Hills of Gold Wind Farm

Refer to attached objection document.

Jobs,Jobs,Jobs, just get the project up and running before this town shrivels up and disappears, don't listen to tourists and antagonists, take the word of genuine local rate payers.

Nundle is one of the most unique places in Australia; we love to visit every year. We are drawn to the beauty of the mountain range, the peace and quiet, the quaint village feel, and the warm hospitality. Hiking has become one of most favorite activities as a result of our time in Nundle and the surrounding area. To upset the wildlife and natural beauty of this area for the short term gain of a wind farm is incredibly short sighted . Please reject this proposal for the future prosperity of this area and the home to local wildlife.

I have been travelling to Nundle my whole life (over 30 years) for the natural beauty of the area. Changing the natural landscape will destroy the the Hills of Gold native Fauna and Flora along with the visual aspects of the area. Nundle will no longer be a quaint village but an industrial area destroyed by greed.

I object to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm development on many grounds. Please refer to the attached submission for details.

26 January, 2021

Director - Energy Assessments
Planning and Assessment
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment

To Whom it May Concern,
RE - HILLS OF GOLD WIND FARM APPLICATION No. SSD 9679
EPBC ID Number 2019/8535
• I am attaching my submission to the above mentioned development application
• I hereby declare that I object to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm proposal ID No. SSD 9679 EPBC ID No. 2019/8535
• I would like my personal details withheld
• I have not made any reportable political donations in the previous 2 years
PLEASE REFER TO ATTACHED DOCUMENT

I object to the proposal of a wind farm at Hanging Rock / Crawney.

I have lived in Nundle for over 20 years and I have seen many changes over that time. I understand why people want to visit and move here, the peace and quiet is beautiful. I have lived in my home at Point street for 16 years, the view from lounge room, kitchen and bedroom is breathtaking. I have wonderful views of the range. I am extremely concerned about the impact on the value of my home considering my outlook will be dominated by at least 30 to 40 turbines based on their proposed location. Who will compensate me for the loss of value to my home? I have heard many assurances that the property value will not decrease, but I am very concerned.
Also, I am devastated that my view will be trashed by an industrial landscape. Please reject this proposal for generations to come.

I attach Submission 1 with objections to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm SSD- 9679. More submissions concerned with other relevant parts of the EIS will follow.

This submission deals with the following objections:
-lack of any community engagement or communication with the Timor community as a whole;
-misleading and biased representation of community support for this Project and no presentation of the considerable community objection
-inaccurate and misleading methods to ascertain the location of dwellings to actual turbine sites.

see attachment

I attach Submission 2 with objections to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm SSD - 9679. More submissions concerned with other relevant parts of the EIS will follow.

This Submission deals with the following objections:
-lack of any study/assessment of the visual impact of the turbines on the Timor community
- lack of any study/assessment of the noise and vibrational impact on the Timor community
-lack of any study/assessment of night lighting from this Project on the Timor or any other surrounding communities
-lack of any study/assessment of night lighting on threatened species and nocturnal animals in the study area

My submission is attached as PDF document.

I am strongy objecting to the use of Hills of Gold as the title of this project. The name conjures up our magical hills .And their beautiful colour at Sunset. I also find the information given out by information centre in Nundle Town hall to be very evasive and not portraying the true size or impact of the project..The montages with superimposed specks of white portraying turbines are very misleading in my view.The proposed route up to the site is not at all clear stating a private road will be constructed through the extreme bushland..to Hanging Rock ..The alternative secondary preferred route via Crawney is almost dismissed by the Engie WEP representatives...Surely residents in these areas need to have a say...Thank you.

I attach Submission 3 with objections to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm SSD-9679. More submissions concerned with other relevant parts of the EIS will follow.

This submission deals with the following objections:
- unacceptable destruction of natural habitat of corridor connectivity along the Liverpool Ranges as a result of this Project
- the confirmed and significant threat to 17 listed threatened fauna species and 2 threatened ecological communities
-the confirmed threat to 4 threatened species and community which are listed under the Commonwealth Government's EPBC Act as "Matters of National Environmental Significance"

Please see my attached submission on photomontages

I object to this proposed project, which would be another blight on the landscape, on the local community and on the Australian economy, produced by a predatory industry which is sustained by subsidies extorted from Australian consumers and businesses by forcing them to purchase a bad product, packaged with lies.

Since the inception of the industry, it has doubled the real cost of electricity to consumers while simultaneously making the whole Australian electricity grid fragile and susceptible to major failures, with the costs of trying to avoid those failures falling not on the industry which causes them but on electricity consumers.

Everywhere it has placed its industrial wind turbines it has harmed members of the local community through noise and through visual violence to the landscape, as well as harm to the local environment, including wild life. It has run roughshod over those communities with the aid of politicians and government officials who have deliberately turned a blind eye to the harm done to individuals, to communities and to the NSW and Australian economies, and to their electricity consumers.

The Department of Planning and its officials were warned years ago about the threat to grid security from allowing the addition of this parasite power, but they willfully disregarded the clear threat in order to coddle the predators, while putting at risk the State, to which they had and have a fiduciary responsibility.

