Central-West Orana REZ Transmission

MDEG supports renewable energy and a speedy transition away from fossil fuels. However, for the REZ rollout to deliver these objectives, it must be genuinely consultative and open to all feedback and possible revision.

Please see attached.

Uarbry Tongy Lane Alliance Inc strongly objects to this project.

As a Community Coordinator my main area of concern is in relation to the health and wellbeing of individuals and overall communities.
The area of the REZ is mainly an agricultural hub. 72% of the easement area is grazing land and 20% cropping land. By utilizing these areas, the income and production is hugely affected. The farming communities have had consecutive disasters over the past 10 years – Sir Ivan Fires, drought, mouse plague, COVID, flooding and now this. Together our communities have gone through these previous disasters all together and have walked side by side. But the Orana REZ is destroying the fabric of our community. Many farmers who have signed up to have transmission towers, wind turbines or solar are not happy with the outcome but know that it’s going to happen so have said yes. Obviously compulsory acquisition gives no choice.
Community Engagement –
At the Community Engagement sessions questions were asked and information was withheld, even to community land holders whose land was being affected. Transparency is a must. How can there be any trust in a project if the truth is not being told.
Local Knowledge and research
Why has Energyco not even gained proper local knowledge of the area. For example, all the medical centres, hospitals, VPA’s.
Community Resources
Doctors – in the Coolah community currently we feel privileged to have a full-time doctor. This has only been the case in the past 12 months. The bigger hospitals of Dubbo and Mudgee are stretched for resources. Last week it was noted that on one day Dubbo Hospital had ONE available bed. With the influx of these worker accommodation camps how are the increases in population going to be cared for medically? Already there is a huge under resource. Please look at what is required here. As the worker force are working such long hour’s day after day there is likely to be high medical needs. Will the onsite medical staff be 24 hours? It is unfair to these rural communities and for their resources to be taken up by this incoming population.
Summary of Concern – The existing community will not have an available doctor or hospital bed when required.
Rural Fire Service
This year is a great example of a year where the resources of the Rural Fire Service are being called upon on a daily basis. Last year was a year of high rains which meant lots of vegetation growth. This year now being a dry one means a high bushfire risk. With increased populations in our rural areas the risk of bushfires increases. With the building of the transmission towers the risk will increase again. It will also be difficult to access some areas due to the towers and solar panels. Who will be responsible for maintaining underneath the transmission line during and after the build to ensure fuel loads are kept to a minimum?

Summary of Concern – The need for fire services will increase and our current volunteers will be put at risk physically and mentally.

VPA
The increased population increases the probability of accidents. Again, this is putting pressure on our existing already stretched members of the VPA.

Roads
There will be a cumulative impact on roads with many proposed developments occurring simultaneously. This creates deterioration, possibly more accidents, delays with large vehicle access.
How will these be continually maintained to deal with this increase in traffic and will all narrow roads be widened?

Community Benefit Funds
There is concern by communities that the impact areas will not receive funding and the majority of the funds will go to the larger centres such as Mudgee and Dubbo. There is also concern that if all community benefit funds are given to councils to distribute that again the impact areas may not receive the funds.
Summary of Concern – please implement guidelines to ensure that the impact areas gain financial long-term benefits, not just token monies or projects of no community benefit. And proper community engagement occurs to ascertain what the community wants and needs for the long term. I.e., what will bring visitors to the area when all these projects are done?
Social Impact
Why were only 44 interviews done when there is a population of 152,418 in the region? This is 0.03% of the population. It is not a valid snapshot/reflection, and it overall displays the lack of research, respect and importance that has been and is being place of the social impact of our communities. On a daily basis a farmer is isolated on their farm. This makes their community even more important when they physically go to town to shop, participate in activities such as sports etc. The social fabric is being rocked – through road safety and sense of safety, capacity for food, health and social services, the changes to the environment, stress and increase of bushfires, impact on productivity of the agricultural land, diminished sense of place, worry of succession plans with family farms.

