Paling Yards Wind Farm

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I Object to Palings Wind Electricity Generating Works & Associated Infrastructure - SSD-29064077 in Oberon Shire, as it is a total waste of public money - for unethical, toxic rubbish that is part of a very contaminating, unhealthy & energy depriving Solar/Wind Nightmare that is extremely dangerous & damaging to Australia!
It is essential that Australia prioritises reliable, affordable Australian power instead of this pathetic, insecure & outrageously costly, environmentally destructive 47x Wind Turbine plan.

I Object to Paling Yards Wind Electricity Generating Works
SSD-29064077 in Oberon Shire on strong technical grounds - in that it is not and never can provide a reliable fill-in supply to renewable energy unreliability.
The capacity is nowhere near enough and never will be on current technical progress reports.
Secondly an unreliable grid based on solar and wind can never guarantee recharge when needed.
Finally the cost of additional grid generation to accommodate storage recharge AND normal grid load is outrageous!
In a word, no storage is viable as grid unreliability support, it is useful sometimes as peak lopping only.
The other untenable unknown is what to do with non-recyclable, contaminating wind turbine blades. No one has addressed the environmental problem.

I thank you for opportunity to provide this submission in relation to State Significant Development: Paling Yards Wind Farm, Oberon. This submission relates to potential impacts of the development on roadside trees on the route along which wind farm components will be transported. These concerns have been raised with Treenet Inc. by members of the community of O’Connell, NSW.
Trees planted near O’Connell were planted as an Avenue of Honour, a living memorial to locals who served and suffered during the First World War including some who made the supreme sacrifice. Officially opened by Field Marshall Lord Allenby in 1926, this Avenue of Honour remains an important commemorative site for the local community to this day.

The Route Study provided as Appendix C with the project documentation notes that the route generally has suitable clearance from vegetation but pruning and possibly tree removals will be required in some locations, including O’Connell Road, O’Connell. The survey report specifically notes ‘There is a section of road just before O’Connell that is of particular concern.’ This is the location of the O’Connell Avenue of Honour.

It is fortunate that the O’Connell Avenue of Honour section of the road is relatively straight and the carriageway is broad with a sealed shoulder. Based on Google Streetview imagery captured in August 2023 the existing clearances in relation to most of the trees meet or exceed the width and vertical clearances for freight as specified in the project documentation. This suggests that most trees won’t require any pruning and some minimal pruning will be required on several others.

To ensure impacts on these living memorial trees are kept to the absolute minimum it is essential that pruning excessively beyond the freight dimensions specified in the consultation documents is avoided. Is it also essential that any pruning is consistent with Australian Standard 4373-2007 Pruning of Amenity Trees. Furthermore, AS4373 guides that arborists tasked with preparing the pruning specifications and those conducting the pruning work must be suitably qualified and experienced.

Guided by the Australian Standard and a detailed pruning specification, appropriately qualified and skilled arborists will be able to ensure the necessary clearances with minimal visual impact and no long-term health or structural issues arising from their pruning work. A minimalist approach to pruning will also save money.

The Australian Standard should guide work on all amenity trees, but particularly trees as significant as these living memorials to Australians who served and suffered overseas. Compliance with AS 4373 should be mandatory in all state significant developments.

The Avenues of Honour Website is a credible source of information on the locations of commemorative trees; it is available to inform planning processes but it remains a work in progress and should not be considered as exhaustive. The Avenues of Honour website should be consulted routinely in the scoping and planning stages of projects so that these significant living memorials can be maintained in perpetuity.

I object to this project.

Damage to natural environment, they look terrible, impacts to local wildlife.

Will harm prestine landscapes
Damage to roads and scenery
Extra traffic on narrow roads
Resources used in construction causing pollution
Eg : concrete for foundations chemicals used in construction of blades
Turbines and towers made in china
Using coal and ironore
Machinery to construct use fossil fuels
Construction will overall create more c02 admissions

I live on O'Connell Road and am located right in the heart of the Village section and The Avenue of Trees are right near my home.

I also operate a coffee trailer business along this road, in two locations both outside my residence along O'Connell Road and at Hassall Park near the Fish River. Cars and trucks frequently stop to patronize my business and I feel that the general public would then be at great personal risk due to the enormity of these trucks carrying unusually heavy duty loads and extremely long, wide loads etc. These transport vehicles will take up much of the 2 lanes across the width and this will cause congestion to normal traffic as cars and other vehicles will find it hard to pass each other freely on their way to schools and workplaces to and from Bathurst and Oberon and vice versa. This road already carries large vehicles and large volumes of normal traffic but is managed within the normal flow of two lane carriageways.

Also with increased pedestrian foot traffic from customers and patrons to the cafe, my coffee trailer and the O'Connell Hotel, I feel that there could be a potential for a major accident- either vehicle or a person/s due to these very large, oversized vehicles with no clear line of sight round them and the Pub is a designated pull of for these oversized trucks and this area is a bus zone for school children and parking at the pub for drop off/pick up purposes.

The Avenue of Trees going through O'Connell village is of rare historical significance and is one of only the few surviving First World War avenues in Rural NSW.

The trees are also listed on the National Trust Register of AUSTRALIA (NSW) and has state and national recognitions.

I object to the desecration of these trees in any way, shape or form to facilitate for the transportation of wind farm infrastructure due to their long, nearly 100 year existence. They will not survive harsh pruning/trimming or removal.

I also object to this development due to the restraint of trade for my mobile coffee trailer business which will be greatly affected over approximately 2 years with no ease of stopping for patrons to park or walk easily along the Avenue and surrounds to patronise our small Village businesses. it is scary to think of the width and length of these vehicles and how to negotiate travel and space around them at differing times.

The Avenue of Trees should NOT be touched to facilitate this transportation route to Paling Yards as the trees are like graves and any desecration of them is a violation to the fallen who sacrificed so much for all of us and their families who still visit and remember them via The Avenue of Trees.


Thank you.

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