12:00a.m. 15th July 2008

| By Bill Hoffman

Farleigh Farm riding group members are concerned about a high-voltage Energex line that will cross the paddocks where they agist their horses. Photo: Barry Leddicoat/177031a

Energex has told a Maroochydore Road property owner that it will call in the police and seek a Supreme Court injunction if he stops its surveyors entering his property today.

Don Hungerford, who has farmed the land for the past 40 years, blocked entrance to the surveyors on June 26 when Energex last attempted to survey the proposed route for its Sun Power project.

It is the latest of a series of resumptions and easement claims enforced on as many as 1000 Sunshine Coast property owners for projects including the Traveston Crossing dam, Powerlink and Energex cables, road works and the Landsborough to Nambour rail realignment.

Mr Hungerford said a letter he received from Energex on July 8 citing the Acquisition of Lands regulations made it clear he had no rights.

He is angry that Energex has ignored an available sewerage main easement and a more direct route for the transmission line, and fearful of the affect emissions will have on the health of his workers, children living in adjacent houses and horses stabled on his property.

Peter Boyce, of Butler McDermott lawyers in Nambour, said Energex had refused to properly consider an alternative corridor for the transmission line.

Mr Hungerford said he had received no response addressing the issues raised in letters he had sent objecting to the route.

The July 8 notice from Energex that it would exercise its rights today under the Act and warned that it was an offence to prevent access by its officers.

“Should you wilfully obstruct or attempt to wilfully obstruct Energex’s entry onto the properties on 15 July 2008 or any re-entry of the properties by Energex, Energex will have no option but to consider our legal remedies including but not limited to referring the matter to the police as well as seeking an order/injunction from the Supreme Court.’’

Mr Hungerford is angry that there is a body of scientific evidence about the dangers to health from high-voltage power lines that is being ignored.

If he fails in his attempts to get Energex to re-think its route options, he will take the matter to the planning court, where he will attempt to enforce the Integrated Planning Act provisions requiring that a “precautionary and prudent approach” be taken to the placement of the transmission lines.

Professor Denis Henshaw, who is a member of the British Government Stakeholder Advisory Group for EMF, has written to Mr Hungerford’s lawyers, saying power companies and governments are in denial about the proven health effects of magnetic fields associated with electricity supply.

His research has found that “power requency magnetic fields suppress the production in the pineal gland of the important hormone and natural anti-cancer agent melatonin and this may explain the adverse health effects associated with magnetic field exposures’’.

Professor Henshaw’s UK research found that high-voltage powerlines emitted corona ions, which he says may help explain an apparent increased risk of childhood leukaemia up to 600 metres away.

Mr Hungerford said the Integrated Planning Act’s requirement that opportunity for community involvement be provided had not been met, with Energex unwilling to listen to any contrary view.

The proposed transmission line route takes a deviation from a straight line over Mr Hungerford’s property and goes close to homes housing small children, who research shows are the most likely to suffer negative consequences.

Jane Blue, whose daughters have horses agisted on the property on the corner of Parsons and Maroochydore Roads, is one of many parents who have written to Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson arguing that there is a better route for the transmission line.

She said the decision not to follow a route in a straight line along a 40-metre buffer was putting at risk the health of children and horses.

An Energex spokesperson said it had tried to negotiate with Mr Hungerford to gain access for survey work.

“Mr Hungerford has declined our approaches but the urgency of the project now requires that we finalise the route to ensure that the project is completed in time to meet the projected new level of electricity demand in the mid-Sunshine Coast region,” the spokesperson said.

“In identifying the corridor for the proposed powerline, Energex has considered many competing planning, ecological, social and economic factors.

“The corridor has been aligned (where possible) against existing boundaries and where possible to avoid vegetated areas, plus other matters.

“To this extent the cleared section of land on Mr Hungerford’s property provided a clear route and minimised the need to remove screening vegetation.

“In relation to the EMF claims, Energex builds all of its infrastructure well within minimum national EMF standards that have been set following extensive international and national research.”

The spokesperson said Energex would not be constructing powerlines over the horse stables.

“Where horse pads are traversed by the proposed powerline, Energex would like to discuss the specifics with Mr Hungerford and potentially move any minor structures that may contravene the safe operation of the powerline.”