Stop destroying the environment.

The proponent has no social licence for this project from the immediate community nor the wider community. The general public who have invested in rooftop solar are going to be turned off by AEMO yet these same people are unwittingly funding industrial scale projects such as this one with enormous subsidies. Nobody wants industrial scale solar blighting the landscape. As per AEMO request for emergency powers to turn off rooftop solar during the day, we already produce too much solar during the daylight hours. This project is a total waste of money.

Those of use who live in regional NSW are incensed that developers of swindle factories roam our communities and environment with impunity. Stop destroying our environment.

How much diesel will be used in this project? During construction and "operation". Where will the damaged/obsolete solar panels be dumped?

What guarantee can the NSW government give the community that any conditions of consent will be adhered to? The evidence so far shows that once approved no proponent bothers to adhere to conditions of consent. By design? or because the project is onsold so many times the details get lost in the process?

I strongly object to this project. Not only are mass scale solar farms an absolute eye sore but they also pose a significant environmental risk for pollution in the future at end of life but also a very real fire danger, the proponents have labeled this fire risk as low due to the land being grazed and the grass heights kept to a minimum but being a local for my whole life, I disagree with this statement as the grass on the gundary plains is quite often knee to hip height and a fire under the right conditions would be unstoppable.
The proponents have also failed to offer any reasonable solutions to numerous neighbours objections or concerns and I find it unreasonable that the project should go ahead with so much community angst surrounding it.
Lastly, I believe the NSW and Australian governments should be far more selective which land is being used for these white elephant projects and should focus on delivering energy from sources which require far less of a footprint. The gundary Plains is prime agricultural land and should be treated as such, not sold out to a multinational company to line their pockets with heavily subsidised profits which they have no interest or intent to filter back into the Goulburn community.

The Gundary Solar 'Farm' is another 'renewable' monster development that city voters won't accept anywhere in sight of their own homes. It will wreck regional natural and rural landscapes, destroy native habitat and undermine community cohesion.
At 20% capacity it will only provide power for 1.4 full days per week. This will contribute to the severe ongoing degradation of the east coast power grid, due to the replacement of baseload power with unreliable region wrecking 'renewables'.

Gundary Solar Factory
Submission
Wendy Tuckerman MP – Member for Goulburn


The following submission is on behalf of the residents of the Goulburn electorate who have contacted me, as their state representative and Member of NSW Parliament, expressing their grave concerns about the proposed project: Gundary Solar, the largest solar factory proposal in NSW is planned on the Gundary Plains in the electorate of Goulburn. It is a project that characterises poor planning, disregard to community needs and local voices, and threatens to devastate the prime agricultural land and environment of the Gundary Plains.

The greenwashing of this project is abhorrent. I refer to the wording of the proponent’s proposal as a "solar farm" and argue that this is grossly misleading. Farms are traditionally defined as land devoted to producing food and crops with minimal interference in the landscape, not industrial facilities that are majorly comprised of built infrastructure.

This project is not a farm. It is heavy industrial infrastructure which has been greenwashed by LightSourcebp to obscure the true nature of their intentions – profitability. This project is a solar factory designed to maximise corporate profits and it will come at the expense of the environment and the community.

The developer, Lightsourcebp, a British company, boasts of being "the world's largest solar developer", so it is of no surprise they have disregarded the significance, value, and harmony that the prime agricultural land of Gundary Plains holds for food security and our rural economy.

 
This project also exemplifies corporate greenwashing—portraying profit-driven business as environmentally and economically beneficial. The location has only been selected due to its proximity to the grid, population and price – helped by significant government subsidies to ensure its profitability.

The economic benefits touted by the proponents are short-term and heavily reliant on present government incentives to subsidise the investment. While I acknowledge that there will be an initial inflow of jobs and investment during construction, these are temporary “sugar hits” that offer little in terms of sustained economic growth for the community. Once construction is complete, the ongoing economic benefit to the local community will be minimal. And with little in the way of training and educational opportunities locally, there is less substance to the proponents economic benefits.

Moreover, the generated electricity will be exported to the national grid, with no guarantee of lower energy costs for local residents. The long-term economic impact will be borne by the community in the form of decreased property values, loss of prime agricultural land, and diminished local amenity.

The 400 megawatt project for construction comprises of 660,000 photovoltaic solar panels, placed in rows five metres apart, and with a proposed height of between 3 to 4 meters. The Gundary Solar factory will cover approximately 1735 acres of prime agricultural land. For purposes of scale, the entire footprint of the Sydney Airport is just over 2000 acres and is currently the largest airport in Australia.



