Winterbourne Wind Farm

I Julia Young, a lamb and beef producer in the Walcha district wish to thank the NSW Planning Department the opportunity to make a submission on the WInterbourne Wind FarmSSD -10471. I object to the project
What is Walcha known for?
Walcha is “Where the Wild Rivers Run “
Walcha is surrounded by spectacular national parks threaded with wild rivers , gorges and tumbling waterfalls, Walcha is renowned for its natural beauty. Walcha is a highly productive agricultural district specialising in fine wool, prime lambs and beef.
. Winterbourne Wind project (119 turbines, 230 metre high, not constructed in Australia before)is one of many proposed (500+)for the Walcha district, this is excessive for a population of 3000 and the cumulative effects are significant for a highly productive agricultural district.The project has a footprint that reaches within 6 km of the Walcha township, 2.5 km from Apsley Falls lookout point and 3.5 km from Steep Drop Falls trail.This world heritage site is visited by local and international visitors regularly.Attachment 1(cumulative effect map )
The project is adjacent to Oxley Wild Rivers National Park which forms part of the World Heritage listed Gondwana Rainforest (UNESCO)
The site selection is poor, the proposed size of the site is 700MW unfairly intensifies impact on our small rural community. The use of land is inappropriate as it is highly productive agricultural country
There is an ecological impact. There are concerns for aerial support for fire fighting and aerial fertiliser spreading in the area. Aviation section.(refer to voiceforwalcha website)The EIS has identified multiple fauna and flora species and vulnerable ecosystems that will be affected by development.There is destruction of wild life corridors in and out of the park. Threatened bird species include the Wedge tail eagle, black glossy cockatoo, White throated needle-tail. In the World Heritage Impact Statement Version 2 for Winterbourne Wind Farm, it states that these 3 species have been assessed as having a moderate risk of impact associated with collisions with turbines.Any risk should be of high concern.(section7.3.3) A statement of appropriate management during project operation(section8.3.1) removal of carcasses. Really ? There are various threatened flora include Narrow- leafed peppermint, unique to the New England .
Agriculture will be affected by long term construction of Winterbourne Wind Farm and on completion of ongoing maintenance of turbine structures. Eg: Livestock transportation hindered by extra trucks on roads carting water, gravel, turbine structures.eg : Farming businesses use many livestock and fertiliser trucks throughout the year .Local trucking companies will be affected by extra road usage and will cause Walcha residents and suppliers of goods a major inconvenience for long periods of time, our roads are simply not built for these extremes.
Walcha Council has worked hard for decades to put Walcha town and surrounds on the tourism map. It is a popular destination for hiking, trout fishing( award winning Green Gully Track) camping , bike riding and exploring.Residents take pride in the community. It has magnificent uninterrupted views, 230m high turbine structures will have a detrimental affect on tourism
The developers Vestas, Copenhagen Infrastructure and Walcha Wind have failed to engage with the community adequately.
Total of 68 community members attending open days on 10-11 December 2021, poor attendance therefore poor advertising.
It is an absolute requirement that the developers engage with the indigenous and non indigenous in this community and it has not been the case .Developer engagement has only been with host landholders . The community has become aware of the scale of this project recently
The Winterbourne Wind Farm is excessive in size and in the wrong location

