Marinus Link to travel through Gippsland farms

THE MARINUS Link (ML) is a proposed electricity and telecommunications interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria. 

According to the ML website, it will have a 1500-megawatt capacity, equal to supplying 1.5 million homes with power and will enable the flow of electricity in both directions between the two states, as well as storage capacity. 

The link will be approximately 345 kilometres long, with 255 kilometres of undersea cables and 90 kilometres of underground cables. 

The proposed underground route in Victoria will run from Waratah Bay and through the areas of Fish Creek, Buffalo, Stony Creek, Dumbalk, Mirboo North, and Driffield to the Hazelwood substation in Latrobe Valley. 

The project is currently in the ‘design and approvals’ phase which includes environmental assessments, community engagement and procurement. 

The community engagement phase involves the ML engagement team holding online webinars and drop-in sessions with Gippsland communities along the proposed underground route. 

Engagement began in late 2022, and sessions were held online and in Sandy Point, Meeniyan and Foster.  

Topics covered included environmental assessment guidelines and how landowners could provide feedback, the shore crossing at Waratah Bay, the route selection process, construction and environmental impacts, and jobs and opportunities.

Further engagement sessions are currently being conducted and upcoming drop-in sessions will be held in Mirboo North, Dumbalk, Meeniyan and Fish Creek. 

The ML engagement team will provide experts, maps and materials to help landowners understand the project and the assessment and planning processes.

Under the ML conditions of easement for landowners, land ownership doesn’t change on the land that contains the easement, and land can continue to be used by both parties in a way that avoids damage to both the landowners and ML assets. 

It is anticipated that easements will be 20 metres wide, with up to an additional 16 metres of working area, during construction.

Open trenching will be used wherever possible to install the cables and horizontal directional drilling will be used where sensitive areas exist. 

The cables used will be high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables and fibre-optic cables, in lengths ranging from 800 to 1,300 metres. 

Cables will be connected at joint bays, which are concrete pits buried at least 0.5 metres below the surface, approximately 12 metres long, 2.5 metres wide and 2.5 metres deep. 

Access to the land will become shared between landowners and ML, and will largely be the same, although with some restrictions. 

While access to the easement will be available for agreed purposes. An agreed on, and fair payment will be made with landowners and reasonable legal expenses paid.

Duffy & Simon Lawyers have previously held free seminars for impacted landowners and can be contacted for further information.

The construction corridor and other access areas will be reinstated and rehabilitated following construction. 

According to ML, a final investment decision on the 1500-megawatt interconnector, will be made in late 2024 and the plan is for the link to be built in two stages from early 2025. 

The projected cost is $3 billion to build and will deliver 2800 direct and indirect jobs and about $2.9 billion in direct economic investment in Tasmania and Victoria. 

In October 2022, the Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian Governments entered an historic agreement for joint ownership of Marinus Link, securing it as a critical transmission project for the nation.