It was standing room only at the Yea Country Club with over 200 people coming to hear about Fera’s proposed wind farm and high voltage transmission line project in the region.
Members of the Yea and surrounding districts have only recently become aware of Fera’s industrial scale wind farm proposal which includes a 330kv transmission line connecting the proposed wind turbines in the southern Strathbogie ranges to the main Melbourne – Sydney transmission line somewhere between Glenburn and Alexandra, potentially impacting a very large number of landholders in this area.
To fill the vacuum of information left by Fera, who have not consulted with the community beyond a small number of individual landholder conversations, the Strathbogies Responsible Renewables Community Group (SRRCG) was asked to present an information session to the Yea and districts community.
SRRCG Secretary, Darryl Otzen provided a detailed overview of Fera’s proposal from the understanding of the SRRCG, including the ways in which the project has been modified since investigations began in 2019. The presentation can be viewed here - Yea Presentation April 20
There were a number of questions and concerns raised after the presentation covering technical issues related to the transmission lines and associated infrastructure and other issues including:
Bushfire safety and concerns about the potential for aerial fire fighting to be impacted by the turbines and transmission lines. Aerial firefighting in the hilly and inaccessible Strathbogies is increasingly becoming the first line of attack and the community is rightly concerned about their safety should this development reduce aerial firefighting access.
The Victorian Government’s recently announced Development Facilitation Program which is an accelerated assessment and approval process for government priority projects including renewable energy developments. In effect, this process removes any right for the community to object to a proposal and projects get signed off directly by the Planning Minister bypassing many of the current assessment processes.
Murrindindi Council’s role – although it is not formally involved in the approval process, Council will be consulted by Planning authorities and the audience felt strongly that it should be advocating for the impacted community. A key role that Council does have is to recognise the significant value of the landscape including its environmental, cultural heritage and agricultural and tourism values in its planning scheme. This would protect it from inappropriate developments such as Fera’s proposal.
An audience member called for a show of hands from those who were opposed to the project, and it was clear that there was unanimous opposition. This is supported by results from a community survey run by the SRRCG in July/August 2023 which showed only 6% of 201 respondents supporting the project. This survey has been re-opened until May 6 or the Yea and districts community to have their say Community Survey April 2024
There was interest from the audience in forming a group of community members from Yea and surrounding districts to work together with the SRRCG.
Click here to access the presentation file used at the Yea community meeting