The Pyramid Hill was a hive of activity on Sunday as community members from Loddon and Gannawarra Shires gathered to discuss industrial renewable developments openly. The meeting hosted by Loddon Valley Renewables Awareness Group provided an open community forum, something that is avoided at all costs for transmission line and renewable developments, as one speaker framed it, “divide and conquer” is the standard modus operandi.

LVRAG member Drew Chislett opened the meeting, welcoming special guests Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, Victorian Senator Rikki-Lee Tyrrell, and Mayors Garner Smith (GSC) and Dan Straub (LSC). Mr Chislett also emphasising that LVRAG’s priority is about knowledge sharing and caring for the community as a whole.

“I guess the point of this day is that we are coming together from a bunch of different positions, a bunch of backgrounds, a bunch of different locations, but the common thing we have about us all is, we are a community, and the greatest strength that we actually have is that we are a community,” said Mr Chislett

“One of the most important things that we do is we walk together with people, with each other, and that we protect that community.”

Mr Chislett gave a background of some of the projects that would soon be in close proximity to the town.

“The Mincha European Energy Project, as the crow flies, will be four kilometres from town, so pretty close, pretty significant projects consisting of turbines, solar panels, terminal station, turbines reaching 287 meters tall.”

“Just as a reference point, from ground level to the peak of Pyramid Hill is about 100 metres. So we’re talking twice the height, plus the blade.”

Just up the road, the Macorna Atmos Renewables is looking to develop 1 GW project with a footprint of 25,000 hectares utilising 170 turbines. Another close by, the Mologa Solar Farm Potenia Energy project comprises a 250 MW industrial solar site and a 250 MW battery storage system.

Loddon Shire Mayor Dan Straub spoke of the lack of meaningful engagement communities had in the planning process and the impacts on agriculture.

“There is some damning data and figures we’ve seen in those slides. There’s a number of projects that are on our doorstep that will have genuine impacts.” said Mayor Straub.

“Unfortunately, local government does not have any planning authority over any of these projects. That’s been a huge change in recent years that our local government planning authority has been stripped, and these planning permit approvals are approved directly by the Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny.”

“Our Murray River Group region represents about 22 per cent of Victoria. Now there’s an agricultural gross product output of $8.3 billion a year that’s directly being impacted by these wind and solar farm projects, by power line projects, and also in the greater scheme of things by Murray Darling Basin Water reforms having huge impact.”

“We’re being squeezed from lots of different angles,” said Mr Straub.

Community members then heard from Simone Lewis, who writes Diary of a Wind Farm Neighbour. Ms Lewis described how her family went from being initially supportive of the projects, even working on the sites, to enduring what she describes as years of sleep deprivation and health impacts.

“I started that (Diary of a Wind Farm Neighbour) because I was so frustrated with trying to get help and get information. I felt it was really important that everyone needed to know what it would really like to live next to a new farm.”

Ms Lewis said the 60 turbines near their location were only 161 metres tall, with 22 in the closest section to her house.

“Our section started in late 2020, so we’re five years in, and within days, we had sleep disturbance and made our first complaints.”

“The wind farm did some noise testing, which they still refused to give us the data for.”

Ms Lewis described the families health issues experienced as headaches, sleep deprivation, anxiety, earache, insomnia, depression, behaviour regulation issues, chest pain, coordination issues, highly agitated states, chest pressure, nausea, vomiting, face pressure and concentration issues.

“Some days the kids only go to school just to get away from the impacts at home.”

Ms Lewis said she has also witnessed impacts on their farm animals.

“When the turbines started, our piglet mortality rate went through the roof. Some of our sows that had never lost any piglets before started squashing their whole litters.”

She stated that the impacts on their farm “broke” her husband for a while and they didn’t know if they could fix him. Help remained elusive for the young family.

“Please, don’t bet that any of your politicians are going to help you, because they’re not. I’ve tried and tried and tried for five years. They’re not helping.”

“I can’t even get anyone to come to our house to listen.”

“The government is continuing to change the rules, laws and regulations to suit the agenda in favour of the wind companies,” stated Ms Lewis.

Julie Weir from farmsforfood.org showcased an interactive map the group is using to tell the story of farmers opposed to these developments. The “No REZ Map” is a tool that will be used to demonstrate to decision makers those who stand in opposition of industrial renewable installations.

The final speaker for the afternoon was Ross Johns from the Wimmera Mallee Environmental and Agriculture Protection Association. Mr Johns spoke of the impacts of the developments on the landscape and neighbours. Issues such as microplastics – with turbines shedding 20kgs per annum into the landscape, concrete requirements and availability, as 2,000 tonnes of concrete is required per turbine and the big unknown insurance.

“Be very, very careful, because I think those insurance issues are significantly bigger than anyone really believes.” 

“If you have a fire and it burns half the solar farm, let’s assume it’s $300 million. I suspect that your third-party liability would be 20 or 30 million. You could lose your entire family’s assets that have been built up over multiple generations in a bad day.”

“There’s a proposed 650 kilowatt hour battery, about 1.5kms from my boundary. If we start a fire and it burns that battery, $500 million. That’s it, four generations of accumulated wealth gone in an afternoon.”

“All this is occurring because of poor process by government, and I don’t just mean poor process, I mean appalling process by government, withdrawal of justice, which is what the Victorian Government has done, is something you would expect to have happened in China, withdrawing people’s right to appeal is almost authoritarian.”

“Victoria must adopt an open and transparent community consultation process if it wants to build a renewable energy supply in Victoria.”

“The wind turbines subsidised $850,000 to a million dollars per turbine per year, and that’s money that each and every one of you is paying out of your taxes. … the only people in this whole renewable build that are paying the price, the really big price, is the Australian taxpayers.” 

See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 25 September 2025.