CQ farmers protest against Smoky Creek solar farm
CQ farmers are protesting against the construction of a solar farm in Smoky Creek that will have enormous impacts on the surrounding agriculture. VIDEO, PHOTOS.
Gladstone
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Central Queensland farmers and graziers made the 500km drive to Brisbane to make their concerns about green projects encroaching on agricultural land heard outside parliament this week.
As Queensland embraces the introduction of renewable and green energies, concerns have been raised by those whose livelihoods depend on the land being proposed for wind and solar farms across the region at the “reckless renewables rally” on Tuesday, August 23.
After six years of writing more than 350 letters to all levels of government, including political decision-makers and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, arguing against the Smoky Creek Solar Power Station, grazier Cedric Creed knew it was time to get more vocal and attend the event.
Mr Creed said the construction of the proposed 5000 acre solar facility by Edify Energy next to his property, 40km north of Biloela and 75km south of Rockhampton, would have detrimental effects on the surrounding farmland.
“Only 2.5 per cent of Queensland’s available land is fit for growing food, and they’ve proposed to built a 5000 acre solar farm on prime agricultural land,“ he said.
Mr Creed believes the State Government’s existing guidelines around the construction of solar farms are useless and “not mandatory”.
“All of our stock water is surface water, which will all run off that site,“ he said.
“If we have a huge rain event, the silt is going to leak straight into our dams and affect our water supply.
“If there’s a hailstorm and they get smashed, the poisons in the panels end up in our stock water.”
Mr Creed said that a group of farmers in the area, known as the “ten food producers of Smoky Creek” had been advocating for the Queensland Government to reconsider its approval for the solar farm, to no avail.
At the Bush Summit in Rockhampton on Friday, August 18, he captured the Premier‘s attention in the hopes of discussing his concerns with her, but was unable to speak with her.
Mr Creed told her in a letter this week it was not a level playing field, citing her Bush Summit speech when she stated she listened to Queenslanders when making policy.
He said they feel they are “just being brushed aside to assist this blind rush into wind and solar power”.
The State Government earlier announced a review of the requirements for wind farm developments in Queensland was underway.
The government stated the wind farm code and guidelines will be reviewed to better protect areas of high ecological and biodiversity value, protect the Great Barrier Reef from the impact of construction, and highlight rehabilitation requirements and expectations, among other reasons.
Glen Kelly is a sixth generation grazier at Kalapa, near Rockhampton, who said the amount of proposed green energy constructions around him were too vast to list.
Under Queensland’s current planning laws, the State Government already assesses all wind farm applications through its State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA).
“Through admissions through the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA), we’ve exposed the lies that get put to the government to get these projects through,” he said.
“We would like to see a moratorium come through on these projects … they’re happening so fast that it shows me they don’t care about wildlife and the environment, and they certainly do not care about regional Queensland.”
Mr Kelly also highlighted the emotional stress being put on farmers.
“I’ve seen more than a few tears at recent protests. Where’s the mental health support for these farmers whose livelihoods are being threatened?“ he said.
“I’m not going to give up.
“If I lose, my brain will heal and my heart will heal, because I’ll know that I did everything I could.”
Edify Energy, the company behind development of the solar farm at Smoky Creek, did not directly respond to Mr Creed‘s concerns, instead providing its environmental management, planning and erosion and sediment management reports.
The proposed changes to the wind farm code are open for community consultation until Monday, September 4.
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