I object to this Wind Farm application for the following reasons:
1. overwhelming visual impact that is not in keeping with the rural landscape, especially at Residence 50.
2. Impact of constant noise, on both humans and livestock
3. the developer retains rights over the property during the lifetime of the wind farm.
4. inefficiency in power generated as wind turbines only work at 31% of capacity (international average).
5. This windfarm is owned by an overseas company and that is where the money is going.
6. The creation of the wind farm still relies on fossil fuels.
7. There will be erosion from land clearing for the installation of the turbines.

I like renewable energy and believe that the town could benefit from wind turbines. It is a great opportunity for farmers to productively use wind in areas of their farm. I believe turbines do not have any bad effects and it is a great way to provide an income for our family. In my opinion the noise will not affect our household and my health will remain in a high quality.

My submission is in support of the Rye Park Wind Farm Project. As a nation we need to move quickly to the point where a substantial portion of our energy is generated from renewable sources. The impacts of significant climate change is just too big a risk for our people, infrastructure, environment and economy.

The Rye Park Project is expected to generate 1,192 Gigawatt hours (GWh) electricity per annum. This is enough electricity to power 130,000 homes.

*The carbon footprint is estimated to be paid back in nine months.

*Rye Park's strong and consistent wind makes a wind farm an efficient use of agricultural land.

*Local farmers will receive over $2 million every year for the next 20 years, either in lease payments or through neighbour agreements. This will dramatically increase the financial resilience of the local farming economy.

*The construction of the wind farm and associated infrastructure will have negligible impact on continued grazing activities. The wind farm will mostly use existing farm tracks and virtually all electrical cabling within the wind farm will run underground.

*The Rye Park Wind Farm project is a $600 million project. It has the potential to add economic value of $163 million in NSW, $45 million in the ACT and $49 million to the Yass/Boorowa region over the construction period.

*The project will create 369 jobs in the region during the construction phase, significantly increasing the number of people living and working in the area.

*35 ongoing full time roles will be created in operations and maintenance, providing long term job opportunities for locals.

*There will be a direct injection of over $5 million per year to the local community through payments to landholders, permanent staff, local councils, and the community. $300,000 of this will be paid directly to community organisations through the legislated Community Enhancement Fund contribution.

*Local businesses will supply goods and services including accommodation, engineering, earthworks services, fencing and landscaping.

*Ridges and valleys are a feature of the landscape around Rye Park. This will assist in minimising the visual impact of the wind farm. Only parts of the wind farm will be visible to a viewer at any one time.

*The planning for this project has required additional flora and fauna surveys to be completed, adding to understanding of the natural value of the area.

*Unlike coal-burning power plants, wind farms use no water in their operation, leaving local rivers and creeks untouched.

This project stacks up on all levels and I urge you to approve it.

I would like to provide this submission for consideration in the approval process for this project. I state that I am not in the employ of the proponent, nor will I derive any income from the project, should it proceed. I live south of Rye Park villiage in a position that I will see approximately 30 of the proposed wind towers. For a period of time I was employed by the proponent of the proposed Rugby Wind Farm in their information centre, and during that time was visited by many people. I was able to hear a number of arguments against wind farms, as well as many supporting them. Overwhelmingly though, people were gathering information to assist in deciding their point of view, as most had heard or read the anti wind farm reasoning. I have never tried to tell people what to think, only to alleviate their concerns by providing information.
After considering opinions expressed, and reading large ammounts of information from around the world as well as Australia, and visiting established wind farms in the region up close, I conclude that nothing is perfect.
Asthetics are a personal thing, I actually find them majestic, though many don't.
I don't consider that there is any health threat to residents at the setback distances proposed.
Bird strikes happen, but not commonly. Statistically, of birds killed by human activity, less than 1 in 10,000 is caused by collisions with wind farm components. (The greatest cause is collisions with windows, followed by collisions with vehicles, then by domestic and feral cats.)
It is true that there will be distruption during the construction phase, but if we didn't build infrastructure because if disruption , well we'd never build anything. I consider the many benefits of employment, income to hosting families and the community and the flow on effect of this income, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced reliance on fossil fuels to far outwiegh the negative impacts.
I would like to add a note to anyone reading this who has a different opinion, that I respect your opinion as I hope you will respect mine. People differ in their opinions about many subjects, politics for example, and this is a very healthy thing in a democracy.
Thank you for the opportunity to lodge this submission, and your consideration of it.
Regards, Matt Smith.

