WIND WARS
10 June 2024
Four Corners
ANGUS GRIGG, REPORTER: It’s free and clean and for centuries we’ve sought to harness its energy. Wind power is essential to meet our green energy targets. That means building one of these every day for the next six years. But we’re failing badly …. we’re not even half-way there. Are we on track to meet our 2030 targets?
SIMON CORBELL: As it stands now, no, we’re not.
ANGUS GRIGG: We believed the climate wars were over.
KELLY O’SHANASSY; I’m not sure they are. I think they have a new focus and that’s renewable energy.
ANGUS GRIGG: Complicating and slowing down approvals…. is a maze of over-lapping planning regimes and complicated regulation …
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: I think we’re going down the wrong path. We can’t destroy biodiversity to save the planet.
ANGUS GRIGG: It’s dividing communities …
MEGAN TROUSDALE: I think there’s been bad behaviour on both sides.
CHERYL SIPPLE: Well If that behaviour went on in school, your child would be expelled.
ANGUS GRIGG: And seeing old enemies form new alliances.
COLIN BOYCE: Coal is king here in Central Queensland.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: I shake my head in disbelief. I cannot believe that I’m in this situation.
ANDREW BROWN: I’ve seen hardnosed capitalists become greenies. I’ve seen greenies become NIMBYs and I’ve seen NIMBYs become, I don’t care.
ANGUS GRIGG: In this episode of Four Corners we investigate why one of our cheapest and fastest ways to net zero has become so hard to deliver.
ANGUS GRIGG: In the old gold mining town of Nundle, nestled in the New England tablelands, plans for a wind farm began 14 years ago. As the country’s biggest power consumer NSW should be rapidly transitioning its energy grid, but it’s notoriously slow in approving new wind farms. It’s a protracted process that has fractured this tiny community. Jim and Sue Robinson own much of the country in the hills above Nundle. They thought it was a good place to build a wind farm.
JIM ROBINSON: It was just an idea I thought of when I was riding me horse around, mustering cattle mate … me hat used blow off all the time until I figured out to tie a bit of string around it.
SUE ROBINSON: Most of the wind turbines will go on this farm. There’s a few neighbours that are also getting them. But yeah, we will be the main landholder.
ANGUS GRIGG: If it goes ahead the Robinson’s will receive almost $1 million a year in rent for the next 30 years. So can you see the village of Nundle from here?
JIM ROBINSON: The village is actually behind that little mountain. That little hill there, the main part of the village. But yeah, I would imagine, from the main street of Nundle probably you would see the towers but it’s nine kilometres away.
SUE ROBINSON: It’s so isolated, it doesn’t affect many people and it’s really windy.
ANGUS GRIGG: Not isolated enough for some neighbours.
IAN WORLEY: So looking straight there where you can see where it’s been cleared on this side, along the top of that range there. That’s where the proposed turbines are for.
ANGUS GRIGG: Ian Worley is one of those neighbours.
IAN WORLEY: And then they will wrap, come from there, come right around and around the back there. So if you can see the trees up there, you’ll certainly see something that’s about 15 times taller than that.
ANGUS GRIGG: He’s firmly in the no camp.
Is that your sign?
IAN WORLEY: Yes, it is. That’s one of them. That’s the best I could come up with at the time.
ANGUS GRIGG: What’s been the effect on the local community?
IAN WORLEY: Massive. It’s like close to destroying the community. Nundle was a really cohesive community. People worked together. People wanted to work together. It’s caused arguments. It’s caused threats of violence, it’s caused boundary disputes. It’s caused people to threaten to shoot other people’s stock and things like that. So it’s you know, it’s, it’s in the realms of politics, religion and the wind farm. They they’re not to be spoken about.
ANGUS GRIGG: Just down the road is one of the families most affected. They say their farm will be ringed by turbines.
JOHN SYLVESTER: So yeah right the way round from here we’ll see nearly the whole wind farm.
ANGUS GRIGG: So how close is it to you?
