Wallabadah land group concerned about heavy machinery moving through fragile land

ENGIE took another step towards construction of the controversial project on February 22, appointing AusNet Services and partner Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd (CPP), to begin infrastructure planning.

"Early planning of the infrastructure works will optimise the project design and give a clearer picture of the local employment and services that will be required to safely deliver the project," ENGIE Managing Director Thierry Kalfon said.

"As part of these early works, AusNet and CPP will be progressing designs of the civil and electrical works required, such as transmission lines, collector stations, transformers, crane pads and hard stands for use in construction, foundations for the turbines and designs of access routes across the sites.

"As always, we are committed to engaging with the local community on what construction and operation of the wind farm will look like."

However, a community group in Wallabadah claims they were not "engaged with," and in fact only recently learned the project would involve building infrastructure in its catchment area.

"We were not advised by HOG [Hills of Gold] or its advisors of this major intrusion into our Wallabadah catchment but by representatives of the already affected Nundle, Peel Valley, and Timor communities," the Wallabadah Creek Catchment Community said in an email.

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A public meeting has been organised for Thursday night, February 23, at the Wallabadah Public Hall, to discuss the impact of the development on the local watershed and wider community.

"There has apparently been little or no independent identification and/or analysis by HOG or its consultants of existential issues like immediate and down catch water impacts, appropriate offsetting rehabilitation, immediate and collateral environmental impacts, health, visual amenity, community economic cost-benefit, potential generational impacts, and the issue of sharing our road infrastructure with heavy equipment over the 9 to 15 month construction period," organisers said.

The wind farm and associated infrastructure is to be located 50 km south-east of Tamworth and 8 km south of Nundle, comprising up to 70 wind turbines, battery storage and grid connection.

According to the latest newsletter from ENGIE, objections from the Nundle community have been heard, resulting in changes to some of the planned turbines which will help reduce its environmental impact.

Once constructed the Hills of Gold Wind Farm will supply up to 1,000 gigawatt hours per annum, the equivalent energy to power 182,000 average Australian homes.

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