Hills of Gold Wind Farm

The Proposed Destruction of the Nundle Hills' Unique Biodiversity.

The majority of Nundle and Nundle area residents objected to the project from the beginning and a committee formed to officially oppose Engie's project - ongoing and with success. 

Tamworth council said a thunderous "NO!" to Engie's ambitions in Nundle.
    
This then is the state of play. Engie disregards all opposition to its plans for Nundle but cannot raise the number of supporters, all promised some money to use their lands to build the turbines. However, as pointed out in my first submission the payment is an embarrassing pittance, playing on the greed and ignorance and lack of compassion  of their clueless supporters. 

THERE WILL BE NO JOBS. (This is a fallacy created to gain control over people for acquisition of their property needed to build wind turbines).

NUNDLE PEOPLE ARE HAPPY HERE AND DO NOT WANT INTERFERENCE
 
NO CHILD IN NUNDLE WILL BE SAFE IF HUNDREDS OF WORKERS ARRIVE IN THE TOWN AND HEAVY TRUCKS DRIVING AROUND THE NARROW COUNTRY ROADS AND LANES.

Nundle's overwhelming fame as a unique tourist destination is now threatened by the fact that its attraction would be severely diminished and its famous charm gone for the sake if a few temporary dollars. 

The diversity of life in these old hills rank the area as a natural wonderland for all life here. The proposed destruction by blowing up the hill tops and blasting wide roads to carry the heavy trucks is another of Engie’s fantasies. The hills are subject to subsidence, specifically after rain.
      
The destruction of Nundle hills, home to rare and unique life forms is a horror. 
 
Nundle is a vast Aboriginal gravesite. Their graves from 74,000 years of continuous existence in the Nundle area are everywhere as far as the eye can see in the land they protected and cared for, for 74 millennia, since before the Dreamtime.
The ancient and sacred hills of Nundle are memorial to the Old Ones who lived here since
Toba was in eruption 74,000 years ago. Nundul became the physical and spiritual home to the great Gamilaroy nation. For tens of thousands of years, the people never left the land nor migrated with their main tribe. They stayed to care for and protect the land and their fellow beings, all living things.
Nundle is an area of natural physical and spiritual beauty, the home of rare flora and fauna, magnificent, unique fragile bird and bat life and tens of thousands of years of uninterrupted mammal, bird and insect life. It is an entire ecological system evolved over billions of years to live in harmony with land and sky above these sublime hills. 
* The hills are home to the tallest snow gums in existence and extremely rare. The proposal demands their death by clearance to blast and level the hilltops ready for the tons of concrete to hold the tower and steel structures in place. 
* The awesome snow gums unique to these hills would cease to exist in this area and are already illegally being cleared. The catastrophic effect on the environment is incalculable.
* The exquisite Euphrasia arguta plant thought to be extinct was re-discovered in the Nundle causing great excitement in the world of botany. 
Nundle people vehemently, officially and publicly object to the destruction of the 
environment and quiet, orderly life prized in this quintessentially Australian country town. The quiet ambience and country lifestyle would be overwhelmed by the tremendous increase of heavy traffic and distressing noise the transportation and construction of wind turbines and the distraction and disturbance brought to
this small, peaceful town.

There are blatantly incorrect plans on paper which border on fantasy, put
forward by the construction company planning mass destruction of the environment and the billions of beings who live and thrive in the pristine Nundle hills.
 
Residents have chosen to live here because of the unspoiled countryside, exquisite views and the good character and integrity of Nundle neighbours. 

Tourism is a mainstay of Nundle bringing people who enjoy the atmosphere and charm of this unspoiled area and seeking relief from the troubled world far away with every mile distanced from the highway. 
* Tourists to Nundle are unusually loyal in their frequent visits, this would change with any disruption to the tranquil haven visitors have always enjoyed. 
*
* Businesses would suffer significantly with lack of tourists. 
• Tourists repeatedly return in the safe knowledge Nundle will never change and fall to invasion through greed and outside control. 

• The streets of Nundle are safe, the children are safe, there is nothing here to endanger children and adults. 

 • The planned blasting of 20 miles (32ks) of hilltops and the succession of dozens of heavy haulage trucks bringing thousands of tons of cement to pour into the 20 to 30 ft (6 -9meters) deep crater to support just one tower. Concrete dust spreads over a wide area floating on the winds and falling to the ground.
* Electromagnetic interference from wind turbines on the land and above has been termed "safe" by scientists paid to support the business. However, thousands of reports concerning the health of residents situated within range of the towers are negative in the extreme. 

