Paling Yards Wind Farm

I Object to Paling Yards Wind Electricity Generating Works
SSD-29064077 in Oberon Shire on strong technical grounds - in that it is not and never can provide a reliable fill-in supply to renewable energy unreliability.
The capacity is nowhere near enough and never will be on current technical progress reports.
Secondly an unreliable grid based on solar and wind can never guarantee recharge when needed.
Finally the cost of additional grid generation to accommodate storage recharge AND normal grid load is outrageous!
In a word, no storage is viable as grid unreliability support, it is useful sometimes as peak lopping only.
The other untenable unknown is what to do with non-recyclable, contaminating wind turbine blades. No one has addressed the environmental problem.

I Object to Palings Wind Electricity Generating Works & Associated Infrastructure - SSD-29064077 in Oberon Shire, as it is a total waste of public money - for unethical, toxic rubbish that is part of a very contaminating, unhealthy & energy depriving Solar/Wind Nightmare that is extremely dangerous & damaging to Australia!
It is essential that Australia prioritises reliable, affordable Australian power instead of this pathetic, insecure & outrageously costly, environmentally destructive 47x Wind Turbine plan.

Up until the second World War the Oberon Region was a major farming area for the growing of peas. Potatoes and similar crops. Grazing of sheep did not occur until drench was developed for Liver Fluck. During this period and subsequent large areas of forests were planted, a Sawmill established to provide mining props for Broken Hill mines. This mill is now one of the largest processors of housing materials if not the largest. In Australia. Currently the local and world demand is short of approximately. twenty percent of available Log. Rumours of reducing this availability in future proposals installing super Towers in existing forest areas which have been preserved to grow trees is also ridiculous.
As it currently stands around fifty percent of land is covered by National Parks and Forestry and is unratable placing great economic pressure on rural communities to pick up the shortfall. It is understood that the Rural Roads Maintenace budget is currently short One Million Dollars.
Also within the shire are the Jenolan Caves and other assets with National Tourism interest.
Added to this is the Oberon Dam, Abercrombie River ,Blue Mountains and Kanangra Boyd National Park. At O'Connel there is the Historic village and the oldest licensed inland hotel in Australia. It should not be overlooked that the oldest natural War Memorial Being the Avenue of Ash trees Grown from seeds brought back from the campaign area are contained also in the area close to the village and on the Corner of the main Road is the oldest Mud barn in Australia. As in the past any attempt to interfere with this area will receive, as in the past, be resisted with assistance from the wider NSW Population.
The problem is that the only study applied to these proposals only looks only at the grant and gives no consideration of local history or Historical Value. The additional problem is that this may not be a consideration of those approving the project.
The prosed installation of wind towers is not consistent with the local community plan which is based on four platforms. One of which is Tourism plus Rural activity Forestry and wood and Fiber processing.
Perhaps the first things done should be to measure how this project can be integrated into existing community objectives and processes without damage to the existing local assets and infrastructure, where it will be easily shown that it cannot.
This current wind Tower development being driven by a political desire to cover a previous rushed decision taken in error or consideration that this type of ad hoc planning motivated by the access to grants Is not the solution.

This and other projects should be halted to allow time for proper planning to confirm this is the best solution and a proper user network that would provide access with minimum impact and the best method after all considerations to generate power. This may or may not be the current proposed site.

It is understood for example that the Oberon area on average has a high level of daily sunlight, with solar energy being a better alternative to these ugly towers.

I am very concerned about the impact these towers will have on the timber industry, tourism and visual amenity as well as the disruption they will cause during construction.
As a regular traveller to Goulburn, I am very concerned about the truck movements on the Abercrombie Road. The road is a nightmare at the best of times. It will be worse if the already not fit for purpose road is clogged with up to 40000 truck movements over the next few years. A lot of money and a lot of time would need to be spent to get the road to the level it would need to be to support the intended traffic.
Other roads in the area will also be impacted. The avenue of tress at O’Connell appears to be under threat. Surely these trees will not be pruned or removed in order to transport the wind towers!
Travelling from Bathurst to the Abercrombie River will be a nightmare should this proposal be approved. The roads are already under considerable stress from the truck movements associated with the timber industry. Frustrated drivers are already being subjected to the consequences of too many trucks on poorly maintained roads. Adding more truck movements would only exacerbate an already dangerous situation.
Our area is already heavily industrialised. We do not need or want further destruction of our rural ambience. The Oberon community will not benefit in any way from the wind towers. Yet we will pay the price for them via the inconvenience we will be subjected to during the construction phase, the loss of the beauty of our countryside, the loss of tourism and the impact on our environment by these towers
I am also very concerned about fire fighting should these towers be approved. The towers will be located in a very heavily timbered area. National parks and State Forests are very close by. When a fire starts there will be no way to fight it. Air attack will be severely compromised due to the height of the towers. In the early 2000s State Forests reduced their workforce in the Oberon area, from over 100 employees to a handful, so they no longer have the boots on the ground to fight a fire. The Rural fire service is made up of members who do not want these towers and they will be very reluctant to assist with any fires. So, who is going to fight the fires? They can’t be fought by air and there is no one on the ground to fight them. Do you really want to jeopardize the timber industry that supports the Oberon area? Do you really want to threaten the pristine Abercrombie National Park and all areas to the East of Paling Yards? That is exactly what will happen should these towers be approved.

