The State Government's pipe alliance cut through fences and forced its way onto Glenburn beef breeder Jeff Spencer's property yesterday against his will after refusing to wait one week for him to cut his hay.
Witnesses at the scene, including Federal Liberal MP for McEwen Fran Bailey who was passing, said despite Mr Spencer's pleas that they not bring vehicles onto the Scottish Highland stud until the hay was safely cut, they cut through padlocks securing the gate and then the fence, before bringing a front end loader and other heavy vehicles onto the farm.
The forced entry comes less than a week after Melbourne Water arrested eight pipe opponents for trying to obstruct construction at Glenburn and has prompted growing anger at the "arrogance" of the Government and Sugarloaf Alliance.
"There was no consideration, their arrogance is unbelievable," Ms Bailey said.
"They weren't even going to do the biosecurity until he pleaded with them."
Mr Spencer said he had rung project director Rod Clifford asking that the team hold off on a farm visit to look for fibre optic cables until after his hay was cut, and had been told Mr Clifford would do what he could.
"All we wanted was that they didn’t bring vehicles on until we had cut the hay," he said. "But they refused."
Mr Spencer said in response he had locked the gate and left a load of gravel in front of it to try and prevent vehicles gaining access, but the alliance had cut the locks and the fence.
"To be fair, they repaired it at the end of the day, but I had to scream at them to do the biosecurity," he said.
* More in Stock & Land, Vic, November 20 edition.