Wind farm Barnaby loves to hate sent to IPC with 550 objections, but even more submissions in support

The wind farm that inspired Barnaby Joyce’s “packet of poo tickets” pronouncement has been referred for assessment by New South Wales’ Independent Planning Commission, after attracting more than 550 public objections to its state development application.

But the 730 megawatt (MW) Winterbourne wind project, 6.5km north of Walcha, also attracted 770 submissions supporting the project across the two public submission periods – putting those in favour of its development at 56 per cent of the total whopping 1,371 submissions.

Almost half of all the submissions that gave a location were from more than 100km away.

The project has become somewhat of a lightning rod for community action in the Walcha area, sitting as it does inside the New England renewable energy zone and in Joyce’s federal electorate. 

The NSW wind farm, which has fended off targeted attacks by the now-One Nation MP and his wife, Vikki Campion, removed two turbines and relocated another 21, as part of a series of changes proposed to reduce the project’s impacts and boost its benefits.

In early 2023, the floridly anti-renewables Joyce attended a meeting hosted by local anti-wind group, Voice for Walcha, where he publicly denounced the wind farm’s Environmental Impact Statement as a “packet of poo tickets.”

Campion, meanwhile, contributed one of the initial 438 written objections to the wind farm – a lengthy submission that ranged through a list of creative concerns including the potential impact on farm animals.

“Anecdotally, landholders who succeeded in another court case fighting incessant industrial noise in Queensland claimed their animals, including dogs, cattle and sheep, exhibited signs of stress, including reduced lambing and calving due to consistent low-grade industrial noise,” Campion said.

“If this were not a wind farm, this proposal would be laughed out of any planning authority for the literal monumental environmental destruction it will cause.”

The project had to go through two public submission processes after the developer Vestas made substantial amendments following the first round.

The project heading into the IPC is one that wants to build up to 118 wind turbines, each with a maximum blade tip height of 230 metres and a combined maximum capacity of up to 730 MW.

Vestas expects a grid connection to come in this year, and to start building the wind project in 2027. 

Vestas still had questions to answer around issues such as roads and worker housing. In November, Vestas said it was working with councils on the upgrades to public roads, and looking at three options for housing its workforce including upgrading a caravan park, and building temporary accommodation.

A community benefits fund seeded with $1 million before building has started and plumped with $750,000 each year over the life of the project, and another $1000 for every megawatt that the final project exceeds over 600 MW, has been agreed with the Walcha Council and Uralla Shire Council.