I am a partner in a farming business based at a property near Rye Park NSW.
My husband and I own a property which would host wind turbines proposed in the development application SSD 6693.
We believe the Rye Park wind farm project will have many advantages for the community of Rye Park and beyond and we are very much in favour of its construction.
As farmers we are constantly taking stock of our resources (Natural, physical, financial and human) which allow us to operate our business and achieve our goals.
Climate, topography, landshape and water are closely related and together are the most permanent property elements available in our resource base. These are the most difficult to alter or change.
Just as all farmers are constantly making production decisions based on their stock take results, this particular proposal allows us to harness wind as a renewable resource to produce a large amount of sustainable energy for the State's electricity grid. Introducing this proposal would have no affect on our current grazing enterprises, as wind farms co-exist well with primary production. It would allow us to diversify our enterprises in keeping with the natural resource base in the area.
Having a regular stream of income, not related to rainfall or livestock markets would drought proof our property and would allow us to continue to operate as primary producers in the current unpredictable climatic environment.
The economic benefits of the Rye Park wind farm proposal reach further into the communities of Boorowa, Upper Lachlan and Yass Valley shire. The project will create 369 jobs during the construction phase and support 35 on-going fulltime positions. Business owners in Boorowa and Yass overwhelmingly recognise that this will have flow on affects with money being spent in the local community.
In addition to this, Trust Power has made a long term commitment to the project through its commitment of almost $300,000 per year to the Community Benefit scheme. This will directly support growth of community groups within the rural townships.
I don't know of any other development which would allow the current primary production in the area to continue and bring this sort of money into the local community.
We are satisfied that the developer has made provisions in the application for maintenance of local amenities and enhancement of the natural resource base.
The project has identified the potential risks to superb parrot by blade strike and loss of habitat and these risks will be minimised by the deletion of 4 turbines and relocation of a fifth from the original application. It has been investigated that potential collision strike is non -significant as observed flying occurs within the tree canopy or below 20m. The re-design of the project to reduce habitat impact and the off-set strategy to replace vegetation unavoidably cleared will mean that the development will have no significant affect on the superb parrot's continued survival.
We welcome the development of an alternative energy system to our environment and believe that the Rye Park Wind Farm satisfies all the requirements of a project which will benefit local farmers and community members as well as the broader consumers of clean energy.

I grew up on a property south of Boorowa on the Tangmangaroo Road and have been farming for many years on a property at Frogmore. I have many close friends in the Rye Park area who are concerned about the impacts of the proposed Rye Park Wind Farm and this has prompted me to make a submission to this application.
Having lived in our local communities all my life I am for the first time seeing division and mistrust at a level not seen before. Epuron, followed by Trustpower came to the area at a time when farmers were doing it tough, promising they would `drought-proof' their farms. I am tired of hearing this as the only reason for farmers to host wind turbines, and there is nothing in the original Environment Impact Statement (EIS) or this Response to Submissions (RTS) document that shows how these farms will be `drought-proofed". The majority of the hosts do not even live on the land that the turbines, power lines, etc are to be built, and if the ones who do live there are good business people they would not need this extra income. All that has been achieved so far is to downgrade the value of all properties in the Boorowa/Rye Park/Yass area. No one will want to live where they can see wind turbines, and when they are to be built on the tops of the hills they will be able to be seen by everyone for 100kms.
I also doubt that businesses in Boorowa will benefit much from the proposal. There may be some short term increase in business for cafes, pubs and the motel but as soon as construction is finished things will go back to normal. If businesses have increased their capital outlay they may even go out of business once the workers go away, as has happened to some of the businesses in Crookwell. What also happened in Crookwell was that a major Goulburn company Divals got the earthmoving contract, not the smaller local businesses. Appendix K - Economic Impact Assessment tells me nothing to alleviate my suspicion that local people will not be given work.
I live in an area that is popular with people who have bought property here to escape the `rat-race', commonly known as `tree-changers' or `hobby farmers'. These people love coming to their farms, and I have gained extra income at times by giving them a hand. I see them employ local builders, plumbers, earthmovers and farmers to help set up their new homes or renovate old ones. They go to Boorowa to buy their building products, farm produce and groceries and gum boots, and the cafes, pubs and restaurants give them a taste of country hospitality. Surely this long term industry is more valuable to Boorowa than Wind Farms. We will not have both.
The Rye Park area is also a popular place for these people to land, and when I talk to these people they are concerned about their investment losing value, the visual and sound impacts of the turbines, and in particular the intrusion to their quality of life in the country. I too am concerned about all of this, and the fact that if the Rugby WF and the Bango WF (to be built on the land of my birth) also go ahead I will not be able to travel anywhere without seeing these structures. And who is to say that if the Rye Park WF is approved the developers will not continue north along the Great Dividing Range through my current home!
It would by criminal to approve this proposed application and wipe out the sensitive environment in the Rye Park and Boorowa area. If this happens Australia will lose what cannot be replaced, not only the eco-system, but the farmers as well. Can we afford to do that?
James Best.

