Small victory for big wind project navigating tough state planning laws

Plans to build a wind farm near the coal town of Millmeran in Queensland’s Toowoomba region are still alive and kicking after the local council granted a lifespan extension for a meteorological mast at the proposed project site in Captains Mountain.

The up to 252 megawatt (MW) Captains Mountain wind farm is being proposed for development by Danish giant Vestas on land near the Millmerran coal fired generator – one of the youngest coal power plants in Australia’s remaining fleet.

The up to $700 million project joined the queue for federal environmental assessment in March of 2025, and proposes to install up to 35 wind turbines on land predominantly used for cattle grazing, animal husbandry and related rural activities.

This week’s approval of a change to the development application, small though it might be, is a positive sign for the proposed wind farm that it has council’s support, a factor that carries more weight than ever under Queensland’s current renewable energy planning and development rules.

In its most recent community newsletter, the Captains Mountain team said it continues to work closely with Toowoomba Regional Council to finalise the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and to make a start on a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) under the “updated requirements.”

“Our team is steadily working through the remaining steps of the assessment process, and we expect to lodge our development application once all documentation is complete,” the newsletter says.

Queensland’s updated planning framework for renewables projects was unveiled by the LNP government last year after it ripped up the state’s official renewable energy targets, cancelled the approval of two proposed wind projects, and “called in” a number of other wind and battery projects whose fate remains undecided.

The crackdown on planning approvals has been led by planning minister and deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie, and effectively provides veto rights on new projects to local councils.

Vestas says it has identified the Captains Mountain area for its strong wind resource and is using a range of innovative instrumentation and data analysis techniques to model the resource characteristics at the proposed site – including via the meteorological masts, or metmasts, that were the subject of the recent council vote.

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