Wind farm: Fera

ANDREW Lawson was unfortunately unavailable for an interview to coincide with the interview with Darryl Otzen from the Strathbogies Responsible Renewables Community Group, however he supplied some information and we hope to have an interview with him in next week’s edition.

According to the information Andrew supplied, “This year will see a lot of investigation and assessment take place.”

Reports, information and advice are being developed regarding the area’s biodiversity and ecology, including the identification of no-go areas, cultural heritage, desktop geotechnical and bushfires.

These will inform the siting of turbines and infrastructure to avoid areas of highest sensitivity or constraint.

The second group of reports include an expansion upon the biodiversity and ecology, cultural heritage, bushfire and desktop geotechnical studies, as well as noise and vibration, preliminary landscape and visual impact assessment, traffic, water and hydrology, desktop aviation, land use planning and consultation planning. These will be prepared in relation to the micro-sited layout plan.

Following the earlier desktop investigations Biosis conducted an Initial Field Survey to review the preliminary turbine and access track site inspections (late November, Early December 2023).

The group inspected the turbine locations and potential access roads to identify any potential ecology issues.

Andrew advised that five to six locations may require further investigation (potential relocation or deletion) but the vast majority were located in farmland and appeared not to have any ecology issues.

The information said, “To ensure that all key ecology elements are included in the detail surveys we met with the Landcare and Environmental group representatives from across the project in February in Yea. These meetings have been….