I grew up on a property north of Rye Park and my mother and brother still live on the property. I did my primary schooling at the Rye Park Public School, High School in Boorowa. I now live and work in Boorowa with my wife and 3 small children, and live close to the intersection of Court Street and Dillon Street. We of course are regular visitors to the farm at Rye Park.
I am in disbelief that an international company can come into our communities, divide the community the way it has, only consult the community enough to be able to tick the box, and offer money to certain sections of the community on the understanding that they will not complain if things go amiss in the future.
The Boorowa/Rye Park area has some of the most unique eco-systems in Australia, and a lot of work has been done by local landowners, my mother included, to save the habitats of endangered species such as the superb parrot by maintaining remnant vegetation and planting new areas. Obviously there have been many people doing this over many generations, and over a period when it was expected that landowners clear-fell their properties. The farmers north and east of Rye Park have always been able to see the value in maintaining the existing old growth, and expanding it. This area may not be as large as the Great Barrier Reef but I believe it is just as valuable and should be saved. Destroying all of this in the name of saving the environment? Doesn't make sense to me. Nothing in this document suggests that Trustpower are fully aware of the extent of damage that will be caused, and no amount of mitigation measures promised in this document will make up for what will be lost.
As I mentioned earlier Community Consultation has been limited. There are to be 11 turbines built in the Yass Valley council area and yet that is where Trustpower have concentrated their consultation measures. The CCC meetings are held in Yass, Trustpower opened an information centre in Yass (six years after entering the area) and it seems surveys have been concentrated in Yass. As a response to submissions the `over mass' vehicle routes were removed from the Yass area.
What about Boorowa? There are to be approximately 75 turbines built in the Boorowa Council area, with the majority of the traffic movements going through Boorowa, and yet I have seen virtually nothing about this project in the Boorowa newspaper, there has been no information centre opened in Boorowa and there have been no information days held in Boorowa. Most people in Boorowa I talk to either think it has all gone away or know nothing about the proposal, and certainly know nothing of the scale of the development. I have not been able to find maps or pictures in the transport section of this document that clearly shows the traffic routes through Boorowa. There is a mention of the possibility of using gravel from a quarry in Cowra (Appendix D), and again there is nothing to show that there may be increased traffic into Boorowa from Cowra.
We live 2 houses from the proposed Dillon Street route. The RTS suggests that there will be 76 total heavy vehicle movements per day and 200 light traffic trips per day (Appendix E, 5.1) over an 18 month period. I think this time of construction has been greatly underestimated as the document points out there will need to be road and bridge upgrades before construction even starts, and elsewhere mentions a 3 year construction period. These traffic movements are not taken into account. Even if these figures are conservative it is a huge traffic burden near my home and an increased noise level that will make life difficult.
I have not been approached by Trustpower, or anyone doing surveys for Trustpower, to let me know of the proposed development.
We purchased our home as an investment and stepping stone to fulfilling our dream of moving back to my mother's property and educating our children in the Rye Park School. We have now put that dream on hold until the decision is made on the future of the Rye Park proposal. We will not be moving to a place where wind turbines can be seen and heard, and would not be educating our children in a village that is to be surrounded by an industrial power station. Why would we invest our hard earned cash into a home when we would never be able to recoup its value? As it is we have just found out that the proposed Bango Wind Farm has an application in to the Dept Planning and that these turbines will be about 192 metres high, will surround Rye Park on the western side and we will be able to see them and hear them from our home in Boorowa!
I have not read this entire document as the repetition within the document made it hard to find information, and very little information was provided on the impacts, or benefits, to the people of Boorowa.
However I did find a table (Appendix K, page 11, table 2a, Assumed Expenditure Distribution) that tells me that the Capital outlay on the local level for Building Construction is 0.0%, Fabricated Metals is 0.0%, Transport is 4.0% and Labour is 2.0%. When you consider that the total build will cost $539.6million (page 6) and that the 6.0% local spend will include Yass, Young and probably Canberra, then I can't see how Boorowa is going to benefit much from the development during the construction stage.
This table also shows the operating Local spend for Building Construction will be 4.0%, Fabricated Metal will be 2.0%, Transport will be 1.0% and Labour will be 12.5%. The operating costs per year of course will be much less, and again when spread throughout the `local' area will be insignificant as far as I can tell.
What we have to gain from the influx of people from Canberra and Sydney looking for a safer, quieter lifestyle is far more than what the `wind farms' will provide to our communities. If the Rye Park WF is approved we will no longer have these people moving to the Boorowa/Rye Park area. Already we are seeing some of these `treechange' people sell up and move away in the Rye Park area, and as soon as the people of Boorowa realise the impacts of the Rye Park and Bango proposals there will also be a retreat from here.
I ask you not to approve the development of the Rye Park Wind Farm and the industrialisation of our Landscape.
Eric Apps and Family