Thank you for allowing me to submit my objection to the Winterbourne Wind Farm.
Walcha is a highly productive grazing district producing wool,prime lambs and beef. It is also an attractive landscape of rolling ,pastured hills with beautiful timbered areas providing habitat for many native birds and animals. Walcha district is a popular tourist destination, for bush-walking, fishing and driving around to look at the spectacular landscape. All this is at stake if the Winterbourne Wind Farm was to go ahead. This beautiful district would be transformed into an industrial landscape, covered in wind turbines, transmission lines and road infrastructure.
The eastern boundary of the project is the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park part of the World Heritage Gondwana Rain Forests. These unique areas will be directly impacted during construction as well as the years during service. The many threatened bird and bat species will be directly threatened by the blades of the windmills travelling at very high speed. Eagles and other raptors soar on the updrafts from the gorges putting them in direct contact with the windmill blades. (attachment 3). The EIS states the birds will be managed! Good luck with that!. As well as the physical damage to the birds there is also the threat of poisonous pollutants created be the erosion of the windmill blades dispersing the highly toxic Bisphenal A throughout the district and into the waterways. All the waterways in the Winterbourne area are part of the Macleay River Catchment which ends up on the coast at the popular tourist destination of South West Rocks.(attachment 2).
During the construction process there will will be major congestion of the community's vital road links to the major center of Tamworth. Three years of construction with eleven months of peak activity with 288 semi and BDouble movements per day. This congestion will affect the ability of local business and individuals to conduct any sort of business, medical appointments and shopping.
All grazing enterprises in the district sent their livestock on trucks to abattoirs and feedlots utilizing both the Oxley and New England highways, these highways are the roads used to transport all the components for the wind farm construction. Any delays with transportation will result in income loss as the stock are mostly sold on a $ / kg basis and also a dearer transport cost due to delays. The same problem for the transportation of farm inputs such as fertilizer, delays adding to the cost of transport.
In addition to the Winterbourne Wind Farm there are numerous other wind farm project destined for the Walcha district. (attachment 1). The cumulative affect of so many projects on the district will be devastating, magnifying all the problems associated with Winterbourne Wind Farm many times over rendering the Walcha town and district uninhabitable.
After reading much of the EIS for the Winterbourne Wind Farm I have concluded that the document is a very badly presented flawed document. The people who compiled the EIS must have anticipated that no one would read it, it is an insult to the intelligence of the Walcha community, taking us for mugs. The work done by The Voice For Walcha community group have highlighted the many shortcomings within the EIS with factual well researched information from highly skilled and knowledgeable professional people, this is what Vestas could have and should have done also.
The fact that Vestas ( developer ) will be paying an Ecosystem Credit payment and Species Credit payment totaling $64 million dollars is an admission that the project is highly destructive. This sort of destruction is more than one small community should have to bare. If the same destruction is going to happen with the other larger projects the devastation will be overwhelming.
Regards James Young

Please see attachment

This project is in the wrong place in prime agricultural land adjoining a huge tract of National Park. It is a massive, oversized proposal for a small area &community & I believe is devised by a developer with no understanding of the community or indeed how the project will unfold. Despite unashamedly, continually, stating the community is on side and is being regularly informed of the progress of the project nothing is further from the truth. A recent survey to which523 people from a population of some 3000 subscribed, 79.7% indicated they were against or had concerns re. the project. Of those in support aprox half were prospective hosts of Winterbourne or other wind projects. The Community Consultative Group, a body consisting of members of the community & chaired by a Vestas representative, was formed to advise the community about the project & was disbanded after several meetings when its lack of effectiveness was realised. Despite numerous requests to attend a community forum to discuss the project, Vestas & Winterbourne Wind refused to speak to the community & after submission time for the EIS was extended by 35 days, we now find Winterbourne Wind office will be closed for 26 of those 35 days. Is this consulting with the community? The only benefits to the community from the proponents are the promise of 400 extra jobs, quite heroic when local tradesmen are finding difficulty in getting labour themselves and a community fund of $750K which pales into insignificance with the billions expected to be generated by this project. The EIS is ridden with errors; Vestas’ response when these errors are pointed out is that the EIS is a fluid document. This is not good enough. Despite the size of the document, it appears to gloss over many issues ie. the oversimplification of complex travel movements, where is the gravel coming from, where is the water coming from. Vestas don’t seem to know. Is simply removing dead birds & bats from the sites the solution to loss of fauna, is it right that someone, somewhere, perhaps thousands of miles away should be paid up to $64,000,000 in offsets to compensate for the damage done to this pristine area. Vestas were asked if Bisphenol (a pretty nasty chemical) was used in the production of the turbines. The first answer was no, however after further questioning it was acknowledged that this product was indeed used. Vestas would like to leave it to their discretion after 15 years of project life, to determine if it would be necessary to contribute to a bond to ensure the satisfactory decommissioning of the turbines, all self assessment, no guarantees. Winterbourne Wind states on their website that “ENGAGEMENT, TRANSPARENCY AND BENEFIT SHARING WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ARE CRITICAL TO A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT. WITHOUT A SOCIAL LICENCE TO OPPERATE IN THE REGION THERE CAN BE NO PROJECT” By any account there has been a real lack of transparency with this project & benefit sharing with the community is minimal. There is no Social License for this project & by Winterbourne Wind’s own definition there should be no project. The duplicity, lack of due process and attention to detail, secrecy & glib responses to questions by this developer indicates a developer not suited to the complex task they are proposing. This project should be rejected.

