Roma discusses wind farm pros and cons at public meeting

Around 90 people attended a public forum in the town last Friday night to become better informed on what having windfarms in their region would mean, for the host property, for neighbours and for the wider community.

It was prompted by the news that Victorian company Westwind Energy is proposing a 50-turbine development on 6000 hectares 16 kilometres north east of Roma and is in "early development activities".

According to their website they began monitoring the wind resource in 2021 and were anticipating lodging environmental and planning applications to the state government late in 2023.

Local resident Anna Bassett told the forum she believed the community had a right to disclosure, and had approached the council for a public forum.

"Because of their size and infrastructure, there should be a social licence," she said. "There's a lot underway but I don't think it's too late."

The meeting quickly learnt that the access and installation process was different to that experienced with CSG companies, in which companies were given a tenure agreement.

Brisbane-based solicitor Brian Noble, who was streamed into the forum, explained that wind farms have none of the legislative benefits that coal mines have.

"It's purely a contractual issue between a company and the farmer," he said.

In response to questions about confidentiality agreements, he said that while all leases had to be registered in the Lands Office, wind farms had rent deeds, giving them a means of getting round obligations to disclose agreements.

"The state government approves all wind farms, under a state code - it never gets to councils," he added.

While Goondiwindi mayor Lawrence Springborg and Western Downs mayor Paul McVeigh were unable to attend the meeting, South Burnett councillor Scott 'Hook' Henschen, who is responsible for that council's natural resource portfolio, had lots of lived experience to enlighten the meeting with.

As well as being a councillor, Cr Henschen is a primary producer in the Ironpot region west of Kingaroy and said wind farm developers were knocking on his door.

"It's a minefield, as a council, to get results for your community," he said.

"We share Coopers Gap with Western Downs.

"That has 97 towers, each with 11 component parts, requiring between 800 and 1000 cubic metres of cement - that's 12,000 agi trucks.

"The council negotiated with AGL and got $6m for road infrastructure, but that goes nowhere.

"That's got to do you for 20 years, and the council cost for waste levies is massive."

He also said that Coopers Gap was commissioned in 2019 and since then 54 towers had had couplings replaced.

"You don't monkey up them with a shifter - you need big gear."

Decommissioning costs and the question of who would bear the responsibility, given that companies could change hands many times in the lifetime of a wind farm, were bandied around.

Mr Noble said there was no sensible way for landowners to come up with a level of security against an operator going broke.

"That's up to the government. They do it with coal mines, there's no reason why they can't with renewable energy," he said. "It needs government intervention."

Maranoa mayor Tyson Golder said they'd been exploring the issue of rates payment if a landowner accepted a contract and the company then went into receivership.

"We've seen this with gas camps - we made representations for bonds to be put up," he said.

"In our experience of oil and gas, you were protected from any large cost. This is a different world. Oil and gas covered their own expenses."

Issues of workforce recruitment and water for dust suppression were also explored.

In response to a question from Warrego MP Ann Leahy about water requirements, Cr Henschen said the water used in the Coopers Gap project was "massive".

"They've put a few bores down - they use 3000ML a day, for dust suppression," he said.

"Eighty thousand tonnes of material is going through the South Burnett to the Western Downs - our roads are smashed to bits.

"You've also got to ask yourself where the workforce will come from, and where they'll live.

"Your council will have to live with the legacy."

Anna Bassett has family members who are living with the effects of a wind farm at Walcha in NSW, and said people needed to remember that once wind turbines had been erected, they were "no-go" for aerial ag spraying or flying helicopters nearby.

Maranoa Regional Council deputy mayor Geoff McMullen asked whether there was any effect on property resale values, and was told by Cr Henschen that wind farm companies were saying it would increase their value.

"For example, six towers - forward sell them, a guaranteed income," he said.

Mr Noble tempered that by saying that wind turbine lessors could pull out in 10-15 years if they thought there was no commercial return.

The Westwind Energy webpage says a sum of $100,000 will be designated to a Community Benefit Fund once the Bottle Tree Energy Park project begins operations at Roma, "facilitating yearly distribution within the local community, ensuring the project's financial benefits are shared with the community".

It also says the wind farm will provide an annual income for all host landholders.

"This economic boost to farmers enables them to secure supplementary income annually, for decades, through lease arrangements with the wind farm," it says.

"This income provides a stable addition to farming income and helps to counteract swings of commodity prices. This sustains the farming practice and diversifies farming revenue for years to come.

"The roads constructed for turbine access give landholders all weather access across their property which improves stock management practices and bushfire access."

Local chartered accountant Bill Sheehan mirrored former union boss and Prime Minister Bob Hawke's 2016 assertion at the Woodford Folk Festival that nuclear power was the salvation for a planet ravaged by global warming.

Mr Sheehan took to the microphone at Roma to say he was concerned by what he'd heard during the forum.

"I first went to the UK in 1979, where nuclear power stations had been for 20 years," he said. "With the resources we have in Australia, what's wrong with us."