Controversial Golden Plains wind farm hit with fifth legal challenge

A brolga enthusiast has hit the controversial Golden Plains wind farm with its fifth legal stoush right as it was about to start construction.

Brolga enthusiast Hamish Cumming is taking on the Golden Plains Wind Farm site for the fifth time.

With an endangered bird said to be at stake, a controversial Golden Plains wind farm plagued with four years’ worth of legal battles could be dragged back to court to defend a major transition to clean energy.

Construction on what may be the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm, just 70km outside of Geelong, was due to start early this year but the planning minister and Golden Plains Wind Farm Management were instead hit with another legal challenge right before Christmas.

Hamish Cumming, who lives about 70km away from the Rokewood site in Darlington, has launched his fifth challenge in the name of the brolga, an endangered species of bird native to Australia.

Hamish Cumming at brolga flocking site near his property in Darlington, Victoria. Picture: David Geraghty.

According to his lawyer Dominica Tannock, Mr Cumming “has a long history of being critically concerned with the threat of serious or irreversible damage caused by the wind farm upon the brolga”.

Following several legal battles and an environmental effect statement, the Golden Plains wind farm agreed to a buffer that would protect 27 brolga breeding sites identified within 3.2 kilometres of the site.

However, in November 2022, Ms Tannock said she received images of brolga in a spot she believed is “where the terminal station for the Golden Plains Wind Farm is approved to be constructed”.

In an affidavit obtained by the Geelong Advertiser, Ms Tannock said Mr Cumming only learnt “for the first time” that the planning minister had approved the Golden Plains wind farm’s brolga compensation and management plans when he checked the farm’s website.

There have been 27 brolga breeding spots found within 3km of the Golden Plains Wind Farm site. Source: Glen Fergus/WikiMedia.

According to the affidavit, these compensation and management plans intend to “offset deaths due to residual collisions after nesting sites and flocking sites have been adequately buffered”.

Mr Cumming intends to argue in the Supreme Court that the plans overlooked the environment effects statement and has ignored “the necessity to protect breeding sites of brolga”.

In the affidavit, Ms Tannock said it is not the first time the planning minister has outmanoeuvred Mr Cumming to move forward with construction.

In January 2021, Mr Cumming fought the minister on its decision to grant the Golden Plains wind farm an amended permit that would expand its original 181 large turbines out to 215.

Three weeks from a May 2022 hearing, the state government changed local planning laws so the wind farm could proceed without a permit.

The $2bn Golden Plains wind farm is expected to deliver what could be enough energy to meet approximately nine per cent of Victoria’s total electricity demand and power around 7,500 homes.

TagEnergy, sole investor in the first stage, said it “reflects a fast-maturing industry embracing inventive approaches helping speed both project timelines and the transition to clean energy”.

Originally published as Controversial Golden Plains wind farm hit with fifth legal challenge