•  There is nothing "green" or "clean" nor reputable nor even eco-friendly about the wind turbine industry, nor is it "renewable" having a maximum of a mere 20 working years. The steel from China is often defective, produced in illegal factories in China in which hundreds of workers are dying every year. This detail, conveniently, is never mentioned. Lives are irrelevant in the pursuit of money and Australia has made deals with the devil. 

I object to this project. Refer to attached.
Separately I work on and reside at a premises within the project area that will be impacted dramatically by the project from a visual ammenity perspective. This project will industrialise a unique and pristine location that should be preserved.

The Uarbry Tongy Lane Alliance Inc objects to Hills of Gold Wind Farm project.

The proposal to build wind turbines adjacent to national parks and in local communities where the majority of the population oppose the development is clearly environmentally destructive and unacceptable.

Community Consultation: has been woeful in the area south of the proposed development. The proponent seems to think the Nundle district is the only area affected. Newsletters arrive very late and notices of meetings one or two days beforehand are too short to allow people to plan. The proponents appear to have an email contact list and hope the rest of the community finds out via the grapevine.
Four weeks to review and comment on thousands of pages of information is unreasonable. I can therefore only make a few comments on the most glaring issues.
Traffic and transport: the proponent assumes that all traffic will come from Tamworth, although the oversize loads all go via Muswellbrook, and many contractors travel considerable distances to work sites. It is unreasonable to assume that no-one would travel from the south. The most direct and quickest routes are via Timor Road and Crawney-Nundle Road from Scone, and Waverley Road and Crawney-Nundle Road from Gundy, Aberdeen and Muswellbrook. Moving the main project access further south is likely to increase traffic on this route. No assessment has been done of the impact on Timor Road, Waverley Road or Crawney-Nundle Road from the south. The sealed sections are in poor condition with many potholes, and the unsealed sections require regular maintenance due to the steep terrain. The road is regularly cut by flooding
These roads do not cope with existing use without adding more. Upper Hunter Shire Council does not have the budget for increased works on these roads.
Note also that the Timor Limestone Quarry approval refused access to Nundle via Crawney Road due to road conditions.
Soil, erosion and hydrology: Information is provided for the Peel Catchment but not the Hunter (Isis River) Catchment. The southern fall of this project is into the Isis catchment. Information about footings is provided for flat land, not steep land as per this proposal. Huge volumes of soil will have to be moved and stored. It is unclear how they intend to stop that entering the river systems, nor the potential for landslips which are common on the steep slopes. The Isis is a water source for stock and domestic use as well as irrigation locally and further down the Hunter valley. Damage to the water source impacts many people's livelihoods and wellbeing
Financial: based on the figures provided, this project would be financially unviable. Wages for quoted numbers of contractors in development and ongoing, as well as costs of construction and ongoing are considerable and don’t stack up against electricity production.
For these reasons, I oppose this proposed development.

I continue my objection.

I am objecting to this project. Please see attachment for details.

Engie have repeatedly refused to include my approved DA for a dwelling on Lot 175 DP 755335. The location for the dwelling is at latitude -31.541367561 longitude 151.146056114. The dwelling has been started and the site inspected by representatives of the DPE. Engie were made aware of the omission in the last submission. They guaranteed to correct it but it is still missing from their maps in the amendment. Please see the map on page 37 of the Main Document. The location is between AD_13 and AD_6 slightly west.
I believe this omission is deliberate as Engie have been made very aware of the DA being approved. This has been done in both writing and verbally. Engie representatives have met me on the site and completed a photo montage. I believe they continue the omission to serve their own purposes.

I object to the above development application as per my submission attached below.

Project is inflicting destruction of natural resources and ecosystem necessary for unique wildlife. It was not already cleared or agricultural land prior to this development application. The proposed project is inflicting both an immediate and ongoing detrimental impact on the township and its infrastructure with the construction equipment and its movements. The project will be leaving an irreparable scar on the unique landscape that our family came to Nundle for to live and work within. The impact is not outweighed by its so-called advantages.

Please see attachment

Foe submission re Oakenville St /Barry Road route see attachment

I strongly object to the Hills of Gold wind farm proposal.

I had a look at the transport routes and I think what the developer is proposing is unacceptable.
I object to the transportation of components and all the traffic through Nundle, this will cause a major disruption to our lives. Our intersections will be butchered and for the time the construction will take place there will be major hold ups of the traffic in the village.
They will make this beautiful place ugly with the proposed “private road” behind the pub and removal of the trees along the streets which provide shade in summer and amazing autumn colours.

My concerns also extend to the Crawney road as this is where we live. There is not much information given about the process of replacing bridges. Back Creek bridge in particular. Will they build another temporary bridge? Will we have to bypass the bridge replacement via a temporary dirt road with “wet” crossing? This creek experiences small flush flooding events frequently and we will be cut off if no alternative bridge is available .

