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Northbound on the New England Highway to Muswellbrook, the Bayswater coal-fired power station hums. The facility was built in the mid-1980s and provides about 20% of New South Wales' electricity demand. It's scheduled to close in the early 2030s.
A few kilometres away lies the silent Liddell power station, which once provided about 10% of the state's energy. It was decommissioned in 2023 and plans to demolish the site were approved in February. The neighbouring stations that were once the heart of power production in NSW have become the unassuming centre of a political and ideological battle over Australia's energy transition.
The Hunter region has long been considered a blue-collar area, which has remained safely within Labor's grasp for more than a century. But from the green vineyards of Pokolbin, a popular wine destination in the centre of the large and mostly rural seat of Hunter, vintner Mike Thomas says he can feel change is coming. View image in fullscreen 'It's not so much a coalmining town any more,' says vintner and Liberal voter Mike Thomas.
Photograph: Dean Sewell/The Guardian The manager of Sobels winery, who has lived in the Hunter Valley region for three decades and is a staunch Liberal voter, says the area's residents are changing and its politics will follow. "It's not so much a coalmining town any more. The demographics have changed.
Younger families are moving in," Thomas says. The energy crossroads The Hunter electorate was established in 1901 at federation. It contains the towns of Singleton and Cessnock, and much of the region's wine, mining and energy industries.
Labor's first-term MP Dan Repacholi holds Hunter on a two-party-preferred margin of 4.8% after a boundary redistribution removed Muswellbrook and added Kurri Kurri, increasing his margin by 0.8% compared with the 2022 federal election.
The Nationals candidate, Sue Gilroy, will be Repacholi's fiercest competitor, but One Nation and the Greens are also running. Both minor..
. Sarah Basford Canales.
