Tamworth council to get its day in court in last ditch attempt to stop Hills of Gold wind project

The Tamworth Regional Council will have its day in court next year to contest the Hills of Gold wind project. On Thursday, a five day hearing was set for March 19-25 in the Land and Environment Court New South Wales (NSW), and two of the sittings may be held in Tamworth.

The council is appealing against planning approval issued a year ago, arguing that it doesn’t have enough information to approve the road upgrades that will be needed to move tonnes of equipment and construction materials to the site. 

But while the two parties were able to agree on hearing dates, they have a long way to go to come to any consensus over the project itself. 

Registrar Sarah Froh called the two sides “wildly apart” as lawyers for the council and the Hills of Gold disputed each other’s facts.  

Today, the council lawyer said the Hills of Gold developer had indicated it might provide some amended roadwork plans, but backed out of that, although the council lawyer said it had been told by Hills of Gold it reserves the right to amend them any time before the hearing. 

The council lawyer said the hearing is now being set with an “absence” of plans, and the council wants Hills of Gold to have to be required to ask the court if it wants to bring any to the March court days. 

But the lawyer for the Hills of Gold project said his client never committed to changing the plans, and said there is already substantial information within the approved permit. 

Long history

The appeal against the Independent Planning Commission decision is the latest action the Tamworth Regional Council has taken to try to prevent Hills of Gold from being built.

The hotly contested project has been the centre of a bitter dispute between supporters and opponents that has dragged on for years, sparking a “Not in Nundle” campaign and featuring in an ABC 4 Corners investigation into wind planning issues.

Hills of Gold first won a recommendation from the NSW government planning department in late 2023, but for only 47 turbines, and a shrunken capacity of 290 megawatts (MW), down from 64 turbines in its final application and the 97 turbines originally contemplated.

The then project owner, Engie, initially welcomed that decision, but a few months later applied for 15 of the 17 turbines that had been removed by the department to be reinstated, arguing that without them the project was not commercially viable.

The IPC, to whom the project was referred because of the number of objections, found Engie’s argument to be supported by independent research and resumed its assessment of the project based on a revised 62 turbine proposal, and a 100 MW, four hour battery.

The project received a whopping 1122 submissions, of which 747 were against.

IPC approval followed in 2024 – and then the legal challenge.

A local group set up to oppose the project called Hills of Gold Preservation Inc launched the legal challenge soon after the IPC decision, and convinced the Tamworth Regional Council to join.

The council did join in March this year, only for Hills of Gold Preservation Inc to pull out shortly afterwards.

That left the council to carry the cost of the challenge – much to ratepayers’ disgust.

Someva Renewables, the developer behind the Pottinger wind project in the South-West renewable energy zone, bought Hills of Gold in September.

Someva managing director Jamie Chivers said at the time the first task would be defending the project against the appeal, saying it was a “questionable use of local ratepayers’ money.”

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