This proposal could be devasting for our community. Renewable energy is certainly something that needs to be considered. However, this proposal appears to be more about exploiting an electorate that doesn’t have the numbers to impact elections. A knee jerk reaction to the need for renewables and greenwashing the destruction of the environment. There is no economic benefit to the community. There is no environmental benefit to the community. There is no social benefit to the community. There is no benefit to the community.
Please do the right thing by the Oberon Community and reject this proposal.

I object to this proposal for the following reasons:
The impact the initial stages of the development will have on our roads and traffic. I travel from Oberon to Goulburn on a regular basis. The road is already in a terrible state. Trying to negotiate travel in a timely manner when we are confronted with a constant flow of large slow-moving trucks along the route will have a very negative impact on those using the Abercrombie Road.
How are the trucks going to negotiate the avenue of trees at O’Connell?
These trees are of great significance to the community and any attempt to remove or prune them should be prevented. They were planted as a memorial to the WW1 veterans and should not be disturbed.

I understand that major roadworks will need to be made to various roads along the route. Once again this will severely impact the community.

The impact the road issues will likely have on the community includes day to day travel issues, and economic issues based on the potential to reduce tourism to the area. I note the EIS indicates that the wind towers will be benefit tourism. It is not explained how a wind farm miles from Oberon will be good for tourism. I would argue the opposite. Our beautiful rural landscape will be ruined by the construction of these monstrosities.

Some of the proposed towers are located within a kilometre of the Abercrombie River. The negative impact this could have on the river is concerning. I am sure if the Abercrombie flowed to the East and into Sydney waterways this proposal would not even be considered.
The proposed towers are located near the Abercrombie, Kanangra-Boyd and Blue Mountains national parks as well as Gurnang and Vulcan State Forests. At the moment any bushfire fighting is done mostly via aerial attack in these heavily timbered and often steep areas. The capacity to fight a fire via air will be severely compromised should these towers be built. The economic stability of timber region will be threatened. I refer you to the devastating impact the 2019 fires had on the Tumut timber industry.
Oberon is already a heavily industrialised town. Why should our area be constantly subjected to further industrial development merely because of its closeness to Sydney? Our location should not be exploited by big corporations using the climate crisis to greenwash renewables and profit from the lack of action taken by various governments to address climate change for decades.
As stated, the towers will be built close to Abercrombie National Park. Just last week as I travelled to Goulburn I spotted 6 wedge tail eagles (2 adult and 4 smaller) feasting on a carcass in a paddock at Paling Yards. To see 6 together was fabulous. How will these magnificent birds and indeed all other birds fare once the wind towers are up and chopping them to bits!
The EIS acknowledges the ongoing impact these towers will have on visual amenity, way of life, health and well-being. It also alludes to an economic benefit to the community. It should be noted that the only economic benefit will be to land holders on whose land these towers are built and to Union Fenosa a Spanish company.
There is also a very worrying concern that should these towers go ahead it will open the door for further wind tower development in our area. This has the potential to have devastating consequences for our environment, our health, our social amenity, the economic stability of the area, property prices, fauna and flora.

The Oberon area is a timber and grazing area. Both of these industries will be impacted by the wind towers. In order for the economic stability of the area to grow it is imperative that the rural ambience be maintained and preserved. Our current economic stability should not be put under threat by this development.
I urge the State Government to consider the devasting consequences these towers will have on our area and do the right thing and reject this proposal.

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The entire concept that you can produce the quantity of energy produced by wind and solar to meet our and the worlds energy demands is flawed!

The laws of physics will not allow the renewable concept of wind and solar to be a practical solution and the cost of producing and efficiently using the hydrogen dream is a long way off – Japan has been working on hydrogen production for the last 20 years – storage being one of the biggest problems - hydrogen can even seep through glass and takes massive amounts of energy to produce, not withstanding that currently most hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels – Twiggy Forrest laughs all the way to the bank with the current “gift” of one billion dollars!

