Steve Kelly, Bronte Neville-Mott speak on unpaid Woolooga solar farm work

Two subcontractors left $400,000 out of pocket for work done on a $130m Queensland solar farm have been forced to take drastic measures just to survive.

A subcontractor owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for work on the Woolooga solar farm said the fallout had left him sleepless and wondering where the money will come from.

Kelly’s Earthworks owner Steve Kelly said he was owed about $200,000 for work on the $130m solar farm west of Gympie.

“I’m wondering how I’m going to pay my bills,” Mr Kelly said.

“There have been a lot of sleepless nights.”

He said the payment blockage was caused by PCL Construction, which had been brought on board by the farm’s developer Lightsource BP.

PCL Constructions has not responded to requests for comment about claims that millions of dollars have not been paid to subcontractors working on the project.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Lightsource BP.

Kelly's Earthworks owner Steve Kelly said he has had "sleepless nights" over a debt of "about $200,000" he said he was owed for work at the Woolooga Solar Farm near Gympie.

Mr Kelly said carrying that owed debt had forced him to take drastic measures at his Yandina business.

“I’ve had to stop drawing a wage myself,” he said.

“That’s money we have worked for … there’s not a lot of profit coming out of it.”

Toowoomba-based Mottley Civil was another company claiming it was owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for work at the Woolooga development.

Mottley Civil general manager Bronte Neville-Mott said the non-payment had put them “under financial duress”.

“We’re at the mercy of the other (unpaid) contractors,” she said.

Her company had been engaged at the solar farm for about four months.

She said this was not something for which services could simply be withheld until the problems were resolved.

Steve Kelly said he had stopped drawing a wage for himself as a result of the ongoing payment issues stemming from his work on the Woolooga project. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“The work has been done,” Mrs Neville-Mott said.

“It’s been done and completed.”

The issues plaguing the Woolooga Solar Farm were not isolated to that project, she said.

It appeared to be a recurring trend on a number of solar farm projects across Australia.

Mrs Neville-Mott said part of this was the ongoing use of overseas companies who were unfamiliar with working in Australian conditions.

She said the fallout from the payment problems affected more than the bottom line, too.

“The fallout of this is affecting people’s mental health,” she said.

The claims of unpaid money were part of several serious issues raised about the solar farm project, along with concerns that a live 33,000 volt underground electrical cable had not been registered with the authorities before being connected to the nearby substation.

The 214MW solar farm is now sending power into the state’s grid.

A Lightsource BP spokesman said last Thursday information had since been submitted and the company was working closely with contractors to finalise registering the work.