Originally published by Peter Jenkins of The Daily Telegraph
11.06.2026
Perched high on a hill overlooking lush grass-covered valleys that are home to cattle farms and nearby horse studs, Lucy Haigh struggles to keep her emotions in check.
For the agribusiness banker who found land in Belltrees in the Upper Hunter and with her husband built their forever home just 18 months ago, the planned transmission line infrastructure for the New England REZ has left her furious.
“It just shows this Labor Party really doesn’t care about regional people,” the mother of three boys – Henry, 5, William, 4, and Sinclair, 2, told this masthead.
“You pay your rates and taxes, do all the right things. You’ve got a mortgage too, and then this. They’re taking away what it means to be Australian. They’ve lost the plot.
“They just want to bulldoze and rip through properties like it doesn’t mean anything.
“But there’s millions of dollars that will go down the drain for people. Land will be devalued. If you’re heavily geared, that means a lot of financial stress because banks will want you to clear some debt.”
Lucy said the proposed two rows of high-voltage lines would run adjacent to and around their land, while access routes were likely to be carved through the property.
“We sit up on a hill looking out to pristine mountains and valleys, and that aspect will just be destroyed,” she added.
“If (the Premier) was to leave tomorrow he can just wash his hands of it, but … they’re impacting our land forever.”
Domonique Travers and her husband Bill are also facing “hundreds of large trucks a day” rumbling through their property at Timor, north of Gundy, if the project is approved and moves to construction.
“It’s an ill-conceived project,” Domonique said. “They’ve picked some of the roughest and highest country to go through, some of the steepest inclines in the state.
“I look at it and go ‘how are they going to build it through here?’
“Maybe they can, but at what cost? That’s what taxpayers and energy users, wherever they are in the state, and however they vote, need to understand.
“We’re not anti-renewables or anti-progress. But this is really bad infrastructure for NSW.”
