Solar farms ‘threat’ to life on the land, say Queensland graziers

Graziers from Smoky Creek in central Queensland fear solar farmers will take away prime agricultural land and ruin their livelihoods.

For the graziers of Smoky Creek in central Queensland, the sea of lush, shoulder-high grass covering their paddocks is the best sight in the world.

Not only is it a lovely view, the green panic and Rhodes grass growing on the nutritious, undulating scrub soil means fat cattle and money at the market after years of drought.

But where the graziers see cattle-fattening potential and a beautiful landscape, a new type of farmer looks up above the sea of grass and sees value of a different kind.

To the solar farmers looking to stake a claim in this patch of country, 40km north of Biloela, the value is in the plentiful sun and high-voltage power lines running over the hills.

The graziers of Smoky Creek, who have formed a tight alliance to counter their would-be neighbours’ plans, fear that what the solar farmers want to do with the 3600ha block will ruin their livelihoods and lifestyle, and render useless the prime agricultural land beneath the sea of panels.

It is a battle being played out on farming land across Australia.

“The country’s too good to put panels on it, it’s food-producing land,” says grazier Cedric Creed, whose property will neighbour the proposed solar farm.

“Only 2.5 per cent of Queensland’s landmass is A and B-class land, including here. Queensland’s got plenty of other country that they could put panels on.”

Mr Creed and his neighbours support the need for renewable electricity, but they are concerned about where that electricity is made.

The Smoky Creek Solar Power Station is proposed by Sydney-based Edify, which has similar projects across the country.

About 1800ha of the leased block would be covered in panels, generating up to 1,194,000 MWh of electricity a year, employing about 350 people during construction but creating only a handful of permanent jobs.

The state government’s Queensland Solar Farm Guidelines say solar farms should only be built on “suitable land, which is relatively flat, has a low risk of flooding, suitable geological conditions, and where possible avoids important agricultural land”.

“It basically describes this place as unsuitable for a solar farm,” Mr Creed says. “But the council says they’re just guidelines.”

The graziers fear the soft soil, which erodes easily, will become unstable if it is disturbed by the thousands of panels. They say the proposed tree screening will do little to block out the panels and make up for the lost view.

“Our whole lifestyle and wellbeing will be totally disrupted by construction and ongoing impacts of this installation over the next 40 years,” neighbour Les Marshall says.

They also fear heat island effects and toxins, chemicals and herbicides running from the solar farm into their paddocks, dams and the nearby Don River.

“Aside from all the things that affect us here, we just think the whole principle of using Australian agricultural food-producing land for these projects is something Australian people need to realise is happening,” Cedric’s wife Therese says. “Our relatives in Sydney are horrified to hear our food-producing land is jeopardised by this.”

Desperate for help, the graziers contacted politicians from all levels of government.

“They told us they couldn’t do anything because it’s approved at a local level, and they couldn’t step over the local (Banana Shire) council without breaching the Planning Act,” Ms Creed says.

Work on the solar farm was due to begin in January, but the graziers were able to ensure the project was deemed a “controlled action” under federal legislation, requiring further reports about the impact the development would have on the environment.

Neighbour Rick Tomlin, who has lived on his farm for 75 years, says governments should be focusing on directing subsidies into running transmission lines into areas with less productive soil.

Federal Coalition MP Garth Hamilton agrees, saying he’s concerned about the solar farms popping up on prime agricultural land in his Groom electorate based around Toowoomba on the Darling Downs.

“I’m all for solar farms, but putting them on prime agricultural land shouldn’t be our first option,” he says. “You’ve really got to strike a balance of where you put it.”

State MP Colin Boyce, whose electorate includes Smoky Creek, says the government needs to create stronger rules around where solar and wind farms can be built.

“The more of these proposals that come online, the more and more land that will be used especially if we are to develop an industrial hydrogen production facility at Gladstone,” he says.

“We’ve got plenty of land that is not so arable in central Australia where some of these projects might be built where they’re not affecting the smaller operations of graziers and farmers.”