• The proposal needs to be examined impartially for material, false or misleading statements – something the Department cannot do since it has laid the ground for wind industry developers to flout the law in that regard.
• All visual assessments produced for the proposed project relying on the Department’s Visual Assessment Bulletin should be summarily rejected.
• Likewise, any part of a visual assessment which relies on the personal judgement of a consultant paid by the developer should be summarily rejected unless the consultant can produce evidence they have been tested for their ability to accurately forecast the visual impact as it will be experienced by people living in the vicinity of a wind farm.
• The developer’s statements about wildfire risk from its turbines should be discarded until the Department causes impartial research to be done on the effect of wind turbines on fire risk in a locality.
• The project should not be approved without full spectrum 24/7 noise monitoring;
• Determination of the monitoring configuration and data evaluation to be by a noise consultant knowledgeable of the wind industry but not aligned with it.
• All related costs to be paid by the wind project but those costs and terms be established between the Department and the acoustician, with no control by the operator;
• All data (not just conclusions) gathered through this monitoring to be freely available to anyone in the vicinity of the wind project, as well as to the project operator.
• The project should be rejected for the harm it will impose on the local community, the local environment, NSW electricity consumers, the grid, and the State economy.

Detail provided in the attached document

Please see my attached submission on Jobs

Please see my attached submission on Social and Economic Impacts

The proponent has not given me the photo montages for my dwelling and has refused to as mentioned. They have also left my dwelling at -31.520225 151.147196 151.147196 of their maps and have therefor made no comment on the impact. It is under 3kms from at least turbines 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68. I have made WEP very aware of the dwelling. I have given them coordinates and marked maps for them over the last 3 years. They have lost these and asked for them at least 3 times. There is no reason this dwelling that is under construction should have been left out. The visual impact on this dwelling is going to go beyond the mentioned turbines. There will be a significant cumulative impact which is going to devalue the land and significantly detract from the visual amenity.

WEP have left my brother's dwelling off their maps. The have been made very aware of the dwelling which is under construction. They have not supplied the promised photo montages for this dwelling either. The dwelling is located at -31.541848 151.147055 It is under 3kms from at least 11 proposed turbines from 56 to and inclusive of 68. It is going to have a significant negative impact on the visual amenity, the noise will be an issue and the cumulative impact is going to be huge.

I strongly object to the windfarm project that has been proposed to the community of Nundle.

I have lived in Nundle for almost 10 years, moving here with my family in 2010. Ever since I moved here when I was around 6 years old, I have always adored the small community as well as the landscape in which we live in.

This project will not only destroy the land in which surrounds Nundle but also the community itself. In addition to this, I have come to believe that the intent behind the project is not focused around the health of the environment but rather the financial benefit of the developers only.

Nundle is a beautiful area that is known for the immense amounts of flora and fauna that are attached to the town. The Nundle State forest, the hanging rock look out as well as other areas such as Sheba dam are all big tourist attractions that are deeply connected to the heart of Nundle. It is so important to preserve small towns such as Nundle as they are extremely rare in our current society. Through the development of this windfarm project, not only will you destroy a beautiful small town such as Nundle, but you will also entirely destroy the environment that surrounds it.

Nundle thrives when the community works together in order to host events such as the Go for Gold Festival, the Nundle Picnic, the Country Music Festival, the Great Nundle Dog Race and more. All of these events allow Nundle to be known to other rural towns which helps our tourism grow exponentially. Since the windfarm proposal in 2018, there has been a significant community divide. I have watched this project cause the committees that run all of these events to fall apart. As a person who has grown up adoring everything that this town has to offer, this is absolutely heart breaking. Without these events, Nundle will not thrive as it has been since I was a small girl. The only somewhat attraction that will support this town will be the windfarms and this will not be anywhere near enough. In addition to this, the idea of a community support fund in order to keep these events running, will not be enough as there will be no one to coordinate them in the first place. Areas like these need strong communities that work together and with these windfarms, this town will no longer have anything to offer. In combination with this, the destruction of the roads from the traffic flow of the trucks that are transporting the turbines will not only deeply damage the inner town but also the availability of funding from the council. These roads are not built for the damage that will be caused by trucks that will be consistently travelling through the town for the construction period of the windfarms. It will cost so much money and the townspeople will be extremely disturbed due to the amount of traffic in the area.

I strongly believe that this windfarm will have absolutely no benefits towards the environment and that the intent behind them is not for the good of the environment. I strongly support renewable energy and do believe that it is one of the most beneficial actions that we can do in order to help our environment. However, since the project proposal in 2018, we have come to believe that this project’s intent is entirely focused around the self-centred wants of the developers. If this project’s aim was for renewable energy, the amount of destruction caused by it would not be occurring. The land clearing that has occurred in the Hanging Rock area has caused so much wildlife to be destroyed due to deforestation. In combination with this, the harm that these massive turbines will cause to the natural environment of the area surrounding them will be awful. Also, the buildings of new roads and tracks in order to move these turbines to their location will desperately affect the environment. If the intent behind this windfarm project was to preserve the environment, the developers are certainly not thinking it through. I believe in green energy, but I do not believe that this is beneficial for the environment when all you are causing is harm.

Nundle is a beautiful town that should remain untouched by this project. Our environment, tourism and community will not benefit from the harm that this project will and has already caused. This is a tranquil area that does not deserve to be destroyed by the hands of these windfarm developers. We must work to preserve the small towns in Australia because as our society progresses, small towns become much rarer. Please do not allow this windfarm project to continue as it will utterly destroy our town and the environment around it.