JOHN SYLVESTER: So we’re about three 3 kilometres from the turbines here and our boundary goes up to within about 200 metres of the turbines.
SELENA SYLVESTER: The other concern is that we’ve got Ben Hall’s nature reserve which is one of the most pristine areas and is as it has always been, we’ve got the state forest and we’ve got the Crawney National Park and they interact which each other. That movement between those corridors is super important so putting an industrial site onto a mountainside like that will change that irreversibly.
ANGUS GRIGG: John and Selena Sylvester share a boundary fence with Jim and Sue Robinson, but they no longer speak.
JOHN SYLVESTER, GRAZIER: It’s certainly changed that dynamic. We used to get along pretty well but I’ve had some pretty abusive phone calls because I spoke up against it.
ANGUS GRIGG: Tell us about those phone calls what was said?
JOHN SYLVESTER: Basically just swearing and calling me names. Useless bastard, dunno what you’re doing. This is about, I’m just doing this for the community when it’s basically all about themselves, it is a big money grab, there’s no doubt about it. And they’ve tried to use the community as the catalyst to get it over the line.
JIM ROBINSON, GRAZIER: No, not true. No, sorry. John’s the one that abused started off by abusing me.
ANGUS GRIGG: What’s the animosity there?
JIM ROBINSON: I don’t like saying … jealousy.
ANGUS GRIGG: Do you think he’s jealous of the money that will come to you if this wind farm goes ahead?
JIM ROBINSON: Partly. The worst part about it is that in the first place I was willing to share to put a lot into the village. But I’ve lost interest. The way we’ve been treated over the years, I’ve lost interest in doing that.
SELENA SYLVESTER, VETERINARIAN: I think the difference between this project and other projects that I’ve looked at is that we have one major landholder which is going to benefit the most.
JOHN SYLVESTER: And so the land has been progressively bought and nearly every one of them is involved in the wind farm.
ANGUS GRIGG: He said that you’ve bought up these large tracts of land specifically with a wind farm in mind.
JIM ROBINSON: Totally wrong. A hundred percent wrong.
ANGUS GRIGG: In town, the community is as divided as the farmers.
MEGAN TROUSDALE: Sure, yeah, there’s people I don’t feel comfortable talking to anymore because what is there to say?
ANGUS GRIGG: Megan Trousdale runs a high-end homewares shop and is among the most vocal opponents of the wind farm.
MEGAN TROUSDALE, Business Owner: Look, it’s a very small town, and when there’s conflict, you have to run into people every day. You’re running into people at the post office, when you’re buying your milk, it’s unavoidable.
ANGUS GRIGG: Is it awkward?
MEGAN TROUSDALE: Yes, it’s awkward.
ANDREW BROWN, Business Owner: I do have empathy for the people that are opposing the wind farm. I just disagree with them. I think it’s too important.
ANGUS GRIGG: At the other end of the main street, cafe owner Andrew Brown is in the yes camp.
What’s their main concern?
ANDREW BROWN: Visual amenity. I think it purely comes down to that they like their views, which are sensational views, and in their opinion it’ll be detracted by, I don’t think so. I think wind farms themselves are a technological marvel and I don’t find them ugly.
MEGAN TROUSDALE: I remember my husband sort of, you know, going to our back window of our house and just looking at the range and saying, well, that’s where it’s going. So as it was assessed, there would be 14 turbines visible from our house.
ANGUS GRIGG: Is it visual amenity that is the main issue here?
MEGAN TROUSDALE: The main issue here is environmental. You know you’ve got issues to do with soil stability, you’ve got issues to do with water catchment, you’ve got neighbouring national parks, you’ve got steep country, you’ve got missing information on access roads. There’s a lot of issues before visual.
ANGUS GRIGG: The Nundle Bowling club is caught in the crossfire of warring neighbours and rival factions.
