Renewable projects are 'tearing the bush apart'

That's the feeling of a local grazier, who has taken his concerns directly to the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) when it met in Kentucky on Thursday, March 14, to discuss the Thunderbolt Wind Farm.

Walcha grazier, Ian McDonald, submitted a letter to the IPC, which pleads with governments to stop putting 'renewable' targets ahead of the well-being of rural people.

"The ruthless rollout of wind and solar across our rural landscape is only made possible by absentee tenants hosting renewable energy developments such as Thunderbolts Wind Farm," he said.

"They are large corporations and Industry Superannuation Funds from the 'big end of town' ... without any duty of care for the anguish and human misery they are bringing about on rural people."

Mr McDonald said rural Australians felt oppressed, neglected and helpless in stopping "this runaway renewable juggernaut", which he believes is ruining his region's landscape and livelihoods.

"It is taking its toll, and although we have the resolve to never give in, I feel our resilience and health is waning as the juggernaut rolls on," he said.

"So much so, that anytime I attend meetings and run into people I haven't seen for a while, I can't help but think how much their body language and sometimes appearance has contracted since we last met.

"I know myself, from the time I get up in the morning until the time I go to bed, the rollout of wind and solar is foremost on my mind.

"Running my commercial farming business has now taken second place to the distraction of 'renewable' energy in my day-to-day life."

Mr McDonald said most of the general population doesn't have a clue about the real-life turmoil unfolding in rural Australia.

"The people sitting in board rooms don't give a damn about the people in the bush, but we are the ones bearing the brunt of this 'grand fraud' that we don't want a bar of," he said. "It's not a fair go, and it's taking its toll on our mental health."

Mr McDonald said people in his region feel little consideration had been given to the issue of mental health and government support has failed to keep pace.

He also said the community engagement forums were to tell residents what governments and proponents intended to do, with little dialogue resembling meaningful consultation.

"Whatever issues we raise are ignored, leaving us in a constant state of flux, without any tangible plan having been tabled going forward to the proposed construction phase of these developments," he said.

Mr McDonald fears for the future of Kentucky and the localities, villages, towns, and the inland cities of Armidale and Tamworth in the New England Region if these developments go ahead.

He is worried about the influx of itinerant workers to the region - driving away residents and businesses, the disruption caused to transport routes, the fall out from people leaving once the project is completed, and the following operational phase that would see more wind turbines built.

"We will be left with yet another ghost-like locality or town in our landscape," he said.

Mr McDonald is also concerned for what happens after the wind and solar farms have reached their use by date.

"We are told they will be decommissioned. But will they be decommissioned, or will they be left as stranded assets surrounding guttered communities without soul and set in a landscape resembling an industrial graveyard," he said. "Or will the government just compulsory acquire more land, and stealthily restart the cycle.

Mr McDonald said renewable energy was economically and ethically flawed, and had not been properly thought through, given it has too many unintended consequences to be fit for purpose.

"In their haste to roll it out, governments in being complicit with the 'big end of town' fail to recognise mental health as a major casualty," he said. "Government is driving its own people to relationship meltdowns and depression - leading to suicide.

"This nation cannot afford to let the social fabric of the bush be undermined any further by this travesty. And for this nation to prosper, we must regain a fundamental respect for an unspoiled landscape and regain a fundamental respect for our quintessential way of life."