This valley is quiet. They plan to change that.
A 14-hectare battery plant is proposed for these paddocks at Middle Hut Road, Doreen. The objection period is the only say we get.
Looking across the valley at Middle Hut Road, Doreen
These paddocks have been grazed for generations. The plan is to fill fourteen hectares of them with batteries, transformers and a 220 kV terminal station, running around the clock until about 2050.
What it would do to this valley
The noise never stops
The developers name the source themselves: inverters and cooling fans. They run through the night, when there is nothing out here to cover them.
Read about the noise →We look down onto it
The only screening proposed is planting along the fence line. That does nothing for a house on higher ground looking down.
Read about the view →Nobody can appeal it
The Minister decides and the Council can only comment. Once it is decided there is no appeal, for anyone.
Object while you can →There are no third-party appeal rights for either Council or the community in relation to the Minister's decision under this process.Nillumbik Shire Council, 20 August 2026
No second hearing, no tribunal, no review. What residents put in writing is the entire record of what this community said.
Fourteen hectares, on the floor of the valley
Eight things the developers have not published
All of it is due to appear during the objection period — the same short window in which we have to answer it.
- ✕Expected noise level at the nearest house
- ✕Distance from the plant to the nearest house
- ✕The acoustic report
- ✕Heights of the buildings and equipment
- ✕Any image of how it would look
- ✕The bushfire and fire safety assessment
- ✕Existing night-time noise levels in this valley
- ✕How many battery units, inverters and transformers
Where this is up to
Three steps are already done, and residents were not part of any of them.
It takes a few minutes, and it is the only thing that counts.
Leave your details and we will email you the moment the objection period opens.
The proposal, and why residents are objecting
Every figure here comes from the developers, the Council or EPA Victoria. Sources are at the bottom.
- Site
- 260 & 340 Middle Hut Rd, Doreen
- Size
- About 290 MW / 1,160 MWh
- Area used
- About 14 ha of an 82 ha property
- Land now
- Cattle grazing
- Cost
- About $500 million
- Permanent jobs
- 2 to 3
- Developers
- Turnbull Renewables & BZ Renewables
- Applicant
- Middle Hut Storage Pty Ltd
- Zoning
- Green Wedge Zone
- Overlay
- Environmental Significance, part of site
- Bushfire
- Bushfire Prone Area
- Decided by
- Minister for Planning
- Right of appeal
- None
- Operating from
- Late 2029, expected
- Until
- About 2050
Noise
What makes the noise
The developers' own words: the main noise is “the inverters and cooling fans required to regulate battery cell temperature.” They run whenever the batteries work, which is most of the time.
Why it is worse here
The houses are above the site and facing it, across open paddocks. There is almost no background noise after dark to cover a steady hum.
Why “within limits” is not enough
Fans and inverters make a low, droning sound, and EPA Victoria treats that character as more disturbing than the same loudness without it. EPA also says compliance with the limits does not settle the question:
Even where a person complies with the prescribed noise limits, that noise could still be found to be unreasonable — relevant where the impact “is not well represented by the assessment method in EPA publication 1826”, expressly naming low frequency noise.EPA Victoria, Legislative noise framework
An objection can also rely on section 166 of the Environment Protection Act 2017, the general duty in section 25, regulation 120 on noise frequency, and EPA publication 1996 on low-frequency noise.
The view
What would actually be built
Council's own description: a utility-scale battery, a 220 kV terminal station, underground electrical infrastructure, water storage and firefighting infrastructure, access tracks, buildings and security fencing. A terminal station is a substation — steel structures, gantries and transformers.
Zoned to prevent exactly this
The whole site is Green Wedge, the zoning that keeps industrial development out of Melbourne's rural landscapes. Part of it also carries an Environmental Significance Overlay.
The screening does not work from above
The only mitigation published is landscaping “on site boundaries to help screen the BESS from view.” No heights, no setbacks and no images from elevated homes have been released, so nobody can test it.
And it is close to permanent
Expected to run until about 2050, with removal left to a permit condition written later — while the developers acknowledge there is no commercial-scale recycling for these units yet.
Two further concerns
Nobody can appeal the decision
The Minister decides under a provision called Clause 53.22, leaving the Council able only to comment. Council puts it plainly: “There are no third-party appeal rights for either Council or the community in relation to the Minister's decision under this process.”
No VCAT hearing afterwards. The objection period is the only step.
Fire risk
The site is in a designated Bushfire Prone Area, though per Council it is not under a Bushfire Management Overlay. The developers concede that “while fires associated with BESS technology are rare, there are risks and hazards that need to be managed.”
Their fire assessment follows the right CFA guidelines — but it has not been published, and no water supply or separation figures are on the record.
What we are not saying
Victoria needs battery storage as its coal stations close, and we do not dispute that. Our objection is to this location, this design, and the missing figures.
Where this information comes from
- The developersMiddle Hut BESS project website
- Nillumbik Shire CouncilStatement on proposed battery storage facility in Doreen, 20 August 2026
- EPA VictoriaLegislative noise framework
- EPA VictoriaDetermining if noise is unreasonable noise
- EPA VictoriaNoise limit and assessment protocol, publication 1826.5
- Planning VictoriaMaking a submission
- RenewEconomyTurnbull turns to battery storage, 1 September 2026
The written objection is what counts.
Writing an objection takes a few minutes
Tick what is true for you and the wording is written below. Change any of it before you send it.
Objections are public documents, so the developers can read yours, name included. Say how it affects you — one paragraph about your own window at night beats a page of general complaint.
Two simpler things you can do
Sign the petition
An objection is evidence. A petition is numbers — it shows how much of Doreen is opposed.
Ask us to let you know
The objection period will be short and opens with little warning. One email when it does, with the application number and closing date.
Your details are used only for this campaign and passed to nobody else.
What happens next
- August and September 2026The developers consulted the communityLetters and one drop-in session at Arthurs Creek on 29 August.
- September 2026Application lodged with the Minister for PlanningCouncil said on 20 August that it expected lodgement the following month.
- Next — date not yet announcedThe objection period opens. This is our only chance.The studies become public and the closing date starts running at the same moment.
- End of 2026The Minister decidesNobody can appeal the decision.
- 2028 to 2029Construction, then operationUp to two years of works, running from late 2029.
If the notice reaches you in the post first, please let us know.