Property Valuation
It has been estimated that there will be a 30% loss in property value to land which is hosting the transmission infrastructure. How can someone who has had to be a part of a compulsory acquisition sell their property when it is worth 30% less because of the infrastructure. It also means the pool of interested purchasers would be reduced due the infrastructure.
I recommend that Energyco stops and asks what is community engagement? And how can this be done effectively moving forward. Energyco – you are dealing with people’s lives and their livelihoods. For the landowners it is not just their place of residence but their all.

• I do not wish to see our beautiful landscapes ruined by Energy Co’s infrastructure.
• I do not wish to see livestock suffering because of Energy Co’s infrastructure. I feel that the humming from transmission infrastructure will play havoc on livestock and wildlife.
• I fear for livestock grazing under and around transmission lines as they will be absorbing magnetic fields/EMF.
• I have concerns of farmers working around transmission towers and their exposure to EMF/magnetic fields
• I have concerns on water availability during both construction and in the case of fires pertaining to the infrastructure.
• I do not wish to see the natural habitats of our native wildlife be destroyed in this process through both structure construction and easement construction.
• I do not believe that residents within the CWO REZ were adequately consulted as part of the engagement process. 44 people interviewed out of 152,418 people is unacceptable.
• I am concerned about the mental health of those within our communities when they start to see their landscapes get destroyed. We do not have ample medical services out here to manage these issues.

Australia has a frighteningly small amount of productive agricultural land. This is being chewed up by an enormous ill-conceived placement of renewable energy projects which are being sneakily revealed in stages all over the state (and country). It is exceedingly short sighted to be using this land for these projects. Perhaps OFF SHORE (over the horizon) AND ALL new buildings should be required to put solar panels on the roof. Many buildings in the cities could be retrofitted with solar panels (as many houses out here have been already). Car parks could all have solar panel roofing, factories etc etc etc. The possibilities are endless. How about those of you using the energy in the cities and purporting to be "green" have the power sources closer to you and not brought from out here and also the other parts of the state you are trying to turn into power plants. It's very easy to be holier than thou using all the power you like in the city while generating little or none of it yourselves.

Apparently, "agriculture" can be carried out under solar panels - a small amount of agriculture at best. And how many farmers wish to farm under these restrictive conditions. Have the lessons of food security not been learnt from history? We are being told that we can farm around these power plants but we will not be able to do it properly and nor will it be considered a great career learning how to muster under and around panels.

I assume that tourists will wish to see the Australian countryside covered in turbines and panels - what a place to visit.
Maybe they'll wish to visit the solar and wind 'farms'. That in itself is a sneaky and insulting use of the name farm used to give a touchy soft feel to these developing power stations. But that's okay - they'll be able to hop in the jets and fly overseas to see beautiful things there instead of the power plants out here.
Having said all of the above, I also wish to endorse all the other points that have been put forward by so many people wrt wildlife, birds, fires, roads, communities, infrastructure etc etc. So much time, effort and money has been put in by thousands of people trying to get some sense to be seen by the powers that be all of whom are paid to do their jobs. Unfortunately it just seems that these people are engaged in a box-ticking exercise and that box "community consultation" is ticked regardless of whether or not any of the important questions put up by the public are answered.

If there is any notice taken of the communities then AT THE VERY LEAST, PUT THE POWERLINES UNDERGROUND!
In this way you would at least be seen to have made some concession to these consultations.

