A RESIDENT furious about the spread of wind farms has warned of dire consequences if major developments proceed.
Annie Gardner lives on a property east of Macarthur and formed a local Landscape Guardians group in 2005 after Southern Hydro announced plans to build Australia's largest wind farm on her boundary.
The project has since been taken over by AGL and is expected to be given final company approval later this year.
Mrs Gardner said there needed to be an enforced distance between turbines and homes to limit health problems linked to low-frequency noise.
"People who are supposedly for it actually live 15 kilometres away from it," she said of the project.
"Mere residents who are next to it, who will be so badly affected by it, were just pushed under the carpet."
The wool grower said blade glint and shadow flicker were other issues of concern and had affected those living near the Waubra wind farm west of Ballarat.
"The main thing is the noise and the effect on people. What everybody doesn't realise is the enormous litigation that will take place - there will be class actions," she said.
"Also, unfortunately, the developers have conned the participating landholders to let them know that there's no real (health) effect."
Wind energy companies have consistently denied links between turbines and issues such as headaches, nausea, high blood pressure and insomnia, arguing that studies to date have failed to prove a connection.
Australian Landscape Guardians vice-president Kathy Russell said there was peer-reviewed evidence of ill health among those living near the sites, particularly from Amercian researcher Nina Pierpont.
"The noise standard currently is a New Zealand standard dated 1998 which is very old and outdated, and doesn't even ask for testing of the low-frequency component of noise," she said.
"Ultimately (Victorian wind farms) have all been approved on the same flawed standards and the same mistakes are being made."
Macarthur's 174-turbine development is expected to create at least 400 construction jobs and will also provide vital work for Portland's Keppel Prince Engineering.
"Those jobs just don't eventuate. There will be jobs for concrete workers and things, but there aren't any wind turbine engineers hanging around Macarthur looking for a job," Mrs Gardner said.
Wannon Liberal candidate Daniel Tehan said he assessed wind farms on a case-by-case basis and was happy to back communities that supported them.
"I'm supportive of wind farms where there is strong community support for them," he said.
"My view is that there is strong community support for the Macarthur wind farm and that's why I have supported it.
"It will create jobs for Macarthur and Hawkesdale as well as for Portland, and providing jobs for our local communities is vital."
A Department of Planning and Community Development spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
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