NSW government gives New England locals extra five weeks for response to Winterbourne Windfarm's Environmental Impact Statement

"It's warming to consider because it's the first time that the minister has granted an extension. So we're very humbled and grateful," Mr Timbs said.

Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall successfully requested the five-week extension from the NSW government after concerns about the regulatory 28 days not being enough time for locals to read and analyse the EIS released by Vestas on November 18.

"This is the largest and most complicated wind farm proposal our region has ever seen and so I feel the right decision has been made to extend the period of public comment," MP Marshall said.

"The extra time will allow locals to respond with better quality submissions and give the Department a much better sense of community views, questions and concerns, which is the whole purpose of the public exhibition period."

The deadline for submissions to the EIS will now end on January 22, 2023.

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Mr Timbs is among a group of locals who have established a popup shop in Walcha manned with volunteers dedicated to understanding and relating to people the details in the statement about the wind turbine company's environmental impact.

"To digest it we really need an equal amount of time as to what they've had to prepare it," Mr Timbs said.

"The large majority of our people have never seen an EIS. And yet the developer has worked on those thousands of pages with a team of professional consultants for several years."

Locals have to date have been critical of Winterbourne Windfarm's developer Vestas' ability to communicate with the community about its 119 wind turbines planned for an approximate 22,000-hectare site northeast of Walcha.

Though the Netherlands-based multinational corporation has previously stated they have sent eleven quarterly mail updates via post, engaged with councils and "agency stakeholders" among other actions, Mr Timbs said he and others have noticed a serious lack of transparency, honesty and visibility.

Walcha local and Dunghutti woman Shannon Green, whose nation rests on the site of the proposed windfarm, said a previous Winterbourne report had incorrectly identified the area as belonging to the Anawain people.

"We are not Anawain. We are Dunghutti,'' she said.

And like many people, Green said she found out about the Winterbourne Windfarm only when an ad was placed in a local newspaper, giving people a "final say" on the project.

"Final say? We haven't had any say!" she said to NSW government representatives at a community meeting in Armidale on November 29.

In the two weeks, since they have had the five ring-binders filled with pages of the EIS, Mr Timbs said his group has found "mistakes and points of inconsistency".

"Just as one example, they're saying that they will require 116 mega litres of water for the project. We were quoted 220 mega litres of water," Mr Timbs said.

"From our calculations, with 113 kilometres of internal roads, concrete pads and dust suppression in the construction of those roads, it's probably closer to 700 or more mega litres of water.

"And as an agricultural-based community, water is really gold for us. So for a farmer to sell their harvestable right for an industrial energy development project, just seems unfathomable."

The New England REZ is expected to power up about 3.5 million homes from 8000 megawatts of power and boost the local economy by about $12.7 billion.

Vestas will next conduct drop-in sessions at the Walcha Bowling Club on December 2 and December 3.

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