I am a landholder in Turill.
As with most local sentiment, we do not support the project, in this area. We would look like to see the numerous coal mines that exist in the REZ area used for REZ projects, rather than private landholdings.
The project will not only change the landscape, amenity and land usage issues for local residents, it is not a renewable project.
The construction phase and final infrastructure will negatively impact the environment and water usage alone is not sustainable or renewable in the local area.
The area is recovering from 2017 Sir Ivan Bushfires. The project will bring additional bushfire risk and the proposed infrastructure will mean additional mitigation and preparation will be required for landholders, due to the new threat of lightning and resultant bushfires.
This newly introduced risk of this infrastructure will also sit within cleared land, and across current cleared bushfire evacuation routes and emergency exits, rendering these unsafe due to overhead fire from power lines and infrastructure.
This heightened risk then also adds an additional level of disaster affected trauma to landholders, who are trying to recover from the damage and threat of bushfire.
We also note the project affects the National Parks managed Durridgere Conservation area, which supports many species of wildlife and includes sightings of the rare Regent Honeyeater, along Durridgere Road.
This area is part of the Hunter Valley Important Bird Area and should be protected further from development. Other wildlife that are within the general area, to name a few are an Emus, Wallabies, Kangaroos and Echidnas.
Our property has a wide variety of Frogs and Toads that rely on the ephemeral watercourses and wetlands to survive.
We do not support this non renewable project proceeding in the CWO Renewable Energy Zone.
Thank you

This is not the place for this project, we don't want it this in our communities. This will degrade the land, farms and agriculture in the area. The noise and the impact on the natural beauty of the region is unacceptable. Listen to you community for once PLEASE!

In order to build all the infrastructure required for this renewaBULL energy generation and transmission SCAM, an extra approx 280 houses per year for 8 to 9yrs must be built just to accommodate the workforce of approx 9000 workers (not including their family members who may also choose to relocate to the area). And not including natural population growth housing needs.
Each housing workers camp will need to be supplied with double the amount of water that the Gulgong community currently uses. Where will all this water come from? The Central West is already drought prone! How will this impact on water requirements for agriculture?
And that doesn’t even bring into the equation the water requirements for the multitude of large scale renewaBULL energy projects all apparently due to be commencing construction at the same time.
Where will infrastructure construction water come from on top of the housing water requirements. We are going into an El Niño!!!!
The Central West already has a doctor shortage., what extra medical services provisions are in place to ensure this won’t further impact the existing shortage and in fact improve this situation for the community at large?
What about police services with such a huge population growth?
I would expect as a condition of consent that these workers camps lead by example and rely on 100% renewable energy generation with battery power back up. They can surely utilise the skills of their own workforce to achieve this.
How is Council managing to assess the influx of major development projects that are demanding road widening works through towns such as Mudgee to transport major infrastructure parts - like a request to cut off the corner of a local school to enable larger turning circles. What a disgrace!
The Golden Highway will have up to 10 major tuck movements per night for YEARS. God help anyone who has a house near that highway.
The fact of the matter is., all of these infrastructure projects in the CWO REZ as scheduled to start at the same time., the impacts on rural communities will be astronomical.
How to manage and reduce the cumulative implications of all of these projects scheduled to commence during the same timeframe has not be thought through or planned. This is a major oversight and absolute failure in responsible planning practices- in this fast paced push to transition.
This project must not proceed until these matters are properly addressed. Ideally this project should not proceed at all.

I am against this project because of economic costs, environmental damage, and operational inefficiencies

I object

I feel this this project in the long term would be detrimental to our area.

I object to this proposal as the construction of numerous transmission lines across the sate is wasteful of tax payers money and unnecessary. We should align the transmission lines with the inland rail so the is less disruption to peoples lives. But it is more important to remember that renewable energy will not solve our base power problems because renewable energy is intermittent. Germany which has a lot of renewable energy imports power from France, unfortunately Australia is an island and there is no convenient neighbors to take power from. Why are we proposing this scam which costs the taxpayers a lot of money and will not provide what we want. The only people to benefit are the multi national companies who will make millions without providing us with base power, are we crazy or something?

The Central West area is being destroyed by the renewable energy projects. What has alway been a scenic are replete with farmland and tourist destinations is being flooded by energy projects, destroying the natural beauty of the area. While people living in capital cities seem to think there is no issue, these projects are turning the area into an ugly wasteland of panels, turbines and transmission lines.

Please do not allow this or other similar projects to proceed.

A blight on the local countryside, along with danger for eagles and birds of prey, huge cost to taxpayers with no regard to local reductions of land values and locals mental health
Little or no overall gain along with expensive technology compared to emerging technologies

I strongly reject this proposal. It is detrimental to the environment, the animals and the farm owners.

