How a local council is striving to become Australia’s “poster child” for offshore wind

The Wellington shire in Gippsland has what many other councils in Australia would kill for: time. 

It’s where Victoria’s first offshore wind electricity will emerge from the ocean and as such has had nine years to get used to the idea and start planning.

Residents are receiving the kid-glove treatment from developers and VicGrid, which is managing the huge transmission rollout in the state, and the shire council is already deeply into planning how to accommodate a new industry with maximum local benefits and minimum unintended fallout.  

But the very long timeframes are also testing locals’ patience, says Wellington shire mayor Cindy Madeley. 

Delays, such as the unexpected postponement of the first tender for offshore wind financial support until August this year, are chipping away at Gippslanders’ faith in the dream they’ve been sold for so long, she says. 

“The community can be like, ‘This was supposed to happen years ago.’ So there can be a frustration of, why is it so slow,” Madeley tells Renew Economy. “And then, potentially, you can start to lose some of that social license that you obtained in the beginning.

“It’s nice from a planning perspective, to have that timeline, but from a community perspective, I guess it can be a little bit frustrating,” she says.

In places like Golden Beach, which also has a proposal for a gas plant fed by offshore wells, residents are suffering from acute consultation fatigue.

The offshore wind journey for Gippsland began in 2017, when the then-local proponents of the 2.2 gigawatt (GW) Star of the South project began tossing around the idea. 

Change came quickly after 2021, when the Coalition federal government introduced a bill to make offshore wind possible in Australia, and has continued apace until feasibility licences were awarded in 2024 for the Gippsland zone – the first in the country.  

Since then, Victoria has put in place targets of at least 2 gigawatts (GW) by 2032, 4 GW by 2035 and 9 GW by 2040. The state Labor government has also set the date for the revenue-supporting contracts-for-difference auction to take place in August, and work is well underway on planning out the onshore transmission. No quite so advanced are the plans for the main port where the projects will be built from. 

Today, there are nine offshore wind projects proposing 18.5 GW of generation still working on plans for their spots in the Bass Strait.

Show us the money

The excitement has dimmed as, Renew Economy understands, offshore wind-adjacent industries and consultants shed jobs or switch to other forms of renewable energy. 

But for councils, the work is now getting interesting. 

The Wellington shire has had plenty of time to get ready, publishing a renewable energy impact study in 2023 that put jobs, housing, community readiness and infrastructure at the the top of the to-do list, and backed last week’s offshore wind plan which focused on similar issues. 

In February, it voted to lobby for offshore wind companies be included in payment in lieu of rates, or PILOR, to cover the cost of the onshore infrastructure, such as roads, they will use.

Madeley says early studies at a state level lumped local governments in with sports clubs and community groups for handouts from benefits funds.

“We want to make sure there’s a distinct difference so we’re not lining up with your Woodside Football Club and the local Lions Club,” Madeley told Renew Economy.   

“We want to make sure that there’s a clear economic return coming into the local government areas… Because we are supplying the infrastructure and bearing the brunt of making this electricity.

“I’m advocating quite, quite hard to make sure that policy is really clear, the framework’s there and it’s in place before they start building.”

That cash will go straight into the kinds of community spending other councils can only dream of, from child care to road improvements to planning for a future of higher populations which need housing, she says.

Our turn

Gippsland’s energy wealth has long been locked up in its coal triangle of the Loy Yang, Hazelwood and Yallourn mines and associated power stations. 

Even today, two thirds of the 33 onshore projects bigger than 40 megawatts (MW) that industry data website Renewmap says are in Gippsland, are batteries built to take advantage of the region’s strong network.

The Wellington shire has just one onshore wind and one battery project bigger than 100 MW and six others between 40 MW and 80 MW. 

The prospect of finally sharing in some of the region’s energy wealth is enticing.

“There is potential to reshape our region. Up until this point, [the] majority of electricity production has been happening in Latrobe Valley. I think this is Wellington shire’s chance to really contribute and receive the benefits from offshore wind,” she says.

“If we can have local people working, if we can do the education, if we can be seen as the poster child for offshore wind, this is how it can be done and done well… that would be an incredible legacy.”

Madeley’s tally of potential local jobs is currently at 1500, as well as industry investments into worker housing that that can be added one day into the local pool.

What she doesn’t want repeated is the housing crisis in 2010-12 when the desalination plant was built at Wonthaggi, leading to reports of rental price gouging saw locals unable to find housing and workers on the plant paying eyewatering rates for basic accommodation. 

Not all Gippslanders are for offshore wind, a fact Madeley is hyper-aware of as the council navigates how to wring the most benefit from the new industry while not appearing to be a cheerleader.

The Seaspray Windfarm Strategy Group is vehemently opposed to Jera Nex’s 1 GW Blue Mackerel project, about 10km offshore, while Better Transmission Gippsland wants all of the new network put underground.

Neither of these are issues the council has any power over, or wants to get involved in as an advocate as other councils in Victoria, such as Wangaratta, Buloke and Baw Baw, are willing to.

Madeley believes people just want clarity over what the new industry will mean for them and their community. 

“It’s not always as simple as people being for or against the wind farms,” she says.

“They want to know when it’s going to happen, what it’s going to mean for them. We’re making sure that they’ve hopefully gotten got an avenue that they’re being consulted with properly.”