Dear All,
While we were all enjoying the holidays in early January, too occupied with other things to notice, Marinus submitted a Development Permit Application with the Burnie City Council. The proposal involves the construction and operation of two converter stations and one switching station located in Heybridge, Tasmania.
To view the Permit Application and learn details about making a submission, please click on the link below:
Public Submission Deadline: Tuesday 18 February 2025 at 05:00 PM
In accordance with section 57(5) of LUPAA any person may make a representation about the proposal or supporting documentation from Saturday 4 January 2025 to Tuesday 18 February 2025 by emailing the General Manager at: [email protected]
Or in writing to:
General Manager
Burnie City Council
PO Box 973
BURNIE TAS 7320
A guide for preparing a public submission can be found at: https://epa.tas.gov.au/public-submission-guide
We encourage everyone to make a submission, and please notify all your contacts as well.
Please also don’t forget the Public Submission deadline for the Marinus Permit Application, which is Tuesday 18 February 2025 at 05:00 PM!!!
More details:
I’d urge all to call out what TasNetworks was previously marketed as “Project Marinus” – the Marinus Link plus the vast new high voltage overhead transmission grid designed to service it (the NWTD).
TasNetworks’ sole shareholder, the State government, ordered TasNet to take on what was originally foreign renewables company UPC’s Robbin’s Island transmission line, hooking it to the Basslink (to sell Tassie wind energy on the Mainland). Since then, TasNet has spent tens of millions (of our money) on selling us the idea that a new grid would attract new renewables developers from all over the world, creating ‘jobs and growth’.
But that was the lie to sell the deal which only benefits TasNet (goldplating its assets), the foreign investors, and the State government who subsidised new infrastructure with our money, then hope to take a cut of any profits as the power flows through TasHydro to the Mainland market.
We were never going to, nor ever will, benefit from Marinus. The jobs will be almost entirely FIFO, the Tassie wind energy will be traded offshore, and we’ll pay all the costs – the infrastructure, the higher fire risks, the loss of tourism jobs, the bulldozed forest habitats making way for 60 metre towers on 90 metre wide easements, and the lowered property values of anyone under or near any of it.
Liberal-Labor and TasNetworks don’t care about any of that – us, our communities or our dwindling wild forests. They don’t even care about the mantra they use constantly – “jobs n growth”. They only care about money and keeping the corporate investors happy.
If you want some independent views on the costs and benefits, go to the Victorian Energy Policy Centre, the Energy Grid Alliance, or a summary of the realities via Bruce Mountain’s analysis here: https://tasmaniantimes.com/2024/12/busted-marinus-moneyflusher-mauled-by-mountain/
Make no mistake, folks – TasNetworks and their arms-length company Marinus don’t benefit us. They only cost us, our kids, and our grandkids dearly. Worse, the plans they and the two major parties are pushing stand in the way of genuine action on climate, genuine sustainable economic growth, and stabilising our energy economy. Marinus Link will be yet another mismanaged debacle, far worse than Basslink.
Oh, and TasNetworks are planning another THREE Marinus Links.
Well said 👍