Wind turbines cause friction

Bendigo Advertiser
19/05/2007 Page: 29

PIPERS Creek is majestic countryside, whatever eyes you look through; rolling hills flanked by the northern slopes of the Cobaw Ranges pushing north-east into the McHarg Ranges and beyond. It is the start of the great boulder country that continues through to Kilmore and Seymour. It is as though ancient giants have left a playground of strewn marbles in jumbled clusters, often poised precariously on the lips of rocky outcrops.

But its hilltops are bald, stripped of almost all vegetation during the 150 or so years since white settlement. Dennis Cartwright came to this area about 10 years ago to set up a family vineyard. He bought more than 40 hectares from a local sheep farmer whose property had been quarantined after an outbreak of Bovine Johnes disease decimated the herds and livelihoods of many graziers. The muscle-wasting disease is spread through the faecal contamination of pastures that are carrying more beasts than they can sustain.

Many Pipers Creek farms changed hands as a result of the disease, others switched to cattle, country retreats and niche market ventures, such as vineyards. In early 2004, another opportunity knocked on the door - wind farming was on the agenda. "I was approached in early 2004 by Wind Power Pty Ltd," Mr Cartwright recalled. "Their conversation was along the lines that they were looking to invest in wind opportunities around the area and would we be prepared to enter an exclusivity arrangement not to talk to anyone else.

"That was before the Macedon Ranges Landscape Guardians came along." The next thing Mr Cartwright knew his name was being bandied around the neighbourhood as the "black sheep" of the local community who had sold out to the wind energy enemy. "One neighbour was abused by another neighbour, saying that he had agreed to put a wind turbine on top of his hill, which meant the other neighbour's superannuation was going to depreciate because the property's value would go down," Mr Cartwright said.

"They said I was the bad guy, but no one ever came to see me. "There was all this beat-up going on and all Wind Power had wanted to do was put a monitoring station on my hill," he said. "There's nothing wrong with keeping options and I really an in favour of wind energy, I suppose. They're a great thing for the environment."

Mr Cartwright said he could not accept arguments that wind turbines affected birds and said he had satisfied himself by visiting the Ararat wind farm to check noise problems. "They make a whoosh when you are up close," he said. `But as to the concrete pollution argument from the turbine footings, that's bull; cows graze happily underneath them. "There really are no arguments that make sense, the only thing being the aesthetics. Some find them offensive and others find them peaceful," Mr Cartwright said. "I think they add a component of humanity to a landscape without necessarily having anyone around. "It's a vitality," he said.