CHERYL SIPPLE: The club’s been here since 1957. We’ve got about 107 members, 10 bowlers. We’re open Saturday nights, bistro Wednesday and Sunday for bowls, and we’ve about half a dozen volunteers.
ANGUS GRIGG: Cheryl Sipple is the Club’s Treasurer.
CHERYL SIPPLE: We all do the green, at present I mow, my Uncle Max helps. So that saves the cost of paying somebody. It’s the only way you can do it.
CHERYL SIPPLE, TREASURER, NUNDLE SPORT & REC CLUB: The Wind farm’s been marvellous for us. Last year they paid our building and contents insurance, which came to about $11,000. We had another $3,000 grant, which paid for a new deep fryer.
ANGUS GRIGG: Without this support Cheryl says the club would struggle to stay open.
JOHN SYLVESTER: So nobody actually wants to go there. That’s why the bowling club’s failing so that would be their lifeline, but because of what goes on there now, nobody wants to go. That’s the difference.
CHERYL SIPPLE: Some people, if you don’t have their opinion, then you are the enemy. I just can’t work out why they’re upset. This is only a good thing for the town and everybody. I mean, coal’s coming to an end and you’ve got to have other things in place.
ANGUS GRIGG: That need to replace coal has brought one of the world’s largest power producers, French giant Engie, to Nundle.
SCOTT DE KEIZER: So here’s the Hills of Gold wind farm …
ANGUS GRIGG: Scott De Keizer is Engie’s head of development in Australia.
SCOTT DE KEIZER: So this initially it was a 95 turbine project, it then went down to sort of 70 odd in the in the first amendment of the project. Now we’re looking at hopefully that there will be 62 turbines. I think most wind farms are contentious. They polarise communities. So Nundle is no different to other communities in that respect.
ANGUS GRIGG: This polarisation has seen the approvals process drag on for six years … and it’s not done yet.
SCOTT DE KEIZER, ENGIE AUSTRALIA, HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT: We should be able to get wind farms over the line in three to four years. That’s I think a really good outcome for the industry. And it means we still do our due diligence, we still do the work.
ANGUS GRIGG: New South Wales is well shy of this mark.
SIMON CORBELL, CEO CLEAN ENERGY INVESTOR GROUP 2020-24: There’s no doubt that the New South Wales planning system for the past decade has been one of the most unhelpful for new wind farm development in the country. At the moment, we’ve got a planning scheme in New South Wales that is not fit for purpose.
ANGUS GRIGG: One hold-up in Nundle came from a so-called phantom dwelling. Shortly after the wind farm began its crawl through the planning process, one neighbour lodged paperwork to build a house.
SCOTT DE KEIZER: It is on the fringes of our wind farm and it’s quite opportunistically placed and the impact ultimately is that 11 high yielding high quality turbines could be removed from the project on that basis.
ANGUS GRIGG: So a single development application over a house that may never be built has potentially held up your project by two years?
SCOTT DE KEIZER: Yes, potentially, yes.
SIMON CORBELL: The fact that it’s potentially able to be built means it must be taken into account by the developer. We can’t have a planning scheme that’s allowed to be gamed in that manner. That sort of provision should be removed from the planning scheme.
ANGUS GRIGG: Engie is confident approval for its wind farm could come within weeks.
ANGUS GRIGG: So if this wind farm gets approved, what does it mean for you?
MEGAN TROUSDALE: Well, it’ll mean that we close our business and we’ll have to seek other income.
ANGUS GRIGG: Why would you close your business?
MEGAN TROUSDALE: Because it’s going to have such an impact on the tourism of our town that it will reduce the income of our business to the point where it wouldn’t be viable.
ANGUS GRIGG: Really?
MEGAN TROUSDALE: Yes.
JOHN SYLVESTER: I really dunno what we’re going to do, whether I can stay here and live underneath it, I don’t think I can either. So we could be gonna sell it and try and get somewhere else, but I dunno where you find another place like this is the trouble.
ANGUS GRIGG: How upsetting is that?
