From STOP THESE THINGS

The land area destroyed to house a couple of wind turbines (often in pristine forests) compares unfavourably with the area needed to house a single nuclear power plant. See above – the area gouged out of one of Queensland’s (previously untouched) tropical rainforests to allow space for just two of these things – huge strips of the area in question will ultimately be bulldozed to make way for hundreds more (see pic below).

Then, there’s the additional (and entirely unnecessary) environmental destruction to make way for the 60-70m blades, tower sections and giant nacelles weighing over 100 tonnes. Navigating those components along narrow tree-lined roads is impossible; so, in the name of saving the planet, the trees are all axed – irrespective of their obvious environmental and indeed societal value.

Such is the case with a tree-lined highway in Oberon, New South Wales. The trees themselves were planted over a century ago in honour of those 330,000 Australian soldiers who fought, and the 68,000 who died, during the Great War; at Gallipoli, in France, Belgium and the Middle East.

First, we’ll cross to The Daily Telegraph where the wind industry’s latest outrage is outlined. Then we’ll cross to Sky News, where Peta Credlin and Jonathon Duniam pick up the thread and Nick Cater points out that the whole wind and solar disaster could be avoided if only Australia grew up and went nuclear.

Fears new wind farm near Oberon could result in Anzac Memorial Drive trees being slashed
The Daily Telegraph
Lachlan Leeming
15 May 2024

An Anzac memorial consisting of a 100-year-old crop of trees is at risk from a new wind farm, with furious locals calling on the Minister for veterans to block the move over fears it’ll kill the plants.

The proposal for the Paling Yards wind farm, by the Australian arm of Madrid-based renewable energy giant GPG, features 47 new wind turbines up to 240 metres tall and has caused outrage around the central west town of Oberon.

Current plans for the wind farm, which is yet to receive final approval, would involve the blades and other components being trucked to the site through the tiny village of O’Connell.

But doing so could require slashing back the trees which make up the war memorial along the O’Connell Avenue Memorial Drive leading to the town.

A May update put out by GPG concedes that studies found that contact from the giant blades would impact the trees by up to a metre, although “no material damage is caused to the trees”.

“GPGA, in consultation with Veteran Affairs, has agreed to certain monitoring and reporting recommendations aimed at the protection of the Avenue of Honour,” the update states, saying a detailed report would be submitted in the future.

The explanation has left local community members and their MP furious over the impact on the memorial.

Bathurst MP and shadow police Minister Paul Toole said the trees are an “icon for the village of O’Connell and a meaningful memorial for the families of WWI veterans who served from the area”.

“This just goes to show that these foreign-owned energy moguls will do anything to make their money making renewable factories, even to the extent of destroying war memorials,” he said.

“It is not in the Anzac nor the Australian spirit to prioritise renewable projects over the conservation of a WWI war memorial.

“These companies are money hungry enterprises who think they can run over the top of regional communities.”

Chris Muldoon, a local businessman and a committee member of Oberon Against Wind Towers, said despite the explanation, they had fears over what it would mean for their community.

He had written to Veterans Minister David Harris saying the trees could die if cut back.

“Any Anzac memorial is sacred, particularly for a small community like O’Connell who are very protective about it,” he said.
The Daily Telegraph

Residents ‘up in arms’ over wind farm to bulldoze Anzac monument
Sky News
Peta Credlin, Jonathon Duniam, Nick Cater
15 May 2024

Sky News host Peta Credlin says a new wind farm proposed in Oberon is set to bulldoze an Anzac monument as locals are “up in arms” over the concern.

“It might sound like a little issue, but it is really important,” Ms Credlin said.

“Locals in Oberon are up in arms that an Anzac monument … in honour of fallen diggers will be bulldozed in order to put in a wind farm.”

Transcript

Peta Credlin: Jon, it might sound like a little issue, but it’s really important. Locals in Oberon are up in arms that an Anzac monument, which is an avenue of trees that was planted, they’re 100 years old now, in honour of fallen diggers, will be bulldozed in order to put in a wind farm.

Jonathon Duniam: Now, this is not a little issue at all. Where do we stop? Where do we draw the line with what expense is appropriate to foot when it comes to this pursuit of transition to renewables? In Victoria, we saw Jacinta Allan saying that we will destroy a Ramsar listed wetland, trash the environment to save the planet to build this terminal for an offshore wind farm. And now in Oberon, it’s okay to desecrate a monument to our fallen diggers. People who sacrificed their lives for our freedom and liberties for a wind farm.

Honestly, the world has gone crazy. If we’re going to allow that to happen, there is again, something very wrong that needs to be addressed, and the Premier should actually take some action here.

Peta Credlin: That boondoggle from Malcolm Turnbull, if I can, Nick, Snowy 2.0, promised we were told it would cost $2 billion. Another $7 billion in the budget last night. I think the total is something like $12 billion. You are in Finland. They’ve just opened up their latest nuclear reactor last year. That’s obviously the way to go.

Nick Cater: Yeah. I was at the Olkiluoto 3 reactor on Monday talking to the people from TVO, which is a Finnish-led consortium. It’s entirely private sector. It’s entirely 100% Finnish owned. And I said to them, “Well, how much did this baby cost?” We came online last year, it was late. It took longer to build. 5.6 billion Euro. That’s $9.6 billion Australian at the current rate. i.e, considerably cheaper than Snowy Hydro. And for that you get a state-of-the-art, third generation pressurised water reactor, best in Europe, and it’s producing 1.6 gigawatt of power which is like a fair-sized coal-fired power station 24 hours a day. So we are obviously going for second best and Chris Bowen’s continual claim that renewables are cheaper just doesn’t stack up as soon as you get to a country like Finland where they’re actually doing the sensible thing and pushing ahead with nuclear.
Sky News