Glen Collin Pastoral Co is a large sheep and cattle grazing enterprise operating in the Walcha shire.
For the business to operate we use semi and BDouble trucks extensively. Glen Collin Pastoral Co runs 6000 cattle which are all transported on Bdouble trucks to feedlots and abattoirs, approximately eighty BDoubles. Also, Glen Collin Pastoral currently is running 17000 sheep of which 11000 will be transported on approximately twenty BDouble trucks. The livestock movements on the road need to performed as quickly and efficiently as possible as we are paid on a dollar per kilo basis delivered.
Glen Collin Pastoral Co's annual fertilizer input of 1100 tonnes is transported with the use of thirty five BDouble trucks
All the above truck movements make use of both the Oxley and New England highways. Both these highways are to be used for transportation of construction materials for Winterbourne Wind Farm.
With a three year construction period and a peak period of eleven months with two hundred and eighty eight truck movements per day congesting the highways leading to considerable inconvenience and financial lose to our enterprise with no prospect of compensation from the developer.
This project is only one of many destined for the Walcha district. The cumulative impact of other project will only have a compounded effect on our companies ability to conduct it's business. One of the additional projects will be 140 towers on our eastern boundary. Our fertilizer spreading, weed spraying and fire control are conducted using aeroplanes. With wind towers near by the use of planes will no longer be an option.
In addition to the transportation and inability to make use of aerial applications there is a major concern of the pollution of waterways during construction from run off as well the pollution of the general area from the physical erosion of the wind turbine blades with the toxic chemical Bisphenol A. Glen Collin Pastoral Co has numerous quality control measures in place which are audited annually by independent auditors. These pollutants will possibly render our livestock to be unsalable, with the obvious outcome of the business no longer viable.
These objections are from the perspective of trying to run an efficient and productive enterprise, they haven't taken into account the many other objections from the perspective of the individuals working within the enterprise having to live in an industrial, polluted landscape.
Please consider these objections seriously, the livelihood of many people is at stake with no prospect of compensation from the developer who's only consideration is profit to their foreign shareholders.
Yours Sincerely, James Young, Partner / Director of Glen Collin Pastoral Co, Walcha

I object to the Winterbourne Wind Project because the people involved in Walcha Energy and with Winterbourne Wind have not been honest and transparent with the community of Walcha.
They each have an office in town which is not often manned and the doors are not open. When questions are asked of them they often can't answer them or pass it to the other office saying it is a question for the other to answer.
I understand that the Winterbourne Wind Farm project is just a concept at this stage, however as Developers they must be able to answer the most basic of questions.
It is still unknown where battery storage will be, quantities of water and gravel and where it will be sourced. The amount of roadworks required to transport the components, let alone the workman and the gravel and water has not been calculated and is unknown. Bridges will need to be built or widened and all of these things will require prior approved and then be built.
There will be enormous impacts for the community of Walcha and the Developers have not held one community forum.
They prefer to have one on one discussions and open days that no one attends. If this project is such a great opportunity, why hasn't the Developer been able to tell us about it in an open forum. The project updates are mearly propaganda and tell us what they are up to, not asking us what we think or how it will affect our town. I can see no benefit for our community, only years of disruption and a divided community.