JOHN SYLVESTER: Yeah, big.
SUE ROBINSON, GRAZIER: They are going to see turbines on the ridge. Someone’s going to see turbines on a ridge somewhere. Someone’s got to host them. Is that going to be the worst thing that happens to any of us in our lifetime that we have to look up to a ridge line and see a turbine? And this is where I think we all got to do this reality check.
ANDREW BROWN: My daughter pointed out to me that if I can’t stand up and fight for it, who will? What are we going to do in the future when my grandchildren ask us about the climate wars and all we can say is we fought to avoid our views being disrupted. It’s a no-brainer for me. You know, we have to do something and we have to do something fast.
ANGUS GRIGG: For Jim and Sue Robinson work on the farm continues …
JIM ROBINSON: We’ve done around 1800 acres we’ve mustered and ended up with around 400 head of cattle. It’s not easy work, but it’s enjoyable work.
ANGUS GRIGG: So do you really need this windfarm?
JIM ROBINSON: It’ll help us in bad times in good times, well, it’s not necessary. I suppose in bad times in droughts, last drought we had went on nearly for three years. It’s a comfortable living and, you know, don’t really need a wind farm. I’m happy to have it here. There’s no problems with that. But if it doesn’t go ahead. I’m not gonna. I’m not gonna lose any sleep over. It’s just going on too long.
ANGUS GRIGG: At the other end of the planning spectrum, in Queensland, the state government has introduced special regulations to fast-track wind farms. Developers have moved in …. often proposing projects in environmentally sensitive areas. This can trigger Federal government intervention, once again slowing the process down.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: The wet tropics world, heritage area is one of the most magnificent places on earth. It’s one of the most highly biodiverse places on Earth. For me, it’s, it’s a spiritual place. It’s a place that we need to treat with, with respect. I would walk in, camp, set up a base camp. If I find it very inspirational I’ll stay there for a couple of nights and explore the region.
ANGUS GRIGG: Steven Nowakowski makes his living photographing nature. He’s a life-long environmentalist now campaigning hard against wind farms being built in the forests of Queensland.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: I’m aware that my information, my photographs, my love of nature could be weaponized against the rollout of renewables and decarbonization. But what do I do?
ANGUS GRIGG: It’s this campaign that’s taken him deep into coal country, to the industrial city of Gladstone. This former Greens candidate is now embracing old foes. He’s teamed up with Colin Boyce, a federal parliamentarian who does not believe in climate change. Do you sometimes guys think that you’re a bit of an odd couple?
COLIN BOYCE: Steven is a noted ecologist, environmentalist if you like I am the same thing. I’m a grazier and a farmer. I’m a Boilermaker by trade. I am very passionate about being sustainable.
ANGUS GRIGG: What about you Steven?
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: I shake my head in disbelief. I cannot believe that I’m in this situation where I’ve got Bob Katter’s number on speed dial. To find myself in a National Party room talking about policy is foreign to me and it’s really bizarre.
ANGUS GRIGG: They will spend the next three days touring Boyce’s electorate with their anti-renewables double act. First up is a public forum at Gladstone’s Grand Hotel.
STAFFER: Hello how you going? What name please?
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: So thank you Colin and thank you everyone for attending tonight. I’m happy to talk to anybody and everyone about my energy journey.
ANGUS GRIGG: It’s a journey which began as a supporter of renewables, including Queensland’s first large-scale wind farm.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: It was a beautiful plateau just West of Cairns near Mareeba. It was a place of wildflowers, northern quolls and endangered plant species. But at the time it was like, okay, you know, we can sacrifice this for renewables. We can, we can turn our toasters on in the morning and we’re carbon neutral.
ANGUS GRIGG: Nowakowski says he’s not opposed to all renewables but cannot accept the sheer scale of these wind farms.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: You know, like I think we’re going down the wrong path in destroying forests to try to achieve an outcome which is decarbonisation. We can’t destroy biodiversity to save the planet, and they’re both hand in hand.
