Pipe taps anger

By Kath Gannaway
THE Sugarloaf Interconnector Pipeline, which has dogged the Brumby Government for almost three years, was turned on last week, five months ahead of schedule.
The $750 million, 70 kilometre pipeline project will transfer water from the Goulburn River near Yea to the Sugarloaf Reservoir to deliver 75 billion litres of water to Melbourne this year.
On Wednesday, Victorian Premier John Brumby and Water Minister Tim Holding were at Sugarloaf Reservoir, along with representatives of the Sugarloaf Alliance – Melbourne Water, Sinclair Knight Mertz and John Holland – to see the first water gush from the pipeline.
Mr Brumby said the pipeline, as part of the $2 billion Food Bowl Modernisation project, was a major part of the biggest investment in irrigation upgrades in 100 years.
In Murrindindi and Yarra Ranges shires, the pipeline has cut a swath through Seymour MP Ben Hardman’s electorate putting him in the firing line with farmers, environmentalists and others who are opposed to the project.
Mr Hardman told the Mail last week that it has been a difficult project for him as the local member, but one he continues to support.
“The bottom line is that what this project does is help secure Melbourne’s water supply – the reason the Government has had to take the drastic action it has with the pipeline and the desalination plant,” he said.
He said the water savings on which the project is based were already being made and denied claims by groups such as Plug the Pipe that the savings were an illusion.
“I have been up there and seen some of the changes being made, and talked to the irrigators and people from the industry,” he said.
“What I have seen, personally, makes it much clearer how these savings will be made,” he said.
Jan Beer, anti-pipeline campaigner and spokeswoman for opposition group Plug the Pipe, said turning on of the water did not signal the end of the angst for farmers in the food bowl or landowners along the path of the pipeline.
“Farmers in the food bowl feel defeated seeing their water being taken away,” she said. “With the (water) allocation they are now getting they just can’t make a living,” she said. She also predicted a long and protracted fight for full compensation for some landowners along the pipeline.
“It’s been a long fight and I think people now are just really angry about the whole thing.
“I have had dairy farmers ring me today when they heard the pipe was turned on saying they find it gut wrenching,” she said.
Ms Beer said the opponents’ two goals – to stop the pipeline, then to stop the water going down it – had failed.
“Our third aim was to throw out the Brumby Government and that’s what we will be working on now,” she said.