Mount Fyans Wind Energy Facility Planning Panel Report 

The Mount Fyans Wind Energy Facility (the Project) involves the construction and operation of a 400-megawatt, 81 turbine wind energy facility with associated infrastructure. The Project extends over 10,686 hectares on land used predominantly for grazing and cropping. The Project is located approximately 5 kilometres north of Mortlake within the Moyne Shire in south- west Victoria. The Applicant for the Project is Mount Fyans Wind Farm Pty Ltd which operates three wind energy facilities in Tasmania.

Planning permit application PA1800406, made under the Moyne Planning Scheme, proposes that each wind turbine would be a maximum of 200 metres above ground level (to blade tip). The Project includes 19 kilometres of overhead electrical transmission line, an on-site substation and grid connection substation connecting the wind energy facility to the National Electricity Market at the Mortlake Terminal Station. Two wind monitoring masts, cabling, road works including access and the associated removal of native vegetation are also proposed.

The Project is located in an area that features a number of other wind energy facilities within 20 kilometres of Mortlake at Mortlake South (35 turbines), Salt Creek (15 turbines) and Dundonnell (80 turbines), with a number of other wind energy facilities approved or proposed.

Under Clause 72.01-1 of the Victoria Planning Provisions, the Minister for Planning is the Responsible Authority for the Project. The Minister called in the application on 2 June 2019. Objections and submissions were referred to the Panel on 9 February 2023.

As a result of public exhibition in early 2023, 91 objections (including a late submission), 13 supporting submissions and 8 submissions from referral authorities or other agencies were received.

The key issues for submissions opposed to the permit application related to:

• landscape and visual impacts
• environmental impacts including on birds and bats, in particular Brolga and the Southern Bent-wing bat (SBWB)
• amenity and health impacts from turbine noise and blade flicker
• bushfire
• impacts on agriculture
• community and social impacts
• cumulative impact
• a range of other issues.

Supporting submissions identified a range of project benefits including:

• supporting sustainable energy production
• employment and economic benefits.

The Panel conducted an in-person hybrid hearing based in Warrnambool over several weeks, which allowed for party participation and observation through videoconferencing. The Panel received extensive submissions from the Applicant, the Moyne Shire Council and community- based submitters and evidence on traffic, bushfire, native vegetation, flora and fauna and noise.

The impact on Brolga and SBWB, landscape impact and noise including their cumulative impacts are the most determinative aspects of the permit application. They were also the issues most focused on through Hearing submissions and cross-examination. The key question for the Panel is whether these impacts, some of which are unavoidable, are acceptable in the context of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (PE Act), planning policy and other guidance documents. …

Southern Bent-wing Bat

Insufficient application information was supplied concerning potential impacts on the SBWB and mitigation measures to provide the necessary level of confidence that significant impacts will not occur. This includes the cumulative impacts of the Project and other existing wind energy facilities. …

Brolga

The Panel was not persuaded through evidence and submission that the methodology applied in the Brolga Report was sufficiently robust across all three required levels of assessment in the Brolga Guidelines to provide an appropriate level of confidence that:

• all existing and potential flocking and breeding areas have been properly identified and buffered
• breeding buffers substantially less than the default 3.5 kilometre buffers (including disturbance buffer) in the Brolga Guidelines can be supported
• the proposed mitigation measures will be effective in mitigating impacts
• habitat and movement corridors have been adequately considered as required at Clause 52.32-4
• the Project will achieve a net zero impact and avoid cumulative impacts on the Victorian Brolga or that the potential impacts are acceptable.

Other fauna species

Based on the information provided, the Panel does not have sufficient confidence that potential impacts on listed bird and bat species, including habitat and movement corridors, are able to be acceptably managed. …

Landscape impacts

The Project will be a visually dominant element within a generally flat landscape and for some land owners the impacts will be significant. …

Noise

[F]rom a broader amenity perspective the addition of 81 turbines across an expansive site will result in some residents being exposed to noise from multiple wind farms on a more regular basis depending on wind conditions. …

Integrated assessment

[T]he Project has the potential to have material impacts on the environment, particularly on Brolga and Southern Bent-wing Bat. In the Panel’s view there is too much uncertainty about these impacts based on the level of information provided for it to have an appropriate level of confidence that these impacts are acceptable. These issues cannot be satisfactorily mitigated through permit conditions at this stage.

The Panel considers this level of uncertainty outweighs the positive outcomes of the Project, and tips the balance of the Project to one that will not have a net community benefit or achieve a sustainable development outcome.

8 August 2023

Download original document: “Mount Fyans Wind Energy Facility Planning Panel Report”