15th May, 2008
By Nicole Mayne, Geelong Advertiser.
An opponent of the proposed wind farm at Mt Pollock, near Inverleigh, yesterday said her group had nothing to do with the attack on a $100,000 wind monitoring tower.
Kathy Russell of the Mt Pollock Landscape Guardians group said her members condemned the vandalism.
“We are trying to fight the wind farm but we will do it through the proper channels,” she said.
“We know nothing about this and the attack on the site was pointless.
“The monitoring tower has been there for two years why would we attack it now?”
Mrs Russell said she had no idea who could be responsible for the attack.
“This actually is bad for us because there seems to be a perception that we could be involved,” she said.
Mrs Russell said while the site was often described as near Winchelsea in the Surf Coast Shire, it was actually very close to Inverleigh.
“But they are in Golden Plains Shire so do not get a say,” she said.
“We are trying to get the message out that this will effect a lot more people than just those around Gnarwarre.”
Mrs Russell is forming a Mt Pollock Landscape Guardians group to co-ordinate the fight.
“We can only fight it on planning grounds whereas we think it needs to be debated at a much wider level,” she said.
“They are selling the wind farm to council as an answer to climate change and greenhouse gas but it is not.”
Mrs Russell said the benefits of wind farms were doubtful and there was even an argument that they were a net contributor to greenhouse gas build-up.
The group is preparing to argue its case before the Surf Coast Shire on June 17 but she believes the matter will end up in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“We would really like to see this go before an independent panel but because it is a bit under 30MW total output it does not need to,” she said.
DeFrock 
It is interesting that the Delburn project in Victoria also had it’s met mast ‘vandalised’ and the we who oppose the project were also blamed for it. It appears that this is common practice at wind facilities, it would be interesting to see how many sites this happens. The met mast here went up with no safety lights on it for low flying aircraft and then when the new one went up it has light’s on it. I wonder if the insurance companies paying for the new met towers/masts would be interested to know that this happens so often. Like your group we had nothing to do with the ‘vandalism’.
LikeLike