September 20, 2012
Australia

Wind farm protestors tell Ratch to ‘rack off’

By Charlie McKillop | ABC Rural | www.abc.net.au 20 September 2012

Protestors have made their opposition to a proposed wind farm on the Atherton Tableland very clear at a public meeting in Mareeba.

A proposal to build far north Queensland’s largest wind farm has been met with fiery opposition at a public meeting on the Atherton Tableland yesterday.

Residents and farmers fear the $ 700 million development near Walkamin which includes 75 wind turbines will turn their idyllic rural hamlet into an industrial wasteland.

They say they’ve been ignored by the company proposing the wind development at Mount Emerald, near Walkamin.

Ratch Australia and Port Bajool had called the meeting to engage with the community, but they may have got more than they bargained for.

Bruce Watkin and son, Rob, from Mt Uncle Farms at Walkamin were in the frontline of the protest today.

They say they’ve had to put up with prisons, waste dumps and a main highway ripping through their community and they’ve had enough.

“The (Tolga) range is one of the most pristine ranges in the area; there’s 130 species up there, animals and plants, 38 of them near endangered,” Bruce Watkin says.

“I’d like to know where all the greenies are, I’d like to know where the Queensland Wildlife Society (sic) are?”

But while some have clearly made up their minds about the merits of the Mt Emerald wind farm, others in attendance were still forming their views.

There’s no doubt there was plenty of information on offer, but the answers being sought specifically by protestors were not so forthcoming.

Question after question was fired off on the loud speaker, and met with uncomfortable silence.

After initially refusing to do so, Ratch boss Geoffrey Dutton addressed the fiery crowd, but many left unsatisfied with his promise to provide detailed answers in two weeks.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/09/20/wind-farm-protestors-tell-ratch-to-rack-off/