I have objections to the Winterbourne Wind Farm Project based on several points that I will outline below.
Firstly, this major project will destroy precious habitats and ecosystems that cannot be replaced. The Project is to be built alongside the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and UNESCO Gondwana Rainforest, a truly unique and beautiful part of Australia. The effects on the vegetation and wildlife in these areas is potentially catastrophic as essential green corridors will be destroyed by the extensive clearing of trees to make way for the road network required to build and maintain the access roads and the turbines once they are erected. 207 hectares of habitat will be lost forever and there is no way to fully repay that loss to the environment. The EIS lists this value in monetary terms at $64 million in total which in my opinion is an insult to our basic responsibility as humans to protect, wherever possible, the survival of all species on the planet. This Wind project is in the wrong place, threatening eagles, gliders, bats, cockatoos, koalas, wallabies, and many other marsupials significantly by its location.
Secondly, I object to this project on the basis that it is proportionally excessive for our small Community. Walcha is a small agricultural district, that has flourished in good and bad seasons, with a relatively small population of hard working individuals. Industrious people live here, farmers on properties and skilled tradesmen and professionals in the service industries of the township. The relationship of mutual collaboration and respect between these groups has seen Walcha grow into a rural community we all love to live in. Development has been encouraged over the years, as evidenced by the town's continued prosperity, but development has always been mindful of our geography and our commitment to sustainable agriculture and way of life. Poor consultation by the proponents of this project has been a feature throughout so when the Community became aware of the actual size of this, and other subsequent projects of wind and solar power generation, a considerable amount of dismay, anxiety, fear and social discontent resulted. It has become apparent that during construction, there will be major disruption to traffic flows between Walcha and Tamworth which is an essential road link for many important health, education and other services that cannot be provided in our small town. The congestion created by truck movements is particularly concerning as the terrain is hilly, with many bends in the road, so long delays will be unavoidable. The cost to our Council, and therefore rate payers, to maintain roads, and provide an ongoing and as yet undetermined water and gravel source is likely to place a huge financial burden for on us all. It is staggering, and out of proportion, that one small town should be suddenly threatened with the prospect of having to carry the load of life disruption, financial cost, and social anxiety, in order to provide a significant amount of the state's power. There must be other sites for wind power generation that are more cost effective in every regard.
My third and final objection relates to the long standing impact of visual disruption. The turbines proposed for construction are huge, (230 metres high), and if the other neighbouring projects also go ahead our town will be surrounded by them. They do not operate forever and will need to be removed at some point, or else left as a blight on the landscape. It seems that this could occur anywhere between 15-25 years after they're completed. Without a bond contribution by the developer to cover the cost of decommissioning the turbines, it potentially means that Walcha will be visually changed for a very long time. That will see a loss of value to property, both real estate and agricultural land values will fall significantly. Having these massive towers surrounding our town and National Park will detrimentally impact our tourism industry which is growing currently and providing many jobs. Tourism enhances the lives of local residents and visitors alike and there will be pressure on this industry from the outset of construction.
I have lived and worked in Walcha since coming here in 1986. During those 37 year I have raised my children here and enjoyed the wonderful lifestyle that this special place provides. It is my hope that the Winterbourne Wind Farm project does not proceed as I perceive the proposal by the developer to be flawed and the negative impacts to our environment and community are too considerable to be disregarded.

The EIS provided so far is completely inadequate. No consultation with local indigenous people.
This proposal is utterly wrong for Walcha &surrounding areas. It will damage the landscape, kill protected species, ruin the landscape, ruin the farm lands, ruin the tourism. It will ruin all that Walcha depends upon to survive.

I object to the Winterbourne wind project for a number of reasons. When you look at the cumulative impact of proposed wind projects it it way out of proportion for a town the size of Walcha. The Winterbourne wind farm cannot be looked at in isolation. It is hard to get accurate information, however currently there are around 3 or 4 wind projects slated for the Walcha area , with possibly up to 800 turbines. The way the Winterbourne wind was communicated to the community was inadequate. The majority of discussion was with the landholders involved. The developer told landholders they would communicate the project to neighbours, I am not aware of an instance where this occurred prior to the whole town awareness increasing due to a small number of concerned locals. Walcha Energy, who initially scoped the Winterbourne Wind project stated that neighbours would be compensated, I believe that this would have swayed some landholders to sign up. As the project has since been on-sold Vestas have stated they aren't paying neighbours. Vestas failed to attend and speak at two community forums, one on the 12th January 2023 - they aren't interested in community consultation. The project is clearly unstable as it has already been on-sold and can as easily been on-sold again. I also have concerns around the impact on the biodiversity of the region. I sought an opinion from Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor of Animal Behaviour. Gisela believes Walcha is the wrong place for wind farms, a direct quote from her email;
"If there are 400 or so wind turbines planned for the Walcha area, the results will be disastrous indeed. Birds are not designed to look forward (eyes placed to the side of the head because naturally they have evolved without dangerous objects in the sky)- they look down and sideways and by the time they notice, they get drawn into a vortex-Wind turbine blades at the outside, even though they appear slow-can reach speeds up to 300km p.hr.