ANGUS GRIGG: For Nowakowski it’s a delicate dance. By questioning the location of wind farms, he’s providing ammunition for those opposed to climate action.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: If we just go back and to look at you know, building a new coal power, coal-fired power station here and there, you know, so there’s there’s no reason all. And Col that’s the message you need to take back to the LNP.
COLIN BOYCE: There are plenty of countries building coal fired power stations. Why is it we mine and export coal and sell it to China and don’t use it ourself.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: It’s all about planning. And you know, there is no plan, and we just need to plan where this stuff goes, where the renewables go.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Now you’ve just said during this whole presentation about you were misled and misinformed about renewable energy. Perhaps you should go back and look at the information about carbon dioxide is the real issue were talking about here.
COLIN BOYCE: We are delving into the whole realms of the whole climate debate and that’s somewhere we don’t want to go tonight. What I’m gonna do is wrap it up here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah I know I’m just saying we could be on this whole train to nowhere for no reason at all. Thats’ all I’m saying.
COLIN BOYCE: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your time and effort and thankyou for your attendance.
ANGUS GRIGG: One thing that seemed to be quite clear was that people agreed that there was actually a big future for coal.
COLIN BOYCE, FEDERAL NATIONALS MP: Well, I’m a big supporter of the coal industry. I’m on the record many, many times of supporting the coal industry. Coal is king here in Central Queensland.
ANGUS GRIGG: Can I tell you some of Colin’s views? So he’s a member of a thing called the Saltbush Club. They said that the climate crisis was a fraud. He signed an international statement to say that there was no climate emergency.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: So I totally disagree. Yeah, so I totally disagree, but I’m on this roadshow to show Australians what’s involved in going in trying to achieve net zero with 100% renewables.
ANGUS GRIGG: Is it that you oppose renewable energy or are you concerned about destruction of native habitats, biodiversity?
COLIN BOYCE: I have concerns in both areas. As we’ve seen in that presentation tonight, the environmental damage, the damage to flora, fauna, the footprint that these have, the industrialisation of what is literally high value wilderness if you like.
ANGUS GRIGG: Do you think Colin cares about the frogs and the owls and the birds?
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: No and, and there’s many politicians that don’t.
ANGUS GRIGG: I guess the concern is, are you, are you providing cover for those who argue that no action is required on climate change? Isn’t that your concern?
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: It’s a grave concern, yep, so it’s a grave concern and I’m not there representing the views of Colin. I’m representing what I’ve observed out in the field in terms of biodiversity loss in the rollout of these renewables.
ANGUS GRIGG: For Nowakowski the only answer to protecting high conservation areas … is nuclear. That would require extending ageing coal plants, while building a nuclear industry estimated to cost double that of renewables.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: Look, I’ve marched the streets against nuclear and I’ve had to relook at nuclear as, as a solution.
ANGUS GRIGG: What do you think of the tactics employed by someone like Steven Nowakowski?
KELLY O’SHANASSY, CEO, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: I’ve said to Steve, here’s the facts about nuclear and I think the information that you’re sending to others is incorrect on nuclear. But I think that if you love nature and Steve loves nature, you have to find a way to make renewables work because nuclear is not a solution.
ANGUS GRIGG: Kelly O’Shanassy is chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
KELLY O’SHANASSY: We often say that the climate wars are over, but I’m not sure they are. I think they have a new focus and that’s renewable energy. I think that the push against renewables that we’re seeing, particularly because it’s been so politicised, is very scary for me. I’m extremely worried about it.
ANGUS GRIGG: Those politics are also playing out inside the conservation movement. They’re wrestling with a dilemma. Where is the line between fighting for nature and pushing for a faster roll-out of renewables.
ANGUS GRIGG: I guess the criticism is that the green movement has been tepid or lukewarm in their support of particularly wind farms. Is that a fair criticism.
KELLY O’SHANASSY: I think the environment movement has been incredibly supportive of renewable energy and the idea of wind farms.