I have been a resident of Rye Park for over 40 years and, along with my husband, have raised our family here. Our home is approximately 3kms from the nearest turbines and will be severely visually impacted by about 10 turbines, although it is very hard to tell how many we will actually see due to the size of them and the inaccuracy of the maps, road names, photo montages etc.
I understand our road is to become a main thoroughfare for development traffic, along with the construction of a new bridge at the end of the street. This will destroy our peace and quiet, as well as risking the safety of our grandchildren and pets.
We have only ever received 2 letters from the developers and have never had a visit from them to tell us about the wind farm, and we have never told them that we support the project.
Our community has been divided by this development. Epuron, followed by Trustpower have secretly entered our community and fostered a feeling of mistrust amongst us for people we have known most of our lives. This is an awful feeling. The whole feeling and look of the village landscape will change due to the clearing of vegetation, widening of lanes, and the building of these unsightly structures. A newspaper article recently (Yass Tribune) likened the Rye Park wind towers to 55 storey buildings, and when you think of 55 storey buildings dotted all over our beautiful rural landscape it is awful.
Although wind farm developers tend to say there are no proven health impacts from wind turbines I am concerned that there is enough hearsay and uncertainty. How will I know if I am one of the unlucky people who are affected?
We are getting on a bit, and of course are thinking of the possible need for Residential Aged Care in the future. We thought our property would be worth enough to give us a comfortable retirement due to us being close to Canberra for people searching for a quieter life. The value of our property will determine the quality of Aged Care we will be able to access if needed. I feel that our property value will now decrease considerably and we will no longer be able to afford what we thought we would.
Please save our village, environment and community and reject this application. I do not think Trustpower should be given any more opportunity to prove this development is a good thing. Six years should be long enough.
Concerned Resident of Rye Park,
Lesley Gibbons

