VNI West Project protest brought the big rigs to Parliament

The hundreds of protesters were showing their opposition to the controversial VNI West transmission line project, which proposes to install high-voltage transmission lines for over 400 kilometres from Melbourne to Bulgana and then northwards to Kerang before crossing over the Murray River into NSW.

Stop the Towers spokesperson and Yeungroon farmer Glenden Watts said the transmission lines would carve a destructive 100-metre wide easement through highly-productive farms in Victoria's food bowls.

"They will push their way through where we live and work, impacting all of us and our environment for future generations," Mr Watts said.

"The farming families who will be impacted have already cared for their land over many generations.

"This project will cause immeasurable economic damage to farms, and irreparable harm to the environment and landscape."

The protesters were demanding the Australian Energy Market Operator switch to "Plan B", which entailed either finding an alternative route or going underground.

Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud spoke at the rally and called on the state government to listen to the protesters' concerns.

Mr Littleproud said his party would continue to roll out a motion in the Senate to have an inquiry on the project.

"Victoria is at the epicentre of this, and it is a virus that's spreading right up the east coast," he said.

Federal Member for Mallee Anne Webster said projects like the VNI West compromised the livelihoods of farmers and the biosecurity and productivity of their land.

"The flow-on effect is Australian families pay more at the check out through higher grocery prices, while their energy bills are also inflated to pay for infrastructure costs for these transmission lines," Dr Webster said.

Brothers Martin and Archie Conroy, Ballan, have been actively protesting the project for the last three years, and are beyond frustrated it's still up for consideration.

But Archie was confident their perseverance would eventually pay off.

"It won't go through because we're here to fight it, but we're not only one part of it, we've got our generation and then the next generation will come up and be fighting this right to the end," he said.

He said in his town it had turned neighbour against neighbour, and since the government wasn't coming to the party to discuss alternatives, they needed to bring it to them.

"They're still not listening, so that's what we're here for," he said.

"We're all here to make a point to the government, that this project in its present form is not right."

Sixth-generation St Arnaud farmer Jason Barratt said protesters were seeking community support.

"I don't think we're being heard by the Victorian government," Mr Barrett said.

"They just seem to think AEMO's plan is the only plan and they don't really want to look at anything else."

Mixed sheep and cropping farmer David Lang, Wallaloo, said people were eager to to show the government their view on the towers.

"We've got to keep fighting it though because it's wrong what they're doing," Mr Lang said.

"It's going to cost everyone in cities, little country towns, businesses.

"It's going to cost a lot more money for everyone."

A statement provided by AEMO said transmission lines were "urgently needed".

"As flagged during consultation, we're working to announce the refinement of the 5-50km area of interest to a draft corridor in the coming weeks," the statement read.

"Out of respect, we want to do everything possible to contact landholders within the draft corridor before making the details of the corridor public, which may take several weeks.

"The draft corridor will be defined utilising feedback from landholders, community members, traditional owners and government agencies, as well as data from engineering, environmental and cultural assessments."

The state government has been contacted for comment.