ANGUS GRIGG: Has there ever been a wind farm you’ve come out and supported?
KELLY O’SHANASSY: No, I don’t think we have. We we we are supportive of renewable energy. We want it in the right places. We tend not to get involved in project by project because there are hundreds of renewable projects in Australia.
ANGUS GRIGG: Isn’t it then incumbent on groups like yourselves, national leaders, long history, independent, to be more vocal, to roll the sleeves up.
KELLY O’SHANASSY: And that’s what we are doing absolutely on coming out of the corners and trying to find solutions to make sure that we are putting renewables in the right places and that nature is protected. That is what we’re working on.
ANGUS GRIGG: For a federal government, keen to push renewables into the grid, tough choices must be made. It approved the Lotus Creek wind farm in 2022 with conditions, despite the presence of five threatened species. Steven Nowakowski filmed this on a visit to the site.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: Yeah, so we’ve just pulled over by the side of the road. Lo and behold, a koala. This is Lotus Creek. Beautiful, beautiful intact forest. Stunning native grasses. Look beautiful orchids up here in the trees. Ironbarks. Look at that! It just beggars belief. Absolute insanity. This should be a koala national park, not a fucking wind farm. And we’re going to carve it up for green renewable energy. This is just fucking insane. So waiting for the dozers to arrive, and once they’re here, I can never, ever, come back here.
ANGUS GRIGG: But in April the Wooroora Station wind farm, with 13 threatened species, was knocked back by the Federal government. Its proximity to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area was cited as a major factor. That was a big win for Steven Nowakowski.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: So it’s very overwhelming and it really hasn’t sunk in yet because it was a really, it was a David versus Goliath battle, and so many community members and traditional owners put three years of hard work into it. It’s emotional knowing that, potentially we’ve got future generations that can come here and be inspired like I was.
SIMON CORBELL: We need reform to the federal environment law to take account of the benefits to the environment in terms of addressing climate change from new renewable energy developments. If it’s a yes or if it’s a no, that’s okay. The issue is let’s get a timely decision on those environment protection assessments.
ANGUS GRIGG: In Queensland, the state government is reviewing its own environmental rules. But for Nowakowski this fight is far from over.
STEVEN NOWAKOWSKI: I know what’s down the pipeline. There’s another 53 wind farms, and that’s what scares me is the fact that we don’t know where that endpoint is. And it’s, it’s the cumulative impact of all these.
ANGUS GRIGG: In the ocean 130km south of Perth, a new industry is being planned. It’s the next frontier for clean energy in Australia …. giant wind turbines offshore. They provide a larger and more reliable energy source and will help get Australia the last mile to net zero by 2050. The federal government oversees much of the planning process here.
ANDY EVANS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, OCEANEX ENERGY: We’ve already got state-based and commonwealth based legislation. Now with the newer offshore electricity infrastructure Act, which came in two years ago, we’ve got a whole extra layer we need to comply with. Projects simply will not get built if they have those major impacts on anything out there, whether it’s reefs, aquaculture, or the like, like anything in Australia. If it has those impacts and it’s proven through the assessments we go through and by regulators they do not get built.
ANGUS GRIGG: Andy Evans is a pioneer of the offshore wind industry in Australia. He’s co-founder of Oceanex, a company vying to build projects off the East and West coasts, each worth more than 10 billion dollars. Evans has self-funded a film about offshore wind.
ANDY EVANS: I’m Andy Evans and this is Planet Wind
ANGUS GRIGG: He made the film to help address what he sees as an information gap in a new industry.
ANDY EVANS: So look, they are incredible structures. Not only engineering, but looking at how humanity can capture something that Mother Nature has provided us.
ANDY EVANS: Once you do actually go out amongst an offshore wind farm, at first you’re blown away about how large and majestic they are. That’s my perception of it. And then after five minutes, you’re like, why aren’t we doing this more often? They do sit out there. They’re large capturers of electricity and energy. Look, seeing staff out there operating, maintaining them is incredible as well.