Crawney road is a school bus route and we have a bus stop at our farm gate. What effect will all this road widening, straightening and upgrading have on the school bus movements? It’s worth noting that they don't guarantee there will be no component deliveries during school bus run, they said they avoid school bus times “where possible”. So basically they can do whatever they want and just say it was not possible!

Our property on Crawney Road spans both sides of the road and we routinely drive stock, move machinery, and walk back and forth. This is common in rural areas where roads have little traffic. You won't see a farm spanning across the highway, but this is what our road is going to turn into for two years during construction. All this traffic will interfere with our operations.
Our house is situated very close to the road and the amount of dust generated will be a significant nuisance. Imagine waiting for the school bus on the side of the road..

It is unacceptable to remove vegetation along Crawney road and within Crown reserves just to transport wind farm parts, the trees will take longer to regrow than the wind farm is expected to last.

We have never been provided a proper photomontage for our property and the view of the ridge line is our best view from the veranda. Instead a photomontage was provided from a wrong location (our neighbour’s place) and then the proponent suggested planting trees in OUR paddock as a mitigation measure to screen the turbines for our neighbours. Given that our neighbours are supportive of the wind farm, we will now allow any tree planting on our land, they might as well see the turbines, the Western connector road, the O&M building, the substation, the batching plant and the BESS.

There will be a severe visual impact to our property. We request a photomontage from our house!

There is an issue of a possible trespass over our land with the proposed access option B and the tracks required for the construction and service of the power line. Before any further planning is taking place, perhaps the developer needs to survey some sections of our boundaries and see if those proposed tracks need to be moved.

Please find submission on behalf of Nundle Business Tourism and Marketing Group Inc attached.

Please find attached my submission to the Hills of Gold wind farm.

Ref: Hills of Gold Wind Farm Amended Application (SSD – 9679)

Christopher Eagles
“Alston” 1339 Crawney Road
TIMOR NSW 2338

I object to the Engie Hills of Gold Wind Farm application.

I wish to note that all of my previous objections to the original EIS remain current and applicable to this Amendment Report, November 2022.
I acknowledge and accept the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s disclaimer and declaration.

I Object as Follows:

Is the French Multinational Engie understating the Community impacts, the Environmental impacts and overstating the overall viability of this Project?
As French President Macron Famously said "I don’t think....... I know!”

See Enclosed document (HOG WF No 2022 CJE FINAL) for the reasons for this statement and my Objection.

Re: HILLS OF GOLD WIND FARM AMENDMENT REPORT No. SSD9679

• Please see attached my submission to the above mentioned development application during Public Exhibition of Amendment Report, November 2022
• I hereby declare that I object to the Hills of Gold Wind Farm proposal ID No. SSD.9679
• I would like my personal detail withheld
• I have not made any reportable political donations in the previous 2 years
• I acknowledge and accept the Department disclaimer and declaration.

As a previous resident in the Crawney region of the Timor Valley, I acknowledge the ecological significance of the Crawney Park national park and am deeply concerned about the impact the wind turbines will have on native bird breeding habits, among other animals.

The wind towers also pose a dangerous threat to bush fire fighting efforts by helicopters and planes. Due to the steep terrain, it is impossible to fight fires with trucks in the majority of the country where the wind turbines will be placed. Large fires burnt a lot of this countryside during the 2019 fires and if there were wind turbines along the range it would make it dangerous and impossible to fight the fires.

I believe very strongly that the proposed Hills of Gold Wind Farm should go ahead. It is important that renewable energy is provided to replace the coal fired power stations which are being closed in the near future and this windfarm is placed in a perfect position to capture the wind. Hills of Gold project will provide an injection of ongoing funds to the community and boost much needed employment to the community. We need to act now to slow climate change. I know there is a a concern by some action groups regarding biodiversity reduction but there has been much research and study regarding this prior to the EIS submission and the windfarms benefits are much larger than any concerns some action groups can come up with. Be positive and proactive
and get on with a good continuous supply of electricity which will not run out for the future of our country.

This project will be nothing but an environmental disaster. The area on which this project is to be constructed will destroy the natural untouched area, roads, village life and agriculture lands.

I strongly object to the proposed Hills of Gold Wind farm.
The Nundle area is one of great natural beauty. Why are we even considering the destruction of this area with up to 70 wind turbines? I am not against sustainable energy. However the location does not make economical sense, except for the landholder and Engie. The visual and environmental impact will be irreversible. This limited lifespan proposal is driven by greed at the expense of our environment.