Wind farm a threat to jobs, say lobbyists By Ryan Groube
Jack Krikorian and Jenny Disley operate a business less than two kilometres from the proposed Mt Emerald Wind Farm site.
JACK Krikorian and Jenny Disley live 1800 metres from the proposed Mt Emerald Wind Farm site and are active and vocal objectors to the development. The couple run a farm hire business, Walkamin Enterprises, at Channel Road, and can have as many as 40 foreign workers staying at three boarding houses on their property at any one time. Workers at the property are employed by Mr Krikorian and Ms Disley on their pineapple, tea tree and lettuce farm as well neighbouring farms, predominately in the Arriga and Walkamin area. They are worried if the development goes ahead the noise and visual impacts will “severely impact” their ability to run their business and will destroy the idyllic lifestyle of the close-knit community. “There are many, not just us, who imagine that we may have to shut the doors if this goes ahead,” Ms Disley
said. “There have been surveys at other wind farm sites that show that people are being affected (by wind farms) 17 kilometres away; we have workers on paddocks less than 1.8 kilometres away. “We provide workers to all the banana farms in this area and it is an essential service to this community.” The couple are both members of lobby group Wind Turbine Action, which has collected a petition of about 4000 signatures from people objecting to the development. Mr Krikorian said residents had felt as though they had been backed into a corner by developers and had little recourse to formally object to the development. “We know everyone in this community, it’s a great little community, and we’ve been backed into a corner,” he said. “This (property) is our playground, it is where we want to live and where all of our friends are so of course we have reasons for angst.”
Turbine battle set to heat up in 2014 continued from page 1 Ratch Australia’s Geoff Dutton and Anil Nangia gave council a 30-minute overview on the benefits of the development. Mr Nangia said the project would result in $70 million spent in the region during construction and would require a workforce of 250 at its peak, with about 90 jobs expected to be sourced from the Tableland. Once operational, the project would have a yearly operational spend of $6 million and will support 16 jobs. A community funding
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PAGE 6 The Express, Wednesday, January 29, 2014
atMs MeMbers
planning scheme was adopted, the council at the time had never anticipated having to deal with a major commercial wind farm of the size of the Mt Emerald development. As a result, the paperwork was filed as a “public utility” – which encompasses developments such as water and sewerage infrastructure, and is code assessable, not impact assessable. If the development had been impact assessable, council would be able to formally seek submissions for and against the project.
Mt Emerald Wind Farm development timeline August 12, 2011: Material change of use application for the establishment of a 75-turbine wind farm lodged to the Tablelands Regional Council by Mt Emerald Wind Farm Pty Ltd.
March 31, 2012: Developers hold a community consultation meeting about the project which led to the formation of opposition lobby group Wind Turbine Action.
August 26, 2011: TRC notifies the applicants that the documents were “not properly made” on the basis of a technicality.
May 1, 2012: TRC lodges an information request with the applicants seeking further information that staff considered necessary to properly assess the application.
October 7, 2011: The TRC adopt a Temporary Local Planning Instrument due to inadequate provisions with the Mareeba Shire Council planning scheme to assess the application. March 29, 2012: The application for the Mt Emerald Wind Farm was deemed to be properly made.
October 12, 2012: TRC grants a request from the applicants for an extension to the response period for the information request until October 28, 2013. September 19, 2013: The TRC grant a further extension for the information until April 28, 2014.
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