Hawkesdale residents call for further survey of wind farm site

The Hawkesdale Wind Farm Community Engagement Committee wants up-to-date information on the activity of birds and bats at the site, councillor Damian Gleeson said at the Tuesday meeting.

The initial survey, which was conducted in 2010, found one brolga at the site but community members believe more investigation was needed.

Cr Gleeson said community members were concerned about the possible impacts of the wind farm, which adjoins wetlands.

"Back when the survey was done it could have been the driest season we've ever had," he said.

Cr Gleeson said community members had witnessed brolgas at the wind farm site this year.

"The report they've got before them is 15-years-old and they don't think that's good enough," Cr Gleeson said.

"The least we can do is support them."

Cr Gleeson said community members wanted another survey to be completed before the wind farm became operational.

Construction of the wind farm commenced this year.

Spanish wind farm developer GPG will build 23 turbines across 50 parcels of land covering 2280 hectares less than two kilometres south-east of Hawkesdale.

The development became a lightning rod for local anger over the years, culminating with a group of Hawkesdale residents forming an association to take the state government and the wind farm developer to the Victorian Supreme Court.

The association argued a decision by the Victorian planning minister in November 2020 to extend the wind farm permit was invalid because the minister didn't get the local landholders to sign off on the extension. The case fell at every hurdle, struck down in the Supreme Court in August 2021 and again in the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal in August 2022.

In both cases the court found the group of concerned residents didn't have the legal standing to pursue the issue due to a range of factors including its late formation - it was only legally incorporated immediately prior to filing legal action - and the fact many of its members were not directly affected by the wind farm.

The three-judge Court of Appeal also dismissed the group's claim that the minister needed the landholders of the proposed wind farm site to sign off on the extension. "None of the grounds of appeal have been made out," Justice Karin Emerson said in the judgement.

GPG ticked off the last of the permit conditions in December, allowing construction to begin.

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