The Threatened Species Act plus the information/evidence I can give you in this e-mail, will hopefully provide a good starting points... I must say, I am really very sorry to hear this—here would be a chance to adopt a new model of turbine that is without blades. Spain has developed this (being already a country largely converted to wind power and they lost 5-6 million birds per year and realised that this is not sustainable). In Australia, there are fewer and fewer spots with great biodiversity in birds and Walcha is one of those spots, i.e. an area in which windfarms should definitely not be established.."

This project and all proposed projects by 'Walcha Energy' need to be scrapped. A Community consultation process needs to start at the beginning, and a plan forward for wind developments needs to be made at Council level. Then competent and ethical wind developers can plan an appropriately sized project with the benefits shared with the entire community. This could be a great opportunity for Walcha, however it needs to be done properly.

My objection is attached.

Please see attachment

The Winterbourne wind farm is a very important project for our country and world. It is evident that there needs to be change in our action towards Climate Change as it becomes more and more prevalent. From the horrible natural disasters that have hurt countless families and homes in recent years to the continuance of polluting the land and air with mining and burning fossil fuels for energy. This wind farm is one step towards a cleaner future! As a young adult in this world, I can see that if we make positive changes now, my adulthood and all the generations to come will be able to live in a healthy world. Not only does the wind farm offer a greener, cleaner future, it is also much cheaper for the government and provides many jobs in the local area, creating a greater economy for country towns. I am very excited about what this wind farm and many to come will do for our future in sustainable energy!

Please refer to my submission for the details of my objection. I have also posted a hard copy of my submission as the email confirmation process this morning was not working. However I wished for an electronic submission and notification of receipt if possible.

I write in support of the Winterbourne Wind Farm project. Thre are many reasons for saying this. The flooding and bush fires over the past few year has shown that NSW/Australia/The World must stop using fossil fuels and move to renewables urgently. The past decades has seen individual householders install roof-top solar systems at a world leading rate. However, this is not economically a best solution and its leads to problems with grid stability as the distribution grid was never designed or built to cope with large amounts of distributed power input. Instead, large, remotely located generation systems are economically the best solution and do not bring with them the grid instability of small generation units.
The contribution of installations such as also bring many benefits to rural communities, most of which have seen declining populations over the past decades. Even though the number of permanent jobs maybe small (16), there is a multiplier effect where each job increases the viability of local businesses and community services. In addition, this project will lead to increased incomes for landholders and support to community activites. There is much to commend in this project.

I believe that Winterbourne Wind Farm will be extremely beneficial to both Walcha and Uralla and Australia as a whole. With the effects of climate change and global warming becoming more and more obvious as the years go on, an initiative that both provides renewable energy and supports smaller communities will have an incredible impact on our state-wide sustainability. The current NSW goal is to have a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030- just seven years away. This project will provide sustainable energy and reduce emissions by 3%, a sizeable step towards this incredibly important goal. As the impact of fossil fuels becomes more and more prevalent in our society, Winterbourne Wind will provide a cheaper way to give energy to just as many people as the damaging method of coal burning. I- and anyone else- can see the devastating results of our abuse of non-renewable energy all around the world, be it through the increase in natural disasters like floods, drought, bushfires and storms, the loss of wildlife and coral reefs, the rising temperatures and oceans, the acidification of the oceans or the land, water and air pollution we now see as normal. Renewable energy is vital to our future and Winterbourne Wind is an excellent way to bring more of it into our world. Moreover, this project will give towns like Walcha and Uralla significant financial support, opening up job opportunities and bringing skills to the areas that will be crucial to the future economy. Jobs during construction and then permanent operation jobs afterwards give people the opportunity to branch out and become employed, and also allow growth in rural areas that will enhance the communities they work in. The Community Benefit Fund will also be a great help in the Walcha and Uralla communities. Overall, Winterbourne Wind Farms are extremely important to the future of our sustainable energy and will provide jobs and money to the communities that have worked so hard to get this job started, and I believe it is fully worth everyone who will be impacted in future generations by the renewable energy it creates- and my- support.

