Landowners & Community
Syncline Energy has worked extensively with local landowners to develop a unique transmission proposal, using public land along the Calder Freeway and privately owned cropping and grazing land.
The project team understands the concerns of rural communities and heard their desire to play a part in the energy transition if impacts could be minimised.
Finding the right route together
Landowners
All landowners have been contacted and most of them have agreed to the project in principle.
Farm access agreements are being prepared for each private property in consultation with the landowners and in response to the Agricultural Assessment being undertaken.
Landowners are offered the opportunity to participate in a unique Community Trust arrangement, where distributions are made based on the length of cable through their properties. This is in addition to the State Government’s required compensation for transmission.
In this way, landowners have a stronger financial involvement in the Project and can benefit more significantly from hosting the Project.
Community
To date, consultation on the project has is focused on the involved landowners and in some instances neighbours.
This consultation has been undertaken using a ‘grass roots’ approach, with a senior member of the project team contacting landowners and neighbours personally, improving community trust and accountability in the proposal.
This form of consultation will be expanded upon and supplemented by additional measures, as the project progresses through the approvals process and detailed design.
This will include broader engagement with the wider community that surrounds the route.
Community Trust
The structure of a Community Trust accommodates the often multi-generation and layered ownership of the large family owned enterprises along the route.
This includes redemption rights and unit transfer mechanism that have been developed following consultation with farmers.
The Community Trust would operate under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) held by Equity Trustees Limited, with Syncline acting as the Authorised Representative.
The Community Trust will be independently audited and administered.