General News
30 January, 2025
Hundreds take a stand against wind turbines, associated transmission lines
Dr Webster says questions remain on decommissioning renewables.
Last week I wrote about the important Australia-wide message that the Grampians region is open for business, and sadly again at the time of writing some parts were closed again due to further fires.
Halls Gap and Pomonal remain open so please keep spreading the word.
I again commend the tireless efforts of the Country Fire Authority and volunteers who fight the fires and, in this latest instance, battle to protect Dimboola and other communities near Little Desert.
I attended Dimboola on Wednesday morning as it reopened and will be back in the region soon - if you want to be notified when I'm coming to your local area, feel free to sms 0447 186 893.
Even as the broader Wimmera volunteers pitched in to fight the fires, I was heartened that despite that, 200 people joined me attending the Warracknabeal football club on Wednesday night for a meeting of the Wimmera Mallee Environmental and Agricultural Protection Association.
Farming communities like Warracknabeal and Birchip are being railroaded into accepting wind turbines and associated transmission lines by companies that pay lip service to social licence.
Communities and their Shire councils alike are sceptical that the promised investment in their community, for instance fixing their local roads, will ever happen.
Big questions remain about who is liable to decommission the gigantic wind turbines - almost as big as the Eureka Tower!
If the wind turbine company has disappeared 25 years on, the farmer will be up for the estimated $750,000 per turbine decommissioning cost.
As one lady from Birchip aptly put, a farmer will be prosecuted if they shoot a single wedge tailed eagle but somehow, in the name of saving the planet, eagles, migratory and other birds are acceptable wind turbine collateral damage.
And dare I mention what higher fire risk do malfunctioning turbines pose?
I commend community groups like the WMEAPA for constructively and peacefully making their voices heard at all levels of government.