the University of Newcastle with their breeding program for that tree frog. We’ve been told by our experts that we will not have a serious impact on that particular species.”
He said that would involve relocation which the department “cannot avoid”.
Aussie Ark, a Hunter-based conservation group has long campaigned against the project, fearing its approval will have a “catastrophic” impact on the endangered frog population.
Lead conservation officer Hayley Shute said today’s decision was an “absolute nightmare” for the species.
“They’re called a Littlejohn’s tree frog … not a Littlejohn’s pond frog,” Ms Shute said.
“Yes, they can come down to the ponds to breed, but where are they going to come from … they actually live in the trees and that is what they’re removing.
“Once those trees are gone and the shade’s gone they’re just open to predation.”
Ms Shute said the concerns raised by researchers and conservationists have fallen on “deaf ears”.
“They’ve just gone ahead, ticked their boxes and they are basically ruining any chance of survival for this species in the Watagans,” she said.
Land and housing
The ABC has previously spoken to landholders whose properties were subject to acquisition or negotiated purchasing from EnergyCo to build the HTP.
Initially the project was poised to impact around 70 private properties along the original route, but that has been reduced to “fewer than 20” with the amended route, according to a statement from NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe.
EnergyCo’s Peter Redwin said there has been “positive” negotiation and collaboration with impacted owners.
“We’ve got a few last landowners that we’re still dealing with, but our aim is that we will not go through compulsory acquisition, that we will do it through negotiation and we’ve been very successful on that to date,” he said.
NSW Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and Upper Hunter Nationals MP Dave Layzell said it was commendable the majority of the infrastructure will avoid private property.
Upper Hunter Nationals MP Dave Layzell wants the construction process to benefit the region long-term. (Supplied: Dave Layzell MP)
“There’s always areas of improvement that I would have liked to see, but overall I can say they have done their best to minimise the impacts so that it reduces the impact on landholders, maximises the amount of land that is government owned or mining land,” he said.
The Minns government touted the construction of the HTP would create more than 800 jobs, primarily in the wider construction phase, with 160 to be based in the Hunter.
Mr Layzell said there was the potential that worker camps could be built for this project and other REZ projects which he would like to see benefit local communities long-term.
“One of my biggest criticisms of EnergyCo … is that in the time of a housing crisis these projects are talking about building large work camps,” he said.
“These large work camps are going to be built, they take in up to 300 people, and at the end of the project they get completely demolished and removed.
“Why aren’t we keeping some of this housing?”
The project will require a further rubber-stamp from the federal government before it can proceed.
EnergyCo said it will aim to begin construction in mid-2027.