ANGUS GRIGG: Offshore wind was supposed to come with fewer community conflicts.
ANDY EVANS: So offshore wind was seen as a real way of freeing up, I suppose a lot of what you’d call the human issue. If they are out to sea less visible, you won’t hear them and it’s a much stronger energy resource.
ANGUS GRIGG: Long before a wind turbine is fixed to the ocean floor or a feasibility study has even begun, opposition groups have mobilised.
KYLE TRELOAR: Nah should be a good day not much wind yeah, shouldn’t be too much swell.
ANGUS GRIGG: Kyle Treloar is a Bunbury local and diving enthusiast. He worries the project will destroy the marine environment here.
KYLE TRELOAR: Hopefully get some good footage and yeah show the coral that’s kickin’ around out there.
ANGUS GRIGG: Plans are underway to build up to 200 wind turbines … not right here but at least 20km offshore. They’d be barely visible from the coast.
KYLE TRELOAR: It’s actually phenomenal reef that’s basically off our coast through here. And quite often we’ll be diving and we’ll shut the motor off and we’ll have whales come right up to the side of the boat.
ANGUS GRIGG: For Kyle this is his playground.
KYLE TRELOAR: My family’s dived and fished this area for three generations and we know what’s there. Honestly like I’ll be keeping them honest every step of the way because I know this, this is my backyard, this is my home.
ANGUS GRIGG: Kyle helps run an anti-windfarm Facebook group – with Martine Shepherd and Susanne Taylor-Rees.
MARTINE SHEPHERD: I am one of the campaign coordinators for Save Our Beloved Geographe Bay. Has anyone heard of our group?
ANGUS GRIGG: It’s grown to more than 6000 members in just a few months.
SUSANNE TAYLOR-REES, ANTI-WINDFARM CAMPAIGNER: Once you find out the damage that this will do to our marine environment, there’s no way you can be pro-wind turbines.
MARTINE SHEPHERD, ANTI-WINDFARM CAMPAIGNER: We hold a platform and represent all of WA and we are united with all of Australia so that’s not NIMBY.
ANGUS GRIGG: Their opposition to renewables is accompanied by a skepticism of climate change.
Do you believe that human induced climate change is dangerous?
MARTINE SHEPHERD: I think that focusing on reducing CO2 because that’s the cause of climate change is very questionable because we know that CO2 is an essential part of the greening process of this planet.
ANGUS GRIGG: So you don’t accept the science of climate change?
MARTINE SHEPHERD: No, no. I think that net zero talk and I think that saying carbon neutral is actually crazy.
ANGUS GRIGG: Shouldn’t you disclose that you don’t accept the science on climate change in commenting on whether or not there should be a wind farm there?
SUSANNE TAYLOR-REES: I think it’s totally irrelevant.
ANGUS GRIGG: This post from Susanne is clearly misleading. Even if the wind farm goes ahead this would never be the view from the beach at Geographe Bay. One of Martine’s posts has been blocked by independent fact checkers. Let’s see why. It is false information with no basis in fact. Alongside legitimate concerns about marine life are posts on everything from COVID conspiracies to climate change denialism and how offshore windfarms kill whales. It’s been widely discredited in the US that offshore wind farms kill whales.
MARTINE SHEPHERD: I disagree because I’m hearing from experts, people that have studied marine science, that studied cetaceans that have delved into this and the acoustics and the effect of them and how they have to navigate around wind turbine areas in our oceans and when they do that they put themselves a greater harm. So no. What we’ve done is actually support it with evidence that day after day whales are washing up on the shores of the United States.
KELLY O’SHANASSY: Not a single shred of evidence that offshore wind farms harm whales in the world. There are real legitimate concerns in those communities that are being weaponized. The whales swim very close to shore, so they’re not going to be anywhere near the 20, 30, 60 kilometres where the wind farms are being proposed. When you’re building the wind farm, you also need to be very careful about the timing of when you are doing certain activities. So it’s not as whales are passing by and affecting their sonar.
