Wind Power in Far North Queensland

(Written 17 January 2022)

Recently, having coffee with a friend, we were chatting about wind power. The Mount Emerald Wind Farm lies between my town, Atherton and its sister town, Mareeba. Now it seems that the Queensland Government has planned many much bigger wind farms in our area. It was thus that I first learnt of the Save Chalumbin campaign. The area designated for this next wind farm lies beside the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. As locals, we believed Chalumbin to be a conservation buffer zone. Forest will be cleared to build the wind farm. Prestigious ecologists believe the project will severely affect many species of wildlife including the endangered Red Goshawk and such vulnerable species as the Brood Frog and the Northern Greater Glider. It is Jirrbal land and contains places and artifacts of great cultural significance.

Until I heard of this campaign, I had not been thinking about the adverse footprint that the production of wind energy could cause.

The project area is more than 1000 ha of high biodiverse forest. At minimum, land will be cleared directly under 95 big wind turbines. Additionally, there will be 146 km of access tracks from 60 m to 100 m wide, substations, concrete batching plants and construction areas. Clearing for high and low voltage power lines both within and outside the project area will occur. According to the project proponent, long-held forested grazing properties Glen Gordon and Wooroora Station, 15km southwest of Ravenshoe, were identified because the area is an “excellent wind resource” and for the “proximity” to the grid.

Renewable wind power farms are currently being fast tracked by Queensland Government and have separate rules for environmental assessment. The proposed Chalumbin wind farm has triggered the EPBC Act.

Yes, it is urgent that we decarbonise Earth, but we do need to be incredibly careful that while saving our climate we do not destroy our world.

The assessment of renewable energy projects needs to be undertaken on a cumulative basis. It is ironic that the region now chosen for wind farms and associated infrastructure was banned for use by timbergetters. Our timber mills are now gone. What happens to all the wood resulting from the clearing for these projects? Is it burnt? Land clearing is supposed to stop! The Magnificent Brood Frog lives only on the Atherton Tableland near Ravenshoe in QLD. This is where all the windfarms and associated projects are planned.

Four broad habitats exist in the Chalumbin Wind Farm project area:

• Notophyll vine forest,
• Riparian zones,
• Rocky pavement shrub complex, and
• Eucalypt woodland.

One of my burning questions was: why are wind farms being built over 1500 km from where most of the power will be used? Tim Flannery gives a reason in his book The Climate Cure. It seems the wind blows in a contrarian fashion to that of southern areas. Hmm! The Mount Emerald Wind Farm has been operating for a few years now but not at its capacity. There are technical reasons for this associated with the grid. I know that at one stage, the wind turbines were only turned on when the Barron Gorge Power Station started operating each afternoon.

The whole network of high voltage lines will need upgrading as the various projects are implemented, cutting through more swathes of forest near the peaks of our mountain ranges. There must be other alternatives.