Tractors meet Mumblin Wind Farm proponents at Ecklin Community Hall drop-in meeting
20th June 2022
by Jessica Greenan, The Standard
A convoy of tractors rolled up to a tense meeting between south-west residents and the developers of a wind farm near Cobden on Saturday.
A migration of 15 machines with signs including “No Wind Farms Here” and “No Turbines Near our Homes” journeyed to Ecklin Community Hall where Mumblin Wind Farm proponents were holding drop-in meetings.
The rally was organised by the Ecklin-Elingamite-Glenfyne Community Association Stop Mumblin Wind Farm group.
In a statement, the group said developer RE Future Pty Ltd’s 10 proposed turbines would “impact on existing farming operations, damage the rural lifestyle, threaten swamps and local birds, cause noise and shadow problems and reduce land values”.
Elingamite north dairy farmer Linda Morgan said the group wasn’t against renewable energy but rather the location.
“RE Future set it up for one-on-one consultations but it was an opportunity for us to bring our tractors and show this is agricultural land and we want to protect it,” she said.
“We’ve written to the company and asked questions but had no response, so we’ve come here today to get some answers. This could have been avoided with earlier consultation.”
Project director Severin Staalesen said consultation was thorough and the company had committed to hold another open event in the coming months with Corangamite Shire Council following Saturday’s meeting.
“So far we’ve conducted over 70 face-to-face meetings with people in local area and we’ll continue to meet with anyone who wants to talk to us throughout the entire development process,” he said.
“As with all our wind farm projects, we started the consultation process by sending an information pamphlet to everyone living within five kilometres of the project which contained an overview of the proposed project, our contact details, and an offer to visit anyone who wants to talk to us.
“Following this mail-out we knocked on every door within three kilometres of a proposed wind turbine location and offered to meet with the resident at a time that suited them.
“We then sent a second information pamphlet approximately six months later to every house within five kilometres of the project and once again knocked on every door within three kilometres of a proposed wind turbine location.
“In addition to the two newsletters and 70 face to face meetings, on Saturday 18 June 2022 we held an open day so that local residents could talk directly to company representatives about the wind farm.”
Hi all Wind Farm Living,
You have to go to one these wind farm meetings to listen to the spin.
RE Future is a developer only – they have no idea of the problems wind farms generate
This mob just – prospect hosts, develops, builds, then sell off the wind farms as fast as they can.
They can stand up at a community meeting and spin any bullshit they like – because they won’t be around to deal with the flack.
Wind companies hate facing public scrutiny – their tactic is to sideline people in a one-on-one exchange.
In that way they can manipulate and control the narrative – they can observe the vulnerabilities, divert the conversation and pacify concerns.
In an open public meeting there are too many people to witness their lies.
Here’s some of the crap they served up at last Saturday at the Mumblin wf meeting
- They told the group they hadn’t applied for a planning permit – yet the Govt website clearly states they have.
- When tackled over the reduction in agricultural production due to farmers being unable to arial spray their land, RE Future bullshitted something about phoning up and the company and the company would turn the blades off when they wanted to spray. Really ? – They would switch the blades off every time a farmer wanted to arial spray a paddocks? Really ?? – will that be noted in the sale contract to the new owners of the wind farm ??
- They denied needing to agree to any building works within 1km of the wind farm boundary, then fessed up later that they had “standing” in the matter.
- They were not prepared to guarantee that any new owner of the company would honour the promises RE Future make to the community – so the promises are just empty promises.
- When asked about noise data – they replied using the word “reports”. The community knows that a noise report is empty rhetoric – a report has no data.
- They made a promise to hand over the data from the background testing – which is bollicks. No wind farm company has ever handed over their data. Peer Reviewers don’t even see the data – they just review the methodology.
- They agreed to allow the community’s choice of acousticians but would not sign a statement to guarantee the promise.
RE Future agreed to a second open community meeting in Cobden.
There are a lot more questions that require straight answers.
The Warrnambool Standard – missed the meeting – and are now playing catch up.
It seems The Standard has been marketed heavily by RE Future – The Standard did not included all community comments
Wind Farm Living
skilling people up with knowledge
DeFrock 