ANGUS GRIGG: A prominent member of the group is Alexandra Nichol, a former Liberal Party staffer who claims renewables are ‘government sponsored fraud’.
ALEXANDRA NICHOLS: Wind turbines are just big washing machines for laundering your money to foreign interests.
ANGUS GRIGG: Many of her views have been adopted by Susanne and Martine.
MARTINE SHEPHERD: The Federal government subsidises each wind turbine somewhere between 600 and 900 dollars per turbine per year for not functioning.
ANGUS GRIGG: Sorry. How is that the case?
MARTINE SHEPHERD: That’s a statement that was put forward. And this is from the federal government statistics by Alexandra Nichol.
ANGUS GRIGG: So do you know Alexandra Nichol’s background? She’s a known anti-wind farm campaigner who’s been linked to the Waubra Foundation, which is an anti-wind farm lobby group with links to the fossil fuel industry.
MARTINE SHEPHERD: I dunno what you’re talking about.
ANGUS GRIGG: Alexandra Nichol was a director of the Waubra Foundation for a decade until it shut down in April this year. It was founded by a long-term fossil fuel executive.
MARTINE SHEPHERD: What I’d like to acknowledge is her courage for breaking silence about the corruption and the fraud of this government. That’s what I like to say.
SIMON CORBELL: I think in many ways there are forces at work that are seeking to hinder the energy transition and are putting resources into doing that and aligning themselves with genuine community concerns, but also exaggerating them and also firing them with a level of misinformation, which is very difficult to counter.
ANDY EVANS: I think once people actually start seeing a lot of studies being undertaken, now that we’ve got licences that have been handed out only a few weeks ago, I think it’ll really step up and people will start seeing through a lot of the misinformation out there and see the incredible opportunity that we’ve got.
ANGUS GRIGG: This is one of Australia’s newest wind farms … near the tiny settlement of Rye Park in south-western NSW. After more than a decade it’s almost finished. Grazier Paul Cavanagh has four Turbines on his property.
PAUL CAVANAGH: Copy Daryl. We’re gonna head out to the wind farm today … It’s amazing engineering and the fact that these machines are just turning away there producing enough power for about 4,000 homes per turbine. There’s no continual traffic of coal feeding a mine, there’s no worries about any pollution or there’s no nuclear waste.
ANGUS GRIGG: It will provide a group of 22 landholders as much as 40 thousand dollars a year for each turbine on their land.
PAUL CAVANAGH: For us it means that we’ve got a passive income for our farm. We’ll be able to put that back into our land. C’mon puppies, let’s have a bit of a run.
ANGUS GRIGG: What’s the country like around here?
PAUL CAVANAGH: The country around here is low productivity. Basically it’s grazing only at best. I mean, you can see here that like the soil that was only like half metre of less than half a metre of soil. So it’s really, it’s not soil, Yeah. It’s just rocks basically. I think this is a perfect use for this land.
ANGUS GRIGG: The last blades at the Rye Park Wind Farm were attached just weeks ago. Right now wind provides 11 gigawatts of our power needs … this will need to more than triple by 2030. Ultimately, this was deemed a well-located project with minimal environmental impact… and its benefits are being shared around.
SIMON CORBELL: There was opposition to wind farms in this region over the last couple of decades. But I think now the lived experience of landholders and of the town communities is that these projects overall bring significant benefits.
ANGUS GRIGG: But it’s taken too long.
PAUL CAVANAGH, GRAZIER: I guess the hard bit is the 10 years beforehand of jumping hoops, the company having to jump hoops to get through regulations and tick every box and then have the goal post move on them several times as well. Just knowing that this could be up and running many years ago, but it just, it just faced a lot of hurdles.
ANGUS GRIGG: Many of those hurdles remain making it harder for Australia to meet our clean energy targets and keep the lights on.