On Monday, he and 80 supporters gathered behind his farm gate, waiting for VicGrid officers to attempt to access his property for an environmental survey.<\/p>\n
But Mr Duxson says when the surveyors saw the crowd, they sat in their car for a few minutes, then drove off.<\/p>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d49a6bfb062d6461e8d8d5e11906d4c7.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Ben Duxson is a sixth-generation farmer near Marnoo in western Victoria. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n
“They drove past here and didn’t come back,” Mr Duxson said.<\/p>\n
The proposed 240-kilometre, 500-kilovolt VNI West transmission line would pass within 150 metres of Mr Duxson’s sheep and cropping operation, which his family has worked for six generations.<\/p>\n
Court order threat<\/p>\n
Hours after the VicGrid officers left, their project manager, Matt Vallis, sent Mr Duxson a text message warning “hindrance, obstruction or delaying of the access as notified is an offence and may result in enforcement action being taken against you”.<\/p>\n
![\"Over](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/09a7e2e83b65a6d710062accca9965b8.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
VicGrid did not arrive at the meeting and sent Ben Duxson a text afterwards. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n
The text stated VicGrid may seek a court order for entry as a response to the claimed obstruction and hindrance.<\/p>\n
“Authorised Officers have observed your attendance at multiple properties where access had been scheduled, and access was subsequently hindered or obstructed,” the text read.<\/p>\n
“In consideration of this prior obstruction, and the observations made at the property, the lead Authorised Officer reasonably determined access would not be possible.”<\/p>\n
VicGrid chief executive officer Alistair Parker told ABC Wimmera that an authorised officer made the judgement to ensure the protest remained peaceful.<\/p>\n
“They’re obviously highly trained to follow the letter and the spirit of the law as they carry out this important work,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We just don’t want to see any escalation, we’ve seen very peaceful protests, we’ve seen folk politely tell us that access is denied, and the authorised officers have made people aware of the law and those circumstances.<\/p>\n
“But if there is a large group of people there, obviously the authorised officers can make a judgement about whether they think it’s safe and necessary to actually go and have that engagement.”<\/p>\n
‘Got to stand up’<\/p>\n
Mr Duxson said he did not get a chance to tell VicGrid “access denied” because they did not stop to speak with him.<\/p>\n
“If I’m guilty of actually standing up for my neighbours and my community, if that’s what they want to get me on, that’s fine because I’ll keep continuing turning up,” Mr Duxson said.<\/p>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/92c1cd2c58cc2f27bbe0e32b4103bb42.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Ben Duxson holds a Farmers Fight Back helmet while addressing the crowd. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n
He said the text message did not change his view on denying access.<\/p>\n
“You’ve actually got to stand up for something in your life,” Mr Duxson said.<\/p>\n
“You can’t actually have your whole life of being controlled by these people, and I know if they control us now, my kids and the future generations will not have a chance to do anything.”<\/p>\n
Farmers Fight Back<\/p>\n
Mr Duxson is a leading voice in the resistance movement against the transmission line, which he coordinates on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n
He recently formed a group called Farmers Fight Back, which he said gained about 5,000 new members in the past week.<\/p>\n
“We’ve always been a strong ‘No’, we’ve given our reasons why … and this is a good community event for people to come out and say ‘Enough’s enough,'” Mr Duxson said.<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e8ebcf7df8a17b3d25e2197c7254809f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
More than 80 people rallied against the project, and in support of Ben Duxson. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n
VicGrid officers made their first attempt to access Mr Duxson’s property in December 2025.<\/p>\n
‘It’s really hurting’<\/p>\n
Among those prepared to stand-off against VicGrid were Peter and Marie Byrne, whose family has farmed at Banyena since 1875.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They said they faced the potential loss of their home to mineral sands mining.<\/p>\n
“To us, it’s a sacred site. We had eight children there and 19 grandkids and it’s pretty important to us,” Mr Byrne said.<\/p>\n
Keith McPherson’s property is also in the path of the proposed VNI West transmission lines.<\/p>\n
\u00a0He was expecting VicGrid surveyors to attempt to access his land on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“You go to bed thinking about power lines, wake up in the morning and think about power lines.”<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit strange. I feel all right myself but I think underneath it’s really hurting,” Mr McPherson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renewable planning body VicGrid has threatened a high-profile anti-transmission-line campaigner with enforcement action after government surveyors felt “hindered”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1633,22,21,1632,1625,1627,1631,1634,1635,1628,1629,1626,1624,1630,1623],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alistair-parker","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-ben-duxson","tag-energy","tag-energy-line","tag-marnoo","tag-matt-vallis","tag-peter-and-marie-byrne","tag-power-lines","tag-regional-victoria","tag-renewables","tag-vicgrid","tag-vicroads","tag-vni-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}