Hills of Gold wind farm advances despite council and community objections

This week the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) gave the go-ahead for ENGIE's Hills of Gold wind farm in Nundle.

After nearly a year of back-and-forth debate, the project will now go to the state's Independent Planning Commission (IPC) for final review.

"We're very excited and looking forward to seeing it progress," ENGIE's general manager of asset development and delivery, Leigh Newberry, said.

Mr Newberry said he was hopeful the IPC review would wrap up by March 2024, allowing the company to begin construction next year.

But it's not all good news for the multinational utility company.

Part of the DPE's conditions includes the removal of 17 of the project's 64 turbines due to "unacceptable impacts on visual amenity, biodiversity and Ben Halls Gap Nature Reserve".

The DPE said the scaled back version of the project would generate enough electricity to power about 150,000 homes and save more than 800,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Local opponents to the wind farm say the project won't be "acceptable" no matter how many turbines are removed.

"Our focus is continuing to object to the project. We don't want the environmental impacts of this proposal happen," secretary of Hills of Gold Preservation Inc Megan Trousdale told the Leader.

"The two main issues are the lack of engineering details for the western connector road and the transverse track. The proponent hasn't provided evidence of how it intends to build those roads. If it doesn't know how it's building them, how does it know the environmental impacts?"

Ms Trousdale says the community was concerned with the impact of earthworks on the critically endangered Ben Halls Gap Sphagnum Moss Cool Temperate Rainforest, as well as endangered birds, bats, and koalas.

"We will be expecting a very strong objection from Tamworth Regional Council at the IPC public meeting and in the submissions because there are very serious issues that haven't been addressed," she said.

Tamworth council has been fighting the wind farm for multiple years based on a number of considerations from the suitability of the site to its impacts on heritage features in Nundle.

Council says despite being compelled to outline the terms of an "in principal" Voluntary Planning Agreement with ENGIE, it still maintains its strong objection to the project.

"We are quite clear and have been very clear as an organisation that it's the wrong place for those windmills," Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said at council's latest meeting.

"Everybody around this table has made their position quite clear. The staff have made their position quite clear. It's with the IPC. They'll make a decision based on whatever."

When asked about local opposition to the wind farm, Mr Newberry said ENGIE "will continue to engage with them and try and make the transition for energy as smooth and beneficial to those local communities in the regions as we can".

He also said "in the worst case scenario," the company will accept the removal of 17 turbines as outlined by the DPE.

But Mr Newberry pushed back on the claim that the local majority is against the Hills of Gold wind farm.

"We're seeing more positive engagement, particularly in the Nundle region, with businesses that are really excited about change and an influx of people with a different skill set and from a different demographic into that society," he said.

Mr Newberry encouraged any locals with concerns about the project to drop by their community hub on Jenkins Street, open every Friday.