The energy expended in the creation of renewables is not recoupable in the life of the renewable project

The renewable “hypocrisy” industry currently supports human atrocities in China by the their use of slave labor or next to it and other human rights such as child labor abuses in other countries mining the rare earths required by the renewable industry.

In the event of local or international hostilities, the control systems are easily hacked and/or the installations are very vulnerable to attack and repair is not quick, We are a nation becoming ever more defenseless!

The pollutants created from mining, manufacturing, the life of the project and the final disposal are a far larger problem than nuclear waste. These wastes created by the renewable pollutants such as expired turbines and blades and heavy metals leaching into our food producing water and land invading our food chain.

In short, the renewable industry in its current form is a taxpayer funded worldwide rip off!
A classic of how caring people can be conned by a few! This shows so well the statement of “repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” is a law of propaganda, often attributed to the Nazi, Joseph Goebbels

The convenient blind acceptance by the authorities of the presented EIS’s as a “perfect” document, not questioning the validity of the content.

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The wind turbine projects that are arranged for my home town of Oberon in the central west are a monstrous nature which is also insulting manipulative and out right destructive. The following points have been ignored and like many other locals the believe to pushed aside and treated like second class citizens.
1.Damage and devaluation to properties
2.Damage to roads that are all ready need of repair
3.Damage to the environment and wildlife
4.Visual pollution
5.Lack of truthfully intentions
6.Loss of life style and culture
7. Threats to health from with of fires and noise from wind blades
8.Lack of responsibility in regards to when life span of wind turbines is done
will authority figures walk away and leave mess behind.
9.Neighbours being pitted against one a other.
10. Going with nuclear power-plants to go green and net zero with out harming other people with in the community
11. Damaging the trees on the road between Oberon and Bathurst that where planted for a memorial for ANZAC soldiers

Their is most likely more concerns from other residents and personally if find wind turbines insulting and offensive to my way of life and do not want anything of the sort being built in the country

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I object to the creation of this windfarm.

It is well known that wind turbines are damaging to the local flora and fauna and there is potential for the machinery to damage nearby water ways too.

As listed in your report there are many local birds, mammals and reptiles that will be affected and some are endangered. Bats and eagles are particularly vulnerable to wind farms and a quick search on the internet will show the resulting dead animals at the base of them.

The construction will see trees and homes for wildlife disturbed along with potential for displacement of Koalas and more.

Wind turbines are 20% to 40% efficient at converting wind into energy. The typical life span of a wind turbine is 20 years, with routine maintenance required every six months. What happens after their life - typically they are taken down and left to rot on the land they have already destroyed.

With the growth of worldwide knowledge it would be nice to see an energy production farm chosen that is not detrimental to local wildlife and local flora. Rather than the installation of inefficient and dangerous wind turbines.

For too long Australia has relied on fossil fuels to the detriment of the planet. For the survival of our descendants I implore that this project go ahead. Unless we start NOW we cannot stop the destruction. We may never be able to completely recover, but at least we can no longer continue the detestation.

I believe this project is too invasive in terms of number, size and height of wind generators.

The threat to native birds and fauna are scientifically proven to be significant as is the ongoing threat of bushfire causation.

There is also ample scientific comment on the acoustical dangers to nearby residents .

These types of major wind farm projects are not suited to areas with projected relatively rapidly growing populations.

In summary, the community, environmental and residential risks far outweigh the proposed benefits,

wind turbine towers will be a waste of tax payers money, as they do not reduce carbon emissions beyond what it produces to construct them. IE a wind turbine will produce more carbon than it will save.

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My wife and I live on the Abercrombie Road and are concerned about the significant increase in truck movements to build the wind farm. When we turn out of our driveway we have a significant blind spot to our right. With more truck movements, lots from out of town, we concerned about safety.
As a general comment, we are concerned the tourism and farming employers will be unduly negatively affected by this development.

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This area is observed to support a healthy bird poputation, including the Wedge Tail Eagle. Additionally , the project will be within 1Km of the Abercrombie River known to support the endangered Murray Crayfish. Notable, the projects own Environment Impact Statement notes heightened risk of bushfire events, biodiversity decline and excessive noise. Further,
this part of NSW, along with the broader plateau, is renowned for its natural beauty and as such, nearly fifty 240 meter high wind towers are not compatible with preservation of the natural world. Additionally, damage to the built world such as transport infrastructure and a lack of feasibility and funding for decommissioning and recycling of fibreglass blades in particular is lacking.

For these reasons and others too numerous to list, I object to the proposal.