About 600 protestors packed the St Arnaud Town Hall on Monday to show their strong opposition to a state and federal government plan to build a 500-kilovolt Victoria-NSW transmission line across local farmland.
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A convoy of about 50 tractors and 20 trucks also blocked off the main street outside the town hall for just under an hour as part of the rally.
Farmers had intended to take part in a Q&A session about the VNI West proposal with representatives from the Australian Energy Marketing Operator (AEMO) after the convoy, but the operator pulled out at the last minute.
Protest organiser and Gre Gre sheep farmer Jason Barrett said the decision for AEMO representatives not to turn up left farmers high and dry.
"Them not turning up is denying us our right to [ask] questions," he said.
"It's been a constant problem to get consultation with them from day one, and they've rejected us every time."
Mr Barrett said there was a possibility that AEMO may meet at a later time with a smaller amount of locals, but it hadn't been confirmed.
But he said the view of local farmers was that a proposed route through the region was not the best option.
"We understand that this state is growing in population, and we need good ways of getting better power, but we have research that this is not the right route through valuable farming land," he said.
"There are better places for it to be done."
He said the plan would affect locally farmers' biosecurity significantly, with constant checks to lines having the potential to spread weeds and disease.
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While Mr Barrett was open to the possibility of "looking at" the option of undergrounding a powerline, both he and fellow organiser Bill Baldwin, Gre Gre, said there was unity between farmers that the project was not wanted in the region.
"This is not coming through here," Mr Baldwin said.
"It's not going underground.
"It's not coming over the top.
"We have a strong voice and they're not railroading over the top of us to then just fulfil some pithy politicians' promises just because they want to make some money out of it."
Gre Gre sheep and grain farmer Jason McIntyre said he was concerned about the lack of information given about the project.
"The first we heard about it was at the [Wimmera Machinery] Field Days, and no one really knew what was going on," he said.
He said a public forum about the project on March 21 did not give any insight into biosecurity risks or livestock protection.
"We want answers about where this link is going, what it will do, how much they'll pay us farmers," he said.
"At the end of the day this could drop our land value by potentially half, and leave us in a no-win situation."
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said the state government had "failed to properly prepare for the transition to renewable energy".
"We won't accept that farmers are being made to bear the brunt of years of inaction, while they have a complete lack of detail on a project that has the potential to threaten their livelihoods," Ms Germano said.
"Farmers want answers and for the likes of AEMO to decline [this] community meeting at the last minute demonstrates the lack of respect farmers are being shown."
The project originally included a transmission line from Kerang in northern Victoria to a proposed terminal station in Hepburn Shire at Mount Prospect, planned for construction as part of the Western Renewables Link.
The preferred site for the terminal station had been moved to Bulgana in the Northern Grampians Shire, noted as option five in AEMO Victorian Planning's (AVP) Options Assessment Report.
AVP and Transgrid have received more than 300 submissions in response to the VNI West Consultation Report, which will help identify the proposed option for the transmission line.
The closing date for submissions is Wednesday.
A submission from the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, a research hub based at Victoria University, said the project would increase the susceptibility to state-wide blackouts through exposure to natural disasters and terrorism.
Another conclusion from their submission said the development would double transmission charges.
"AEMO want the community and renewable-generation developers to wait on it to deliver its monumental plans," Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Professor Bruce Mountain said at the meeting.
"Its own analysis shows that the most monumental thing about its plans is the amount of time, natural resources and money it wastes."
A submission from Glenden Watts, Coonooer Bridge, criticised the changes, saying it was "illogical and scandalous" that it had been deemed the preferred option.
"Despite having numerous identified limitations, option five is also the only option which fails to pass near - or supply - Bendigo," Mr Watts said in his submission.
Northern Grampians Shire Council has also called on governments and energy agencies to respond directly to the concerns of farmers, and criticised the short amount of time for submissions.
Mayor Kevin Erwin said the council first learnt about the proposal in late February.
"Council is extremely concerned that infrastructure of this scale will have a very substantial and direct impact on prime agricultural land, but the period allowed for public input is too short," Councillor Erwin said.
"Council lodged its submission last week which raises a raft of unanswered questions from the community that need to be addressed before the project proceeds further."
AVP group manager Nicola Falcon said meetings, webinars and community events had been held to further build project understanding and gather feedback on a proposed route.
"The community members, farmers and council representatives we've met and spoken with understand that the rapid retirement of coal-fired generation is creating an urgent need for new transmission infrastructure to connect and share new electricity generation," she said.
An AEMO spokesperson said its focus now turned to assessing the more than 300 submissions and publishing a preferred option for VNI West.
"In our role as Australia's not-for-profit independent power system and market operator, our focus remains on working with stakeholders to enable the energy transition in the best interests of consumers," the spokesperson said.
