Project: VNI West - Impacted Landowner Consultation
Advocating for landowners to support final route determination.
Client: Transgrid
Project Dates: February 2024 - September 2025
Services Delivered:
Strategy & action plan development
Landowner communications & collateral development
Remote community engagement
Negotiations and land acquisition
The Challenge:
To enable the effective management of project social risk and to facilitate the regulatory approvals required to support the project's delivery, there was a need to build relationships with effected landowners to ensure that their interests were being represented and managed fairly throughout the route refinement and easement agreement process.
Project background:
The Victoria to NSW Interconnector West, known as VNI West, is a proposed new 500 kV double circuit transmission line connecting the high voltage electricity grids in New South Wales and Victoria. VNI West is being jointly developed with VicGrid VNI West (formerly Transmission Company Victoria) and will connect major projects EnergyConnect in NSW and Western Renewables Link in Victoria. The preferred option runs from Transgrid’s Dinawan substation north of Jerilderie in NSW to new substations proposed near Kerang and Bulgana in Victoria.
Our Approach:
Social Atlas, in partnership with Aurecon and Transgrid, provided highly skilled, regionally based consultants to work as embedded Place Managers for the project, managing relationships with landowners along the preferred route alignment. Place Managers bring time, space, and trust to the dynamic between the project and the landowner. They provide a vital link between landowner issues and the project's technical disciplines, advising on how best to engage individuals for different project needs and outcomes. Effective coordination and collaboration with the project team is essential to managing human impacts and social risk.
Our Place Managers worked in the field, meeting landowners on-property to understand local concerns and opportunities. They considered local nuances and sought to improve sentiment and outcomes for impacted landowners. These insights supported the provision of strategic advice on stakeholder engagement issues and landowner risk management.
They also provided ongoing input into engagement plans and project collateral development, ensuring landowner preferences and information needs were considered. In addition to their own experience on other transmission projects, our Place Managers consulted with key stakeholders on other projects and stayed abreast of industry developments, ensuring a lessons learnt, best practice approach. Their work supported a greater information flow between community and planners, contributing to the ongoing route refinement and land acquisition process.
Place Managers also played a key role in supporting the project’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) engagement process. During the public exhibition of the EIS, they participated in a series of community information sessions across the VNI West corridor, helping landowners and community members understand the material on display and how to provide formal submissions. By capturing questions, concerns and emerging issues raised during these sessions, Place Managers ensured that community insights were fed back into the project team promptly, strengthening the responsiveness and credibility of the EIS engagement program.
Project Outcome:
With an ambitious timeline to complete the project, our Place Managers provided vital services to ensure landowners were continually kept informed, respected and advocated for, contributing directly to the project’s ability to progress route refinement and acquisition activities. The trusted relationships built through consistent, on‑property engagement helped reduce uncertainty, improve cooperation and minimise the risk of delays associated with land access, negotiations and community opposition.