The Delburn Wind Farm that is proposed in the HVP plantation between Mirboo North, Boolarra Thorpdale and Hernes Oak has not yet applied for approval to be built.
Under Victorian law a planning permit is required to construct a wind energy facility and, depending on the location and impacts of the proposal, approval may also be required from the Commonwealth Government.
Where is the proposed Delburn Wind Farm up to?
The Delburn Wind Farm that is proposed in the HVP plantation between Mirboo North, Boolarra Thorpdale and Hernes Oak has not yet applied for approval to be built.
Under Victorian law a planning permit is required to construct a wind energy facility and, depending on the location and impacts of the proposal, approval may also be required from the Commonwealth Government.
There are many specific requirements that must be met before the government will approve the construction of a wind farm, and OSMI is designing the project to meet and where ever possible exceed those requirements.
Before lodging an application to build the wind farm clarification must be sought from both the State and Commonwealth Government on what sort of approvals are required and this is the stage in project planning that the Delburn Wind Farm is up to.
OSMI referred the project to the Victorian Minister for Planning 11 May 2020 to see if an Environmental Effects Statement (EES) is required under the Environmental Effects Act 1978. There is no provision in the Victorian legislation for public comment on an EES referral although the community may choose to exercise their right to write to the Minister. If an EES is required, the Act outlines the steps available for community input.
If an EES is not required, wind farms are still required to go through a rigorous planning approval process under the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Given the complexities of the Delburn Wind Farm project spanning across three local government areas, there will be a public panel process with opportunities for members of the public to make presentations to the panel on any matters of interest relating to the proposal.
OSMI also submitted a referral to the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment on 2 June 2020 to determine if approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is needed.
The ten-day public comment period for the referral under the EPBC Act (referral number 2020/8688) opened on 22nd June and closes on 3rd July 2020. This comment period, which is defined in the Act, is very short which is why OSMI has been providing all the relevant information on its website as the project progresses, as we understand the community needs more than ten days to review this information.
Information on how to comment on a referral can be found on the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture Water and Environment website http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/
It is important to note that this referral is to ask the Minister for the Environment to decide if any of nine specific ‘Matters of National Environmental Significance’ are likely to be impacted by the project.
The nine matters of national environmental significance (MNES) are:
• world heritage properties
• national heritage places
• wetlands of international importance (often called ‘Ramsar’ wetlands after the international treaty under which such wetlands are listed)
• nationally threatened species and ecological communities
• migratory species
• Commonwealth marine areas
• the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• nuclear actions (including uranium mining)
• a water resource, in relation to coal seam gas development and large coal mining development.
Most of these matters do not apply to the proposed Delburn Wind Farm, however surveys conducted by OSMI’s ecologists looking for Nationally listed species that were considered likely to occur in the project area found that both the Growling Grass Frog and Strzelecki Gum are present.
After they were identified OSMI redesigned its project to avoid impacts on the areas where these species were found.
The surveys also looked for other Nationally listed species such as Southern Brown Bandicoot, Greater Gliders, Grey Headed Flying Fox and Matted Flax Lily that were considered likely to be in the project area, but none of these were found.
There are of course many other species that have the potential to exist within the project area, some of which are protected by Victorian legislation and others that do not have any specific legal protections, but are never less important like the Strzelecki Koala and the Wedge-tailed Eagle. There are also many other issues that need to be assessed for a proposal such as the Delburn Wind Farm such as fire risk, geotechnical stability, visual impact, and noise.
These are all things that are assessed through the Victorian planning process, either through an EES or a planning permit application and there is opportunity for community input through this process that will likely take place close to the end of 2020. The preliminary reports relating to all these subjects are available on the OSMI web site, and as the more detailed studies are completed, they will also be published online.
Community members who are interested in the project are invited to contact local project staff via email at contactus@osmi.com.au. Unfortunately, the project office in Boolarra is currently closed for drop ins due to the pandemic but the staff can meet small numbers of people there by appointment.
Detailed information on the project is available at www.osmi.com.au, you can email the project team on contactus@osmi.com.au and subscribe to the projects community newsletter on the web site to be kept informed.
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