I strongly object to the Central West Orana REZ transmission line

Landholders and residents in the REZ transmission line were not consulted regarding their homes and land becoming a "modern day power station". The impacts of this Renewable Energy Zone declaration will have a serious and irreversible impact on the lives of the residents in this region. The cumulative impact of thousands of wind turbines and millions of solar panels will destroy the environment and agricultural land.

As a result of being declared a renewable energy zone energy developers have descended on the district in plague proportions. The majority of the developers are foreign owned or foreign controlled. There is no accreditation process for developers, anyone can set up a $2 company and then door knock landowners to establish wind/solar/battery/workforce camp/quarry. The same "consultants" write the scoping reports and environment impact statements for all the developers. Those same "consultants" also consult with the Department of Planning and Environment on any updates to guidelines for renewable energy developments. They have a total monopoly and anarchy reigns.

For example this project - REZ transmission - is being push through approval process before the findings of the Undergrounding inquiry. This is also being pushed through prior to the rule change due on 5 December regarding the Federal Governments change to social license and engagement. The landowners in this transmission line began their compulsory acquisition process in May, the Energy Co EIS was available in September, the EIS was to be displayed for 28 days (8000 odd pages), the community had to lobby heavily to have this extended, yet similar projects are granted 42 days without lobbying.

This REZ transmission line plans to link projects that are not yet approved, is the approval process a sham? The transmission line indicates to us that projects that have no social license and in many cases have received zero support for their EIS are still going to be approved. Any minimal support displayed on the DPE submissions portal reveals supporters are land hosts. Land hosts for wind/solar/battery/quarries/accommodation are people who willingly put their hand up. They prioritise their own personal perceived financial gain over the environment or any negative impact they may have on their neighbours.

Land hosts are not people who the NSW state Government coerces into "hosting" transmission lines. Energy Co consistently refer to hosts in regard to the transmission. According to Energy Co there are people happy to have a substation and twin 500 kv lines and towers at the bottom the garden, there are residents with medical conditions who have been advised to stay away from high voltage transmission lines yet Energy Co would like you to believe that these people are happy to host high voltage lines and towers in close proximity to their homes and over their workplaces, and apparently there are "hosts" happy to have high voltage lines through their domestic area between two farm houses. Even more surprising are the "hosts" who according to Energy Co have agreed to the removal of their silos, stock yards, sheds, dams and tanks to make way for high voltage transmission lines. These people are not "hosts"- they are victims of government sanctioned coercion. One "host" was informed by an Energy Co team member, "if you make it too difficult we will simply put the transmission lines on your neighbour's place and you will have to look at it without any compensation". According to Energy Co that is "consultation".

Any supporters for this Central West Orana REZ transmission will not come from those people directly impacted. Any support will no doubt be the developers themselves, plus the land hosts of wind/solar/batteries/quarries/accommodation camps. This project should be built in the communities that demand energy from wind and solar.

Critically endangered ecological communities (CEECs) will be destroyed by this project and the projects it facilitates. Biodiversity offsets by this project and the projects that this transmission facilitates will increase extinctions for threatened, vulnerable and protected flora and fauna. According to Energy Co this project does not increase fire risk - putting electrical infrastructure into a bush fire zone and there are no concerns about increasing fire risk. Does that mean that asset protection zones (large areas of cleared land) are increased? Have the communities been informed of the impacts of corona noise or EMF (radiation)? With no water license required by Energy Co we anticipate impacts on ground water for all communities, particularly when you add the 47 plus projects in the area - all using excessive amounts of water for dust suppression at the same time. Dust suppression is required as a result of the vast amounts of land clearing. The workers camps proposed by Energy Co are going to be larger that the nearest town of Dunedoo. Energy Co neglect to even mention Dunedoo when discussing impact on supermarkets, medical services etc - instead referring to Scone. This reflects a poor understanding by EnergyCo of the region they are determined to desecrate with transmission infrastructure, and the rampant renewable development that will follow because of it.

