Wind project to hand over worker village to First Nations community, and create new home for black cockatoos

A plan to build accommodation for 300 people at a major Western Australia wind project has been waved through the federal environmental process, with the promise to hand the facility over to Traditional Owners after construction, and to replace precious cleared black cockatoo habitat. 

The 489 megawatt (MW) Parron Maam Marang wind project has all of the requisite approvals and was waiting on a nod for the Badgingarra workers village, on the outskirts to the eponymous town in Western Australia. 

The village will be used for three years during construction, before being handed over to the Yued Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) who will run it for another seven years. 

“Beyond the wind farm construction phase, the facility may support other renewable energy or infrastructure projects or be repurposed for short-stay accommodation for tourism, regional events, or seasonal workers,” plans lodged with the EPBC say.

“This will provide YAC with a long-term commercial opportunity through income generation, asset ownership, and skills development.”

The Parron Maam Marang wind project is the brainchild of farmer and landowner Tim Stevenson and is being developed by Atmos Renewables. It’s one of four that was fast-tracked last week by the state.

The plan is for up to 79 Vestas wind turbines to be installed across 8,400 hectares of agricultural land currently used for pastoral grazing and cropping – the traditional lands of the Yued People – and connect to Western Australia’s main grid, the South West Integrated System (SWIS).

The village is due to be ready for work to start on the project by the end of this year, and be used until 2029 before being handed over to YAC.

“With a peak workforce of approximately 300 people, wind farm construction would place significant pressure on existing local accommodation infrastructure throughout the region if temporary accommodation is not provided,” the EPBC referral noted. 

Food for cockatoos

But if the accommodation will boost the town’s options in future, it will also have remove nearly 3 hectares of habitat rated “10 out of 10” foraging quality for Carnaby’s black cockatoos. 

In the accompanying offsets report, Zephyr Energy, jointly owned by Atmos and Stevenson, says it has a plan to replace this by restoring 4.3 hectares of land elsewhere on the site and putting a conservation covenant over almost 90 hectares of existing “high quality primary foraging habitat”. 

“The restoration program is designed to improve habitat quality from an existing score of 0 out of 10 to 10 out of 10 within a 10-year timeframe, including achieving greater than 30 per cent projected kwongan shrubland foliage cover,” the offset proposal lodged in February says.

“Intensive restoration works are expected to occur within the first three to five years.”

Accommodation sore spot 

Workers accommodation that can be repurposed into something that will be a long-term community benefit is one of the big bugbears for councils on the east coast – particularly in New South Wales (NSW).

Last year, the Muswellbrook shire laid down rules saying these villages must be near towns and be able to be converted for other uses after a project is finished, and they’re not allowed to include a bar, recreation rooms, or a gym – the council wants workers to integrate into the town when it comes to socialising rather than create social cliques. 

In Dubbo, the mayor expects to take back a Squadron Energy redevelopment of a former aged care home for reuse once the Uungala wind project is finished. 

In Queensland, developers are taking the initiative themselves in the absence of formal rules – Energy Estate has formed a joint venture to build 953 prefabricated, high-quality homes able to shift from single-room worker layouts to family housing.

Workers camps are costly and can be wasteful. Developers have to put in plumbing and electricity and then run it, and pull it all out when a project is done. 

The cost comes in at around $20 million for a typical camp, Re-Alliance national director Andrew Bray told SwitchedOn last year. 

The alternative is to put workers into local motels or rental homes, which denies locals access to limited housing stock and shuts down tourism. 

In Badingarra, the proponents are hoping to avoid that outcome with the village and create benefits into the future. 

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