General News
12 August, 2026
More to wind project than sports cash
MEERING West Wind Farm says it has made $200,000 in contribution to the local community. We are direct neighbours to the proposed Meering West Wind Farm project.
MEERING West Wind Farm says it has made $200,000 in contribution to the local community.
We are direct neighbours to the proposed Meering West Wind Farm project.
The project has been fast tracked through the government’s own Development Facilitation Program (DFP) and is currently excused from needing to complete an EES (Environmental Effects Statement).
This means it has reached the planning permit stage two to three years earlier than it should which has blindsided our community.
We expected a project of this size and significant environmental impacts due to proximity to lakes, Leaghur State Forest and the Kerang RAMSAR wetlands would absolutely be required to go through the highest level of assessment possible.
We are horrified that it is not, our community deserves better. If something is to be built, then it should always be built to the highest standards possible.
The truth is that the “community benefits” money paid by the developer to date is not free money given out of kindness. It is an acknowledgment of the negative impact that this project will have on our environment and communities.
Developers pay this money to buy community support from groups so they can write the names of these groups in their planning permit.
That is exactly what this developer has done. If you read through the permit there is a list of community groups who are “in support”.
They didn’t realise taking the money meant they would have their names in the permit documents as supporters but that is exactly what has happened.
We are personally involved with a couple of local groups who originally accepted money and have since revoked it after realising that it meant support for the project. More and more groups are choosing to make this choice now and forgo the money offered.
The real story here is not how much money the developer has handed out to buy community support, it is how much our community stands to lose from a project like this coming into our area and being built with very low standards.
Our roads will be put under extreme pressure and degraded beyond repair, our already stretched housing supply will become non-existent, our beautiful environmental assets like landscape, vegetation, lakes and forests will be degraded.
There will be huge negative impacts on the animal species that live here, some already endangered.
As neighbours, we will take on increased fire risk and insurance liabilities for industrial projects with foreign ownership.
This is not a small development. It involves 164, 280m tall turbines plus associated BESS and transmission lines. This project also happens to be only one of three major wind projects planned in the same area (Normanville Energy Park and Cannie Wind Farm).
The cumulative impacts of what three major projects will do to farming families who currently live here has been completely ignored.
We are one of many families who know we will be so heavily impacted by visual, acoustic, infrasound and other effects that we will probably have to leave our family home if any one of these three projects is built.
I’m not saying this for sympathy, I’m saying this because it is the ugly truth that the developer wants silenced.
These projects destroy lives. They divide communities, they tear apart lifelong friendships and they stop people who are already here, already running successful farming businesses and raising young families from being able to see the future in their own homes and farms.
We are currently busy pulling together submissions on the Meering West Wind Farm. We had been given 28 days to do so and public submissions are open until tomorrow.
We have experienced many frustrations over the past three years when it comes to trying to raise some community awareness around the realities of these projects.
There is much more to know than just the sponsorship of a local football club.
Read More: Meering West