Farmers in Victoria's west have been fined for refusing to let authorised officers onto their properties to progress transmission line planning works.On Tuesday, 12 farmers received $814 fines in the mail from the Victorian government for not allowing workers access to their land to prepare to build the controversial VNI West project.Another six formal warnings were also sent to property owners for denying access.Stud sheep farmer from Marnoo, Trent Carter said he was refusing to pay the fine and would fight it in court."It's a wake-up call to every property owner around the country whether rural or residential," he said."What we think is ours, isn't necessarily ours and it's open slather for governments to come in and do what they'd like to do if they want.""I'll be seeking legal advice going forward, we've got to represent everybody else who's a property owner and set a precedent, not get bullied."Twelve farmers have been fined for denying authorities access to their properties. (Supplied: Farmers Fightback)Ongoing battleFarmers have been threatening to deny access to their land for transmission planning work, despite warnings of large fines and clashes with police.For VNI West to continue, authorised officers need to access private land within the planned route, to assess the potential agricultural, environmental, cultural and heritage impacts.The fines received yesterday from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change (DEECA) state farmers prevented officers entering their land "without reasonable excuse hindering, obstructing or delaying authorised activity".DEECA has been contacted for comment.The organisation responsible for planning the transmission works, VicGrid said it "does not issue infringement notices and cannot determine the outcome of any review or court process".In a statement, a VicGrid spokesperson said it had "made every effort to reach voluntary agreements with landholders over many years"."We’ve increased access and early benefit payments, agreed on-site inductions and seasonal timing requirements and offered landholders the opportunity to choose their own survey specialists," the spokesperson said.VicGrid reiterated that transmission companies have "long held powers under the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to access land to carry out activities required to maintain and plan for transmission infrastructure, including conducting surveys".But Mr Carter said the process has been difficult, with poor correspondence and requests made by authorities at inconvenient times."They were trying to gain access in mid April in the middle of sowing. Last time it was the middle of harvest," he said."I said to [government] we were at the beginning of our lambing season which runs from April to mid August."During lambing minimal disturbance is required to ensure animal welfare standards are met." Email address