Victorian wine growers fear solar farm will ‘decimate’ Heathcote tourism

Wine growers have pleaded directly to Victorian MPs to prevent one of the nation's leading grape regions from becoming the home of Australia's largest solar farm. If approved, 80 per cent of Venn Energy’s proposed 800ha Cooba solar farm would be built within the Heathcote region. Colbinabbin winemaker John Davies says plans for the solar farm will put the state’s best farming soil under threat and should be preserved for producing high-quality agricultural products. “This will decimate wine tourism in that area,” Mr Davies said. “Because it will be right in your face – you can’t avoid it.”