Treated with ‘contempt’: Meet the rural community trying to stop 740,000 panel solar farm ripping their way of life apart

A community outside Goulburn is fighting an attempt by a European solar factory giant to destroy hundreds of acres of prime grazing land, tearing their community apart

A group of landholders, retirees and hobby farmers south of Goulburn say their peaceful way of life is under threat from a plan to install a solar farm covering hundreds of acres of prime grazing land and consisting of more 740,000 solar panels on their doorstep.

Since at least 2022, Lightsource bp, a partnership between BP (formerly British Petroleum) and a European solar farm developer, has been fighting to build the project, which local opponents say will increase fire risk, risk property values, and create noise, visual, and environmental pollution risks.

“You’ve got … 740,000 solar panels (coming) here,” said Gundary Plains grazier Ann Moore, who with her husband has been campaigning against the project, which will run up against her property’s fence line.

“Now, there’s also going to be a substation. There’s going to be motors moving these things every 15 minutes,” she said, explaining the expected impact of the project.

“There’s an impression that people have that renewable energy, like solar energy, is kind of cost free to the environment or to the people around it.”

740,000 solar panels are proposed for land at Gundary near Goulburn.

“But it’s not because the panels are made in China and that BP will not tell us that they’re not going to be made by Uighyur slaves.”

“They will strip all the pasture off the hills and that’ll be and I’ve just been driving through here earlier today, and I’m pretty familiar with this area. There’s great cattle and sheep country out here, all of that land out there that’s got to be lost now, too.

The Moores say they are part of a group of around 60 local landholders who have been treated “with absolute contempt” by Lightsource bp.

“On one level they try and be very polite, but on another level you get no action. They treat us with absolute contempt.”

“I think they were thought they were going to be speaking to a group of country bumpkins. They made a very big mistake.”

Gundary resident Ann Moore.

An aerial view of the area which would be covered by the solar panels.

This masthead has also seen correspondence from other local landholders to Goulburn Mulwaree Council complaining of poor treatment at the hands of the developers causing stress, mental health problems, and relationship breakdowns.

Independent NSW upper house MP Rod Roberts, himself a Goulburn local, said that the development was completely inappropriate for the area.

“This is prime grazing country for a start, if there is going to be a renewable energy transition we need to put these projects in appropriate locations, on marginal country, where we don’t affect our prime grazing land,“ he said.

“These people have bought out here for the amenity and they want to put this monstrosity out there … there has got to be a more suitable location for these things, and not on prime agricultural land.”

A Lightsource BP spokesman disputed the claims of landholders, calling the project “exciting” and claiming it will “make a significant contribution to the renewable energy landscape in NSW.

“Once completed, it would produce approximately 800,000MWh of renewable energy each year, which is equivalent to powering around 133,000 Australian homes (equivalent to about 75 per cent of the houses in the ACT) or taking 213,000 cars off the road each year for forty years.”

“Throughout the development of this project, Lightsource bp has been strongly committed to engaging with the community proactively and effectively and is dedicated to being a responsible neighbour.

“We have carried out extensive and wide-ranging engagement with the local community and key stakeholders in the area and, following the feedback received, we have significantly refined the layout and design of the project to improve outcomes for the community.”

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