Heartland Farmers is a collective of more than 200 farmers in the Central Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. The proposed Ceres project will cause considerable and permanent disruption to broadacre cropping in the area ear-marked for turbine development.
To the words clean, green and safe – add community.
That’s the new spin for the next breed of wind-powered generation plants.
Hepburn Wind is Australia’s first self-proclaimed “community” wind farm.
But the concerns of the local residents most impacted by this outfit have been ignored, even when they have left their homes to regain their health.
Their requests for wind mast data and details of turbine operations to enable their own acoustician to independently determine compliance with existing noise regulations have been denied by Hepburn Wind Chairman, Simon Holmes a Court.
Why would he do this if the development is compliant?
Surely the shareholders of Hepburn Wind, many who are not locals, would be keen to show how their wind development is not breaking current laws relating to noise pollution?
Perhaps they are unaware that the chairman and the staff of Hepburn Wind are not providing this information to these residents, who have been so badly affected?
HW founder Simon Holmes a Court told the first Senate inquiry his organisation operated on “radical transparency” but he has frequently cited “privacy issues” or “commercial in confidence” reasons for keeping details of the wind farm’s shareholders and performance a secret.
And in true wind industry style, he was quick to blame sick residents for “not cooperating” – yet he refuses to cooperate with their quite reasonable requests.
Additionally, a local doctor, Andja Mitric-Andjic, has spoken out strongly against HW – saying she has both treated patients suffering WTS and been affected herself.
In fact, she and her family have been forced from their relatively newly-built home.
You can see her Federal Senate inquiry submission here.
HW’s attack on Dr Mitric-Andjic has been sustained, which seems to be the method behind the HW madness.
Dr Mitric-Andjic was also singled out for criticism by Senator Doug Cameron’s report into the second federal Senate inquiry, because Hepburn Wind said she wouldn’t cooperate.
Dr Mitric-Andjic has asked Hepburn Wind to hand-over the wind speed data and the power output data to determine whether or not the turbines were operating at full capacity when the noise monitoring was done.
We understand Hepburn Wind has consistently refused to do so.
Where is the accountability of this so called “community” wind development to the community most negatively impacted by its activities ie those who live closest?
Do its shareholders know what their money has done, how it has wrecked the physical and mental health of some of the nearby residents?
Are they proud of what their “community” wind farm has achieved?
And while we are there, just how much has Hepburn Wind received in renewable energy certificates, and are they REALLY compliant?
“Community” wind farms are the future, says Holmes a Court.
But don’t fooled. It’s just another blueprint for making money.
Hepburn Council is asking for input on its plan for the next four years, and one of the topics is HW. Here’s the link.
This represents the only public forum we know of at the moment for comment on this project (apart from us!).
Secondly, checkout Heartlandfarmers.com.
They’re a group of primary producers fighting the Ceres wind power generation proposal in South Australia.
The group says: “Right now, the Ceres proposal is a win-lose scenario, a zero sum game if you will. If turbines are erected on farms in Central Yorke Peninsula, farm yields will drop considerably at the expense of energy production. This is a needless outcome. There are a range of alternative locations with similar wind speeds and directions in arid land where farming is not possible, where people do not reside and which would suit the commercial needs of wind energy companies such as REpower.”
About stopthesethings
STOP THESE THINGS 
Heartland Farmers Group is more than just farmers, it comprises farmers, business people and holiday shack owners, a lot of whom will be directly affected by the Ceres Wind Turbine Project.There are many outsiders who have joined up in support as well. Virtually the whole community has pulled together, except for 36 hosts.
The group was started by a small band of half a dozen or so farmers, whose farms were going to be right in the middle of this project. They were all offered turbines, but decided against them, thinking more about the future of their children and the community as a whole. However, if the project goes ahead, they will all be greatly affected by the the turbines on their neighbours properties, neighbours who gave them no consideration whatsoever. They banded together and decided to fight and laid the foundations for what is now Heartland Farmers. The ground work they have done is phenomenal and because of this, Heartland Farmers is a force to be reckoned with. I don’t want to start counting chickens, but the latest ‘pub talk’ is that the hosts of the Ceres Wind Turbine Project, have a distinct ‘air of defeat’ about them. We can only hope, but I can also assure them, Heartland Farmers will not stop fighting.
This same small group, as well as Heartland Farmers as a whole, have been vilified by the hosts and the developers, told they are spreading misinformation to outright lies, one idiot on the internet called them “200 liars”, but his sanity is questionable. The fight isn’t over, but Heartland Farmers will see it through to very end and they are gaining in strength as they go.
Whos community is it at Leonards Hill? Not the locals, its the fitzroy, brunswick, st kilda and anywhere else they comes from’s.
This term is a scam, Hepburn wind are scammers, as are all wind farm operators. When they had the opening of the turbines the vast majority of the cars came from the melbourne direction, and how surprising it was to see the large number of large 4wd’s, nearly all with guzzling petrol engines (not a diesel in sight)!
Hepburn wind promised to be trasparent and release power output, of course thay has never happened. just a bunch of liers looking for a handout in the eyes of most locals.
Community projects, what a laugh.
Unless the WHOLE community supports it, it is not a community project but one for a section of a community. If a project has been given permission against the wishes of some of the community then it is absolutely necessary it is operated so as not to cause adverse affects on members of the community who opposed it. If its causing adverse effects then it should be turned off until it can be operated to the conditions it received its approval on, if this cannot be achieved it should be permanently shut down. Those who supported it may have to suffer a financial loss, but thats part of the gambling game. Gamble on an unsure thing and you are likely to lose.
Current Victorian government regulations don’t allow new wind turbines to be sited any closer than 2 km from a residence without the specific approval of the resident. Leonard’s Hill residents Trevor and Maree Frost have one of Hepburn Wind’s two wind turbines located only 660 meters from their home, in what was hitherto a peaceful rural setting.
The Frost’s requests to Hepburn Wind for wind speed data have apparently been no more successful than have those of Dr Mitric-Andjic.