I previously put in a submission in 2014 to this proposal and feel my concerns have not been responded to in this new document, have never been contacted by Trustpower about my concerns, and in fact I now have additional concerns.
My concerns about the effect of the electromagnetic disturbances of the turbines and associated infrastructure will have on my Dorsal Spine Stimulator, and the increased pain I will be submitted to if this will not work effectively in my home, are still very real. I cannot even tell from the new document exactly how far away the turbines will be from my home due to the inaccuracy of maps and road names, and have never had a visit from Trustpower to tell me. I have only ever received two letters from them in 6 years.
And again the visual impact, and associated loss of value of my home, cannot be mitigated in my lifetime. I fear that I will no longer be able to live in the village of Rye Park. Do I need to wait for the turbines to be operating before I find out?
My new concerns include the bridge that is to be built over the Pudman Creek to give access between the village and the development in the hills to the East of the village. There is a spring in the creek at this place that supplies water to many of the homes in the village. Any alteration or disturbance to the creek may result in the spring being blocked and the loss of our water supply.
We as landowners are not allowed to do anything to the creek due to the presence of Pygmy Perch. Our local Landcare group got a grant at one stage to clean up the creek, which we did, and then almost went to jail for it because another authority said we were not allowed to disturb this critical habitat. No one has been allowed to disturb the Pudman Creek since, so how can Trustpower be given permission to do exactly what we are not able to do?
And again, I would be put in jail if I started clearing land to the extent that this development will need to. Would I tell the judge not to worry about it sir, I will plant a few more trees in South Australia somewhere and that will make up for it? Just the clearing of the natural vegetation along the laneways, and the cutting of corners will destroy critical habitat, and also destroy the character of the village as we know it.
The grants, subsidies, or whatever Trustpower would like to call them, that I believe will be given to this company to operate are astronomical. In the document it states the development when operating will only run at 34% utilisation. The Government will not give me a grant to run by business in a way that I can sit around motionless for 66% of the time!
I would be happy to discuss with you further.
Still Concerned Rye Park Resident,
Ted Gibbons.

I live on a property north of the village of Rye Park where my husband and his family have lived for many years. Until my marriage I had lived in Boorowa for most of my life and attended school there. We now have 2 small children.
The proposal to build 109 wind turbines along the range east of Rye Park, and to the south-east of my home, continues to be of great concern to me. This Response to Submissions document was supposed to allay the fears of all those who put in submissions in 2014 but it does not do this. In fact it shows the same inaccuracies and unprofessionalism as the previous document and makes me wonder how this company, or their contractors, can accurately place the many turbines, roads and related infrastructure to plan when they cannot even get the names of local roads right.
The decision to now use the Rye Park/Boorowa Road for the majority of traffic movements is also of great concern. Trustpower's commitment to maintain this road in the same condition it is currently in is no reassurance. This road is currently in poor condition and, even though it is a main road, it is only wide enough between some potholes for one lane of traffic. The hundreds of additional movements each day going through Boorowa and along this road will only deteriorate the road further and make it a dangerous place to live and travel.
I know the world has to continually change but to think my children will never remember the Rye Park area as I have seen it is hard to comprehend, and when the reason is given that it is mitigating climate change how can it be taken seriously when the maps clearly show the turbines are to be built in heavily vegetated areas that will need to be cleared to erect the towers. The over -clearing of forests is one of the major reasons given for climate change.
Our oldest child will soon be ready for school. The closest school to our home is the Rye Park Public School and the Little Plains Road is a bus route for this school. We would love our children to attend the smaller school however the thought of the village being surrounded by hundreds of wind turbines, taking the Bango proposal into account as well, has been the deciding factor in our decision to school them in Boorowa despite the added commitment to get them there. I am concerned about the so far unproven health impacts from infrasound, the feeling of imprisonment the village of Rye Park will have and the disturbing sound impacts of the turbines. Our daughter would also be attending the school at the time of construction and travelling the roads in a school bus will not be the safest option, neither will the increase in traffic through the village. I also do not believe the school will have a future if the Rye Park Wind Farm in constructed. It will not be the pleasant place it currently is and there will not be enough families staying here, or moving here, to keep the school open.
I trust sense will prevail in this instance, and the building of wind turbines in this environmentally sensitive area will not be approved in any way.
Clair Apps and Family