Originally published by Peter Jenkins of The Daily Telegraph
11.06.2026
Twin rows of 500kV high voltage transmission towers are proposed to link the Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter to a New England Renewable Energy Zone around 220km to the north.
The planned route would carve its way through and around areas featuring some of the state’s most productive agricultural land, including cattle properties and thoroughbred horse studs.
Steve Brown, founding director of Kitchwin Hills stud at Gundy, east of Scone, told this masthead how the massive pillars of power – under current mapping – “go close to the edge of our property” and would dominate the surrounding landscape.
“On our farm alone, we’ve had an Everest winner, a Melbourne Cup winner, a Golden Slipper winner, a Magic Millions winner … this region produces elite racehorses and it’s about to be ruined,” he said.
The late great Black Caviar delivered foals at Kitchwin Hills and spent the last two years of her life there after a career of 25 races unbeaten and 15 Group 1 victories.
“This is the best breeding area in the southern hemisphere,” Mr Brown added. “We have the second largest concentration of stud farms in the world, behind Kentucky (in the US).
“But this industry depends on clean, green, serene. This will just destroy everything that’s been built up over 200 years.”
Mr Brown said the equine industry – along with Upper Hunter vineyards – has Critical Industry Cluster status from the NSW Government, providing protection from mining activity since 2012.
He struggles to understand why that protection does not extend to the encroachment of renewable energy infrastructure.
“These are two iconic industries in NSW,” he added. “They’re internationally recognised, they’re highly productive, and the cluster is there to make the thoroughbred industry a sustainable pillar of the Hunter economy.”
While there are power lines around parts of Scone, Mr Brown said they would be dwarfed by the scale and side-by-side rollout of the infrastructure proposed for the New England REZ.
“Under the existing guidelines, these transmission lines would go through the edge of our property, just outside the boundary … and will tower over us,” Mr Brown said.
“Then there’s the roads needed for construction that would also go right to our boundary … think of the traffic that would go through there.
“It changes everything for us. Horses are flight animals. They react to things.
“We’ve got horses in late-stage pregnancies now and there are plans for a low flying helicopter survey of the area. That makes me nervous.”
EnergyCo is the government authority coordinating development of the New England REZ.
A spokesman told this masthead: “NSW has more than 13,000km of existing high-voltage transmission lines which already successfully coexist with a wide range of agricultural operations, including grazing, cropping, equine and viticulture.”
But Mr Brown fears investment into the area’s thriving thoroughbred sector will suffer if “a protected equine industry now becomes open slather for development”.
“If this region – the jewel of Australian racing – can be hammered, it will undermine the future,” he said. “Who’s going to invest in an area, in a supposedly protected industry, that can just get whacked like that?
“Imagine trying to attract clients here. It changes the landscape forever and would destroy the Hunter’s reputation.”
Mr Brown is also struck by the irony of the NSW Government providing a subsidised EV charger for a tourism hotspot based on his property.
The Barn Scone homestead sleeps 14. Access roads for construction of the proposed transmission lines will “go past the front door”.
“It will be a disaster for that business,” he said.
Further to the north, as the climb is made to the Great Dividing Range, there are other animal-centric issues triggered by the proposed transmission line route.
Aaron and Tabitha Ham run 1100 cows on their Niangala farm, producing beef for domestic and export markets on the fringes of native forest.
“We live in conjunction with koalas, quolls and gliders,” Tabitha said. “They’re still here because of us. We keep bushfires off them. We control wild dogs from attacking them.
“We coexist with them. But this transmission line will strip out koala habitats.”
Aaron accused the government of “double standards” after the timber industry was banned last September from logging an area earmarked for a Great Koala National Park on the state’s north coast.
“Apparently they’ve got to save the koalas up there but to hell with the koalas down here,” he said.
“The government will probably call it offsetting. A cuddly koala park on the north coast so koala areas can be smashed elsewhere.”
The Hams also cited the risk to New England Peppermint Grassy Woodlands in the area.
“They’re listed as critically endangered,” said Tabitha. “For a farmer to damage them you can look at fines of up to $1 million.
“These transmission lines threaten them, but it seems the government can do as it wishes.”
EnergyCo responded, saying: “We understand community concern about impacts to koalas and their habitat. Koalas are commonly found throughout the region and are a key consideration as we develop the project.
“We are carrying out detailed … studies to inform the project’s biodiversity impact assessment for the Environmental Impact Statement … the EIS will be lodged for assessment and public exhibition later this year.”
This masthead has also seen an email sent from a Forestry Corporation officer to EnergyCo in January. It said EnergyCo had not captured all species in a list of endangered flora-fauna to be likely impacted by the transmission line route.
“(It) does not include the recently rediscovered Euphrasia arguta previously regarded as being extinct,” the Forestry officer wrote. “Also, the fauna details does not include the Long Sun Skink.”
EnergyCo responded: “Thanks for highlighting those two species that were omitted from our application.”
EnergyCo confirmed to the Telegraph this week that “biodiversity surveys” undertaken later “included targeted surveys for both of these species”.