I think that having renewable energy will be good because it lowers the use fossil fuels. I think that it would be really good to have Winterbourne Wind Farm in Walcha because it would create lots of jobs for the community and lots of money would be able to be used in the town. Also it would be generating lots of energy, which would be great for our environment.

I am a third generation grazier in the Walcha District. This district is well known for it peaceful, natural beauty. This district is visited by people to witness its peaceful natural beauty. I have a number of concerns with this project, including concerns for wildlife in and around the Winterbourne Wind Project Site. It's proximity to some of out wonderful National Parks. The site of these 230 metre high Turbines, is something this community doesn't need.

I have 30 years policing experience this great state. I have real concerns about the major disruption and increased volume of traffic this project is going to create. I'm concerned for our older members of the community who a lot have restricted licences to drive only in the Walcha Council Area. The traffic from this project is going to span across the entire Council area. The large volume of traffic along with the conditions of the roads is going to create potentially major traffic chaos and increased risk to the members of the Walcha Community. The traffic plans within the current EIS thus far by this project is basic and basically completed to what I would call to 'tick the box'. It is not workable and doesn't cover the unique community of Walcha regarding roads, traffic and safety to the community.

I have other concerns including where the workforce, water, material to build these turbines are going to come from.

I was born and grew up in Walcha and object to, and request halting the Winterbourne wind project for the following reasons:
1. Most importantly, there are obvious faults identified in the developers EIS presented. I have grave concerns for the roll out of the full project, if this EIS document put forward by the developer, which is so full of errors and misleading information, as this indicates the greater problems that will be associated with the project if it goes ahead.
Below i give just some of the errors with the EIS
2. This EIS states the project will require 150 MEGALITRES. Where does this massive amount of water come from to supply the project?
The EIS states this will be sourced from bores in the area, farm dams or Walcha Council supply.
This is unrealistic, not logically or ethically considered and this massive requirement for water will cause problems for the environmental, community and local agricultural requirements for the water.
3. The location of this winterbourne wind project is on the edge of the Oxley Wild Rivers National park. The impact and habitat lost for the endangered animals in this area is significant. The EIS notes the population of Wedge tailed Eagles in this area is substantial and it is noted in the EIS that this population of Wedge Tailed Eagles is significantly greater than in any other area designated for windmill development. The EIS states 2 mitigation measures. One is to remove any dead birds killed and found under the turbines. The other is the "Development of a bird and bat adaptive plan" with no detail what, or how this "plan' will do/work.
I object to this EIS based on the gaps, errors and problems identified in this initial EIS document put forward.
There are serious concerns, errors and this indicates the bigger project will have significant problems.

I object to the Winterbourne Wind Farm development on the following grounds:
 Unknown and seemingly invisible foreign company ownership -Australian security issues
 The area borders precious national parkwith issues of biodiversity and bush fire control due to aviation services limitation
 Disproportionate number of huge turbines for population of Walcha
 Health risks due to constant shedding from blades leading edge of BPA and micro plastics into air and water systems
 Massive drain on local resources such as roads, gravel and water
 Decommissioning of towers at end of life information vague and responsibilities unknown
 Poor consultation processes are dividing the community of Walcha with the secrecy and pitching of neighbour against neighbour

I object to the Winterbourne Wind Farm development in its current form on the following grounds:
 Unknown and seemingly invisible foreign company ownership
 The proposed area borders precious national park with issues of biodiversity and bush fire control due to aviation services
limitation
 Disproportionate number of huge turbines for population of Walcha
 Health risks due to constant shedding from blades leading edge of BPA and micro plastics into air and water systems
 Massive drain on local resources such as roads, gravel and water
 Decommissioning of towers at end of life information vague and responsibilities unknown
 Australian renewable hydrogen and nuclear energy are green options requiring more investigation.