Given that the NSW State government created the CWO REZ, where is the plan that seeks to address the cumulative impacts of dozens of proposed developments and many more to come in the future? There is no attempt by EnergyCo to address cumulative impacts beyond it's own transmission project, referring instead to developers to look at their own impacts. Given the lack of interest by EnergyCo regarding the wellbeing of the region as a whole, the responsibility must be taken on by the DPE to establish a comprehensive REZ-wide plan. This plan must carefully evaluate and model the potential cumulative impacts and the extent to which they could interact with each and snowball into far larger problems.

The time has come for the NSW DPE to take a leadership role as opposed to the current situation which is rolling out the red carpet for developers to maximize the gigawatts, regardless of the environmental, social and human costs to the region.

I am a frequent visitor to the Dunedoo/Gulgong area due to friends and extended family living here for many years. I come here for the serenity and the incredible agricultural vista - this area allows me to truly destress and relax from my busy city life. I am appalled to hear that electrical lines, wind turbines, and solar panels are proposed for this beautiful area and wish to register my disapproval and complete rejection of this project planning. These so called additions to the landscape will ruin the ambiance and peace of this wonderful region and I implore the decision makers to rethink this horrendous plan of action for an area that certainly does not require this form of structure as it will simply deter and disfigure our true Australian country heritage.

The manner of imposing these facilities on ordinary citizens takes away our ammenities and imposes reduced value on our daily lives along with destroying the lifestyle we chose by moving to the regions. It is also robbing the community of valuable agricultural land.

I strongly object to this and any similarly ill considered projects dubbed renewable and green. I do not want my landscape littered with Low Capacity Factor (C.F.) industrial wind turbines, solar panel farms, endless high voltage electricity transmission lines and towers strewn across the pristine landscape of the CWO. Indeed, the environmental cost of these turbines alone are numerous, as is the cost of endless solar farms proven to increase the temperatures around such enormous infrastructures. As such: Consider the strongly evidenced and completely unnecessary slaughter of our Australian native birds by the wind turbine blades, including but not limited to eagles, parrots, cockatoos. Also consider the slaughter of absolute multitudes of insects by the blades; consider the destruction of land habitat of ground based animals, such as wombats, worms, our protected snakes etc. Please don't tell me that the safety of our koalas is compromised by any such legislation to allow for destruction of their habitat for the sake of a wind turbine!
consider noise pollution from these monstrosities such as infra type noise and the known disruption to all people within the vicinity;
Consider the visually polluting aspect of the future skyline, being eternally and terminally disrupted; the facts are that wind turbines are not able to work all the time, especially during times of low or no wind.
Have you considered the destruction of pristine forest and farmland for the operations of making new roads to transport parts such as the massive blades, the concrete and steel and machinery necessary for these massive pads, and other materials. The science tells us that creation of concrete is a large contributor of Co2, so consider how many pads, how tonnes of concrete, and many tonnes of Co2. what is the prognosis for returning the area back to it's former pristine condition?
Consider end of life of each turbine and what happens to the parts that are not renewable or reusable - which is near all of them! - and the turbine parts graveyards that have been discovered in Queensland already by Senators of our Federal Parliament.
Consider the pollution caused by the failure of oil/grease seals and where that oil/grease goes onto and into the soil, and the negative and deadly effect on our flora and fauna.
These wind farms are only financially viable due to subsidies paid to the companies, out of Australian's taxes, for which I do not consent.
Alternatively, first investigate and discover the path to actual green and renewable energy not just because the narrative says it's green and renewable.
Consider countries that have historical experience and evidence against these massive structures such as Sweden and Germany and are now not proceeding, and have now continued the uptake of other means of providing
sustainable energy, such as small modular nuclear power, thorium, MSR, SMR powered reactors.
Consider that your state and federal governments and bureaucrats will be presiding over the environmental destruction in yours, mine and our children's lifetimes. What legacy do you want?
I do strongly object, and I do not consent, to the wanton destruction for the sake of profit.