 
Further to this, a draftsman has supplied the below map showing the overlaying footprint over the CBD of Goulburn, which provides further context to the size and scale of the factory.
 
The proponent advises that up to 89 battery stations will be housed in a series of outdoor containers, along with converters, and a substation, with scaffold and lighting arresters up to 22m high. The unprecedented scale of this proposal will completely transform the landscape from productive farmland to exclusively industrialised energy infrastructure.

The Gundary Plains lie within Sydney’s water catchment area, making the environmental risks of this project particularly serious. The construction phase poses significant threats of soil erosion, increased runoff, and potential contamination of water supplies. This could have devastating consequences for local waterways, impacting both human health and biodiversity.

Additionally, the project threatens the habitat of numerous native species, including vulnerable birds, reptiles, and marsupials. The installation of vast solar panels, along with heavy construction and increased traffic, will disrupt breeding patterns and reduce biodiversity, causing long-term harm to the region’s ecosystems.

The Gundary Plains are rich in historical significance. Records from 1832 document Aboriginal groups gathering here to celebrate Christmas with early settlers, whose descendants remain in the region, reflecting the deep, enduring connection to this land.

The Goulburn Mulwaree Council engaged the Australian Museum Business Services (AMBS) to conduct an Aboriginal Heritage Study, aimed at identifying culturally significant sites and safeguarding them from developments like this. Approving this project without thorough and genuine consultation with Aboriginal communities disrespects our heritage and violates modern planning standards. Indigenous voices must be central in this process to ensure their cultural legacy is preserved rather than sacrificed for corporate interests.

 
On the matter of community interests, the bushfire risk outlined in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is severely inadequate. The project’s primary access point on Windellama Road is insufficient for emergency response in the event of a fire. The nearby Kooringaroo Road offers only one access point, raising serious concerns about evacuation and emergency service access. If this road is blocked, both residents and emergency responders will be trapped, endangering lives and property.

Of access, the project’s transport route options exacerbate concerns over both safety and heritage preservation. Option 1, via Grafton Street, presents significant risks for the 298 children attending St Joseph’s Primary School, whose entrance is located on Reynolds Street. Increased heavy vehicle traffic poses severe dangers to pedestrian safety and threatens the structural integrity of the heritage-listed St Clair Homestead. Constructed in the 1840s, this historic site could suffer irreparable damage from vibrations caused by the significant increase in heavy truck movements.

The route also impacts high-traffic community hubs such as the Railway Bowling Club, Belmore Park, Goulburn Visitor Information Centre, Goulburn Railway Station and the Goulburn Marketplace. Increased truck movements will disrupt these spaces, posing risks to pedestrian safety and diminishing the area's liveability.

The site’s proximity—just 9.6 kilometres from Goulburn’s town centre—contradicts the Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Urban and Fringe Housing Strategy. The council has opposed the project, citing concerns over its obstruction of planned housing developments and future expansion of Goulburn Airport, located only five kilometres from the site.

 
Furthermore, the NSW Government’s Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) policy identifies five designated zones for renewable projects, designed to minimise conflict with existing land uses and maximise infrastructure efficiency. The Gundary Solar factory is located outside any REZ, disregarding strategic planning efforts and placing unnecessary burdens on the local community and environment.

This project is a prime example of poor planning and misplaced priorities. It sacrifices long-term, proven, agricultural sustainability, environmental health, and cultural heritage for short-term corporate gain and a politically driven agenda.

Renewable energy development is essential, but it must be pursued responsibly, balancing development with the preservation of environment, water, and communities.

I urge the Department of Planning to reject the Gundary Solar Factory proposal due to the Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Urban and Fringe Housing Strategy first and foremost, its environmental, economic, community and cultural impacts. I also note that planning policies must be strengthened to protect agricultural land and cultural heritage from industrial encroachment. We must ensure renewable energy projects are sited within designated REZs to minimise community disruption.

As a representative of the state of NSW I believe that we cannot allow short-term profits to multinational foreign-owned companies to overshadow the long-term welfare of our communities and environment.

 
Sustainable, well-planned renewable energy projects must be developed in a way that respects and protects the very communities they are meant to serve.



