General News
10 July, 2026
Neighbour claims he will be ‘heavily, negatively impacted’ by project
TYLER Nelson fears the Meering West wind farm will impact his Leaghur farm and says consultation with neighbours has been inadequate.
TYLER Nelson fears the Meering West wind farm will impact his Leaghur farm and says consultation with neighbours has been inadequate.
Mr Nelson, a strident campaigner against the project, this week said there had not been “any real genuine effort to engage with, and consult with, affected neighbours and community prior to developing a turbine layout for the project and locking hosts into contracts”.
“This is a process that occurred for years without wider neighbour community engagement,” he said.
“It is my understanding that neighbours, such as us must have buffer zones on their property now that they have not consented to and stand to be heavily negatively impacted against our consent if the project was to go ahead.
“I am not aware of any direct neighbours that have felt there has been adequate and fair consultation.”
Mr Nelson said Virya’s Meering West project processes fell short of the new community and engagement social value guidelines released by VicGrid.
“The project has been operating under their own rules that have not met community expectations. For this reason, this project needs to stop and cannot be allowed to gain access to a grid connection,” Mr Nelson claimed.
“I encourage anyone that has any contact with VicGrid, Virya, or any level of government representative to make the case that this project does not meet VicGrid’s own guidelines and therefore can’t be given access to the grid.”
“If VicGrid and the State Government are serious about enforcing any type of process that respects neighbours and communities then projects like these, that make up their own rules against community expectations, must be informed they will not get grid connection and must stop.
“The fact that VicGrid has finally come out with some guidelines has just confirmed what we have known for some time, projects like these have been making up their own rules, not meeting community expectations, and damaging the community in the process.”
Mr Nelson said the proposed wind farm was without “reasonable environmental setbacks for this large industrial infrastructure from assets such as Lake Meran lake complex and Leaghur State forest”.
“It must be remembered the site is between the Loddon River flood plain, Avoca River and floodplain, and south of the Kerang Lakes that include RAMSAR listed wetlands.
“The project developers know they have not met community guidelines set out by VicGrid and are now racing in an attempt to get their application in in the hope that they will be getting ahead of VicGrid’s ability to enforce the guidelines on projects.
“Given this current state Labor government is hell bent on steamrolling the regions with renewable developments to meet their own targets, no matter the damage or cost, then I fear that is another reason the developers will be pushing their process along. Trying to get ahead of the coming state election.”
I make the plea, to any hosts, please take this opportunity to put pressure on your developer to stop and go back and act in accordance with the guidelines now set out by VicGrid and established as community expectations. Please put some measures in place to protect neighbours and direct community and environment.
As I have highlighted before, developers know they and their projects (if ever built) will and are causing harm to neighbours and close community.
Instead of addressing issues of those most affected, developers look to buy off the community with things like a community energy benefit program’ and sponsorship of local clubs and events.
“To those receiving money, please be aware these projects are not even operational yet or even passed all the approvals. Accepting money is a show of support for their project and their past and present actions, many of which are and will cause harm.
Ultimately, we need to remember these developers are profit driven and looking to develop a project to a point it can be sold on, bank their profit, and move on. They won’t be here in the future to pick up the pieces,” Mr Nelson said.
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