Television star Catriona Rowntree has unleashed a stinging attack on a state government that ‘should be ashamed’ of plans to bury picturesque countryside under a massive solar farm.
Having previously opposed the Victorian Labor government’s plans to build a huge battery farm next to her family property near Little River, Rowntree is fighting a proposal to cover land at nearby Mount Rothwell under solar panels.
The Getaway and Country House Hunters Australia star claims the region south-west of Melbourne is at risk of being destroyed in an Instagram video shared on Monday.
‘Welcome to beautiful Mount Rothwell in Little River,’ she said in the video.
‘This is actually the number one film location in Victoria. This has been the scene of so many incredible movies and productions, bringing in a fortune for the local government.
‘This incredible area Vic Labor is now considering covering this whole area with a solar farm in its rush for renewables.
‘They are considering all these completely wrong locations.’
Rowntree also branded the planned lithium battery farm as a fire hazard.
Channel Nine star Catriona Rowntree has hit out at the Victorian Labor government claiming it’s set on destroying a picturesque part of the state
In her Instagram Rowntree advocated voters to turn their backs on the state Labor government
‘They want to put a lithium facility in a fire zone,’ Rowntree fumed.
‘What did Little River ever do to the Labor government? I don’t know why you keep picking on us.’
Rowntree began campaigning against the projects seven months ago after ‘she had heard nothing’ and that ‘no one will talk to us’.
In the caption for the video, Rowntree said she had no choice but to ‘get political’ and advocate for Liberal candidate Steve Murphy in the upcoming Werribee state by-election.
‘Has it come to this?’ she wrote.
‘Do I have to get political to get someone to notice the region that VIC Labor wants to destroy?’
‘Well, after hearing nothing for nearly 7 months from them, I’ve no choice…VOTE FOR STEVE MURPHY FOR THE WERRIBEE BY-ELECTION!
‘He actually took the time to visit the area Labor wants to cover in solar panels and batteries. Mt Rothwell is just near the fire zone Labor wants to build a massive lithium facility!’
Rowntree made a direct plea to Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan to stop the renewables projects
Rowntree also demanded answers in a direct plea to Premier Jacinta Allan.
‘Where are you?’ she asked.
‘Why do you want to ruin what is the Number 1 film location in Victoria?’.
‘Why won’t anyone from Victorian Labor stop this?
Rowntree also urged Victorians to not vote Labor ‘who are clearly unaware of the stress they’re causing our community’.
‘You should be ashamed,’ she told the state government.
Catriona Rowntree is concerned her town will be destroyed by proposed projects
Last August, Rowntree began publicly campaigning against the proposed 770ha 350MW/700MWh lithium battery farm, which would neighbour her Little River home located between Geelong and Melbourne at the base of You Yangs Regional Park.
She described the Little River Battery Energy Storage System by ACEnergy as the ‘dodgiest deal ever’ and said it would ruin views from the national park as well as discourage tourists from visiting the area.
‘The state government themselves placed a significant landscape overlay on this very region, because half a million tourists who visit the You Yangs will be looking straight down onto this very property,’ Rowntree told Sky News host Peta Credlin at the time.
She accused those at ACEnergy of asking the state planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, to ‘wipe it clean, put a new overlay on it and start afresh’.
She claimed she had a week’s notice to state her opposition to the project after receiving a letter in the mail last month.
The notice letter was dated on August 8 but the television star claims not to have received it until August 16.
Rowntree described the proposal as the ‘dodgiest deal ever’.
‘We’ve had the detention centre, the freight terminal, the incinerator, it’s just relentless,’ she said.