Wendy Tuckerman MP
Member for Goulburn

Stop destroying rural landscapes and our environment with this dangerous infrastructure.
This project will destroy a small and beautiful rural community. given this, i do not believe that the project should go ahead. Small communities need to be supported, not divided by projects like this. These projects carry significant fire risk.

i object to this project. solar power is unreliable and not a suitable source of energy to power NSW. why are rural communities being destroyed in order to power NSW? rural communities did not ask for this, so we should not have to accommodate such projects. this will also have ugly consequences on the landscape. We need food security for Australia and destroying agricultural land is opening our nation up for trouble.

Keep this out of Gundary and rural NSW. We don't want them. They will destroy our small communities, businesses, homes and ways of life. They are an absolute monstrosity on the landscapes and a major concern when they catch fire. They are intermittent, unreliable and totally useless.

The Planning Application should be denied and the EIS rejected as the EIS fails to meet expectations for a project of this scale, including but not limited to:

1. Our property is identified as being impacted in the EIS as an existing residential property. We have a significantly raised Mountain Ash Road view facing towards the Project area with potential visual impacts from the Project. We have not been directly approached by the Project to further investigate the view point. Our property is identified in section 6.8.3 as not needing assessment, but due to its elevation, our property should have been assessed (but wasn't). Our property is not reflected in Figure 6.12 and it should be. This demonstrates a failure of the Project to fully engage.
Also I note that Photo 6.4 in the EIS couldn't be further away from parts of the Mountain Ash Precinct that are closest to the Site and does little to show the visual from the closest parts of the Mountain Ash area to the Site.

2. With close proximity to bushland, there is an EXTREME fire risk to nearby residents, particularly noting the severity of winds experienced over the majority of days during the year. Any claim that the proposed Site is anything less than an EXTREME Fire risk is incorrect. There is also an Extreme fire risk to protected flora and fauna, including risks to the Bungonia township and also the Bungonia National Park in the case of a large-scale catastrophic summer event caused by the site. The EIS, states "A Final Hazard Analysis, Fire Safety Study and Emergency Plan will be developed as the Project design progresses toward completion." This is negligent and forms ground alone to reject the EIS.

3. based on the EIS, there is inadequate compensation to nearby households that have already experienced significant loss in value/interest of residential property in the area. This is in part due to an 'under-classification' of visual impact to surrounding residences.

4. there is a failure to align to State and Local Government planning instruments; specifically,
a. The Project Area is wholly located within land zoned as RU1 Primary Production and the Project, which is only permissible with consent. To my understanding, this consent has not been provided and local residents continue to lobby Council (and the NSW Government) to reject this Project.
b. A large portion of the Project Area is identified as being within the ‘subject land’ on the Goulburn Regional Cities Map.
The EIS states "The consent authority is required to consider whether the Project is located to avoid significant conflict with existing or approved residential or commercial uses of land surrounding the Project and is unlikely to have a significant adverse impact on Goulburn’s capacity for growth, or scenic quality and landscape character." The consent authority cannot ignore that this project will negatively impact all of these criteria noting the Gundary Plains is an area of agricultural and environmental significance.

5. There are inadequate levels of local community employment forecast - both during and following construction. There are no mandated numbers of local employment, which means the measly 5% target will simply not be enforced or reached,

6. Zero benefit to reducing power bill costs to the people of the Southern Tablelands, particularly Goulburn residents,

7. No community benefits program, instead a single one-off payment is proposed to only a small number of residents, which are also grossly inadequate in terms of amounts,

8. No compensation to 'low impact' residents in respect to the long-term visual impacts of the site,

9. Despite claims made in the EIS, the proposed traffic routes will create significant disturbance (and damage) to Local and State Roads. Traffic congestion at the intersections of Sloane Street and Braidwood Roads in particular will cause major congestion during the construction phase of the project. The intersection will require stregthening and/or remediation works with 140 heavy movements per day at the construction peak. Instead, the construction of new on/off ramps from the Hume highway directly onto Windellima Road should be considered.

10. Risks to the Sydney drinking water catchment are identified, however are not adequately addressed in the EIS. Additional modelling during the detailed design stages does not appropriate mitigate the risk identified in the EIS. Sydney Water should strongly object to this component of the EIS. In addition, long-term testing should also occur during the life of the project, not just during the construction phase. Leakage contamination is a risk to manage over the life of the project.

11. The Economic Impact Study predicts 'regional' impacts and targets, instead of direct impacts to the Goulburn community. Goulburn will simply not benefit from this Project if it is constructed.

We support the project in principle but with the conditions outlined in the attachment.