Andrew Forrest wind farm gets federal green tick as debate rages over biodiversity threat

A 400 MW wind farm owned by Andrew Forrest and proposed for cattle gazing land in north Queensland has been given the all-clear to go ahead under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, despite an intense campaign against it.

The Gawara Baya wind and battery project, formerly known as the Upper Burdekin wind farm, is being developed on Gugu Badhun Country south-west of Ingham by renewable energy developer Windlab, now majority owned by Squadron Energy, which is itself owned by Andrew and Nicole Forrest’s Tattarang.

Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek announced on Wednesday that the wind component of the project has been approved following a “rigorous assessment process” and subject to “strict conditions” to protect the Sharman’s Rock-Wallaby and northern Greater Glider. 

The minister says the conditions also include clearance limits, hours of operation during construction, and submission of environmental management plans which will set out how any impacts will be managed, mitigated, avoided or offset.

The decision is one of a raft the DEECCEW has been working through, which have included what Plibersek claims to be a “record” number of approvals for renewable energy projects, as well as some notable rejections.

Among the rejects, Plibersek last month refused environmental approval for the 100 megawatt Kumbarilla solar farm, described by its proposed developer as being “surrounded by hundreds of gas wells” and a big processing plant in south-west Queensland.

Another, Ark Energy’s 294 MW Wooroora Station wind project in north Queensland was recently withdrawn from the EBPC process after being advised it would be refused by the department, because of its impact on biodiversity close to a World Heritage Area.

Some of the same groups that most fiercely opposed the Wooroora project have also been critical of the Gawara Baya wind farm, pointing to Windlab’s own environmental effects statement detailing the removal of 598 hectares of Sharman’s rock wallaby habitat, 614 hectares of koala habitat, 581 hectares of northern greater glider habitat, and 616 hectares of red goshawk habitat.

Windlab says it has addressed some of these concerns by shrinking the project’s footprint to half the original size – which stood at 136 turbines with a capacity of 600-950 MW – to avoid the habitats of key species and minimise the potential risk to others.

On a fact sheet on the project website, Windlab says the final design for Gawara Baya includes no more than 69 turbines, and occupies less than 0.3% of the project’s cattle property location with an operational footprint of approximately 147.9 hectares.

“The revised layout minimises… the overall footprint of the project by more than 50 per cent, avoiding discrete habitats for key species, and minimising the potential risk of habitat fragmentation and cumulative risk associated with another project proposed for the region,” it says.

Around 98% of the habitat available to species across the property will remain undisturbed for the life of the project, the company says.

It notes that Gawara Baya is located on land used for grazing cattle and these operations will continue alongside the generation of clean energy.

But news of the project’s EPBC approval has been slammed by some, including Planet Ark founder Jon Dee, who described the decision as “an utter disgrace” in a thread on social media platform X.

“[Tanya Plibersek] is allowing significant destruction of koala habitat. Yet she doesn’t mention koalas once in her media release boasting of the approval. This is the wind farm that Apple pulled out of last year,” he said.

“We need wind farms that don’t destroy critical habitat.”

Dee, who also took to X to denounce the nuclear plans announced by the Coalition on Wednesday, also retweeted the response on Gawara Baya from Rainforest Reserves.

One of the founding members of this group, which fought hard against Ark Energy’s Wooroora Station wind farm, is nature photographer Steven Nowakowski, who has been doing a speaking tour of the state with National Party MP Colin Boyce opposing wind energy and promoting nuclear.

As the ABC reports from one of these events, “Once Nowakowski’s presentation ends the federal MP polls the audience: Should the federal government be having an ‘open discussion’ about nuclear power? He says an ‘overwhelming’ majority were in favour.”

The ABC says audience members at a Gladstone presentation also questioned the science on climate change – questions Nowakowski “left unanswered.”

Critics of Gawara Baya also point to reports that the project lost a power purchase agreement with Apple in 2023 due to concerns about bad environmental PR surrounding the project. Windlab says a the PPA fell through due to a milestone miss, as development was taking longer than expected.

“Windlab welcomes the Federal Government’s approval decision for Gawara Baya, which will create up to 300 new jobs and inject more than $200 million into north Queensland’s economy,” said Windlab CEO John Martin.

“Achieving the approval milestone allows us to progress financial close, which will unlock major regional employment, supply and contracting opportunities and our 35-year, $200,000 annual Community Benefit Fund before the end of 2024.”

On koalas, Windlab’s report says habitat critical to their survival will be available in the project area, and it plans to use biodiversity offsets to compensate for the unavoidable consequences the wind farm will have on the species. The developer has also agreed to change the route of the transmission line and remove turbines to protect the Sharman’s rock wallaby.

“We have conducted extensive studies of all birds and bats in the project area and surrounds, to better understand the behaviour of species present, and how these may be affected by the sweep of the turbines,” Windlab says on its website.

“Any potential impacts must be assessed against modern, accurate data, and management approaches informed by important detail contextualising the strike risk compared to existing threats to birds and bats in the area. For Gawara Baya, some of these risks include feral cats, bushfire, and climate change.”

The project will also require 3,500 hectares of land with the right characteristics to be legally protected and set aside for the life of the impact, and Windlab says it is looking to secure more land over and above that for nature reserves. It has also committed to take part in CSIRO’s National Koala Monitoring Program.

Meanwhile, Plibersek will have some big decisions to make about proposed new coal mines and coal mine expansions in Queensland, which – according to a report published earlier this month – threaten tens of thousands of hectares of koala habitat.

The CQUniversity report finds large areas of koala habitat are directly located on mining leases for some of the largest coal mine expansions now proposed in Queensland, including an estimated 2,108 hectares of koala habitat on proposed mining leases for BMA’s Peak Downs Coal Mine Continuation.

An estimated 2,026 hectares of koala habitat was identified on proposed mining leases for BMA’s Saraji Coal mine expansions and 909 hectares of koala habitat on proposed mining leases for Whitehaven’s Winchester South Coal project.

*This article has been updated with comments from Windlab CEO John Martin.