The chief judge hearing a case against a contested but approved wind project in the New England region of New South Wales has accused the local council that is pursuing the case in the Land and Environment Court of having a “bee in their bonnet”.
The comments were made by Chief Justice Brian Preston in a preliminary hearing in the case brought by the Tamworth Regional Council against the proposed Hills of Gold wind project near the town of Nundle, and the approval given by the Independent Planning Commission in late 2024.
The now 372 megawatt (MW) Hills of Gold wind project has gained headlines because of the fierce opposition by some locals who led the “Not in Nundle campaign, a landmark ruling over the role of “phantom dwellings” in wind project approvals, and for the fact that council has taken the case to court, even after IPC approval.
The court case was initiated by a local opposition group, the Hills of Gold Preservation Inc, but they withdrew. The Tamworth Regional Council, however, decided to continue the case, focusing its argument over access routes to the project and its impact on local communities.
Council has argued that it didn’t have enough information to approve the road upgrades that will be needed to move tonnes of equipment and construction materials to the site. The case is due to be heard over five days from March 19.
In a preliminary hearing just over a week ago, Chief Justice Preston responded to the council’s argument that ecologists were needed to assess the potential removal of some trees on a suburban block.
“Seriously, is council willing to raise that as an issue of biodiversity where we get ecologists to go out and talk about taking out a couple of trees on a suburban block?” Preston asked of its legal team.
“Council has to make some hard calls here.  Is this a wise use of public resources to be fighting this?  I know they’ve got a bee in their bonnet about this case but it seems to me that they’ve lost perspective as to what it is they’re doing here.Â
“Are you seriously saying that we’re going to have the biodiversity experts go and have an analysis of the clearing of the trees on the suburban block in Nundle?”
Chief Justice Preston late accused the council legal team of raising issues “other than the issues that are in dispute”.
“It’s quite extraordinary when I think about the narrowness of the issues in this case that we have had to go into this degree of case management,” he said.
The case is being keenly watched by policy makers, planners, developers and communities in a state where just one wind farm is actually under construction, despite the pressing need to build multiple gigawatts of new wind and solar to support the transition from its ageing coal generators.
Many proposed wind, solar and battery projects in NSW are forced into a review by the Independent Planning Commission if there are more than 50 objections. In many of these cases, the majority of the opposition – in some cases all of it – come from critics who do not live within 100 kms of the project.
The Hills of Gold wind project – now owned by Someva Renewables – is one of the few projects that has a large number of local opponents, although the project was approved by the IPC and the state government in late 2024. The 930 MW Valley of the Wind project, owned by Acen Australia, is also facing a legal challenge from a neighbour.,
The NSW government recently stepped in to put three key wind projects off limits to legal appeals after a ruling by the IPC.
Planning minister Paul Scully asked for the Dinawan, Bullawah and Winterbourne wind projects to be handled as public hearings, a rarely used route through the IPC that prevents merit appeals through the courts afterwards.Â
It is the first time a renewable energy project will be put through a public hearing process, as opposed to the IPC’s usual route of a public meeting.
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