The wind industry in Australia today is in a state of constant hysteria.
The events that have culminated in South Australia’s electricity supply and pricing calamity have thrown a spotlight on wind power, with public sentiment shifting from benign indifference to outright hostility (readers of The Australian’s online stories will find hundreds of comments from people who are both astonished and furious at the political incompetence that led to the greatest energy disaster in Australia’s history).
The wind industry’s parasites and spruikers are mounting a faltering rear-guard action, resorting to hackneyed propaganda and inventing downright lies, in the hope of deflecting attention from the obvious cause. Some of them have resorted to undergraduate ranting, directed at the (obviously) ‘evil corporations’ who are profiting from South Australia’s, now routine, $14,000 per MWh spot price spikes (ignoring, of course, the wind power output collapses upon which such rorting necessarily depends).
The same class of rent-seeking, subsidy-sucking Trotskyites have always used the wondrous ‘benefits’ of wind power to excuse the endless suffering caused to wind farm neighbours by incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound. You know, the old “it’s for the greater good”, chestnut.
Now, however, the mainstream media have come to grips with a few unassailable facts: viz, that a power source which is delivered at the whims of nature is utterly meaningless; that without secure, reliable and affordable power businesses will fast go out of business, killing employment and Australia’s future prospects for growth in income and wealth; and that the fast-rising (and already crippling) cost of electricity is crushing cash-strapped families and, for thousands of the poorest, denying them the opportunity of enjoying any power at all.
Against that backdrop, the suffering meted out by Union Superfund backed outfits, like Pacific Hydro to people like Melissa Ware and her family is not only unjustified, it is criminal.
A while back, STT covered the story about one of Melissa’s neighbours, Jo Kermond, when she appeared on national television, ABC’s green-left echo chamber, Q&A (which is like a ‘progressive’s’ version of Jerry Springer). Electricity Bill Shorten, doggedly following the eco-fascist line, publicly denigrated and ridiculed the suffering that Jo and her family have had to tolerate for over six years – calling her a ‘wind farm sceptic’: Labor’s Bill Shorten Publicly Ridicules Joanne Kermond – a Victim of Pacific Hydro’s Non-Compliant Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm
Pacific Hydro’s, Cape Bridgewater wind farm is the place where the Victorian government knows full well the noise levels exceed the limit set by its planning consent. And it’s the place where Marshall Day Acoustics presented fabricated acoustic reports which allowed Pac Hydro to falsely claim compliance with that limit: Pacific Hydro & Acciona’s Acoustic ‘Consultant’ Fakes ‘Compliance’ Reports for Non-Compliant Wind Farms
And it’s also the place where Steven Cooper’s groundbreaking acoustic study proved that the suffering experienced by these people is the direct cause of turbine generated noise and vibration: Steven Cooper’s Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm Study the Beginning of the End for the Wind Industry
Among those victims, Melissa Ware is not only deserving of compassion she is an eloquent voice for the hundreds like her who suffer at the hands of an industry with the moral rectitude of the Roman Emperor Caligula.
In this brilliant letter, published in the Hamilton Spectator, Melissa not only outlines her daily acoustic torment, she delivers a well-deserved swipe at the local Liberal Federal Member, Disappointing Dan Tehan, a pathetic sap who, apparently, hasn’t caught up with events across the border in South Australia.
Hamilton Spectator
Letters
16 July 2016
As a property owner and neighbour to the Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm my family and I directly experience unmitigated, unbearable noise/sound, vibrations and sensations; and the associated negative health impacts resulting from living in too close proximity, at less than 1km to 29 turbines. We are forced to leave our home for extended periods of time and live elsewhere while we continue to be ignored by the Planning Department and by Shires supposedly responsible for adherence to planning permits which we find unsuited to conditions. These authorities neglect the duty of care to the public they are in service to.
The Glenelg and the Moyne Shire refuse to acknowledge and remedy our complaints even while the National Health and Medical Research Council believe the health of a small proportion of the population are impacted by turbines, and are committed to and currently investigating these serious issues particularly at distances less than 1.5km.
Annoyance and sleep disturbance are recognised by the World Health Organisation as a major and authentic issue impacting on public health. For those of us trying to live near wind energy plants; the turbine, tower, blade and substation emissions can be unbearable. Without full investigations of our complaints why keep inflicting this agony onto more and more rural people?
As proven in SA these turbines are useless at providing cheap or constant electricity and the Victorian government are approving the rapid construction of bigger turbines in ruggedly beautiful rural areas without heeding expert warnings.
These and many other issues have been recognised in the 2015 Federal Senate Inquiry into Wind Farms and the 15 recommendations have inconceivably not been formally acknowledged by the Government despite Senator John Madigan’s request to do so as tabled in Parliament.
Infrasound, LFN and amplitude modulation from wind turbines has not been proven to be safe and have NO detrimental effect on public health. Instead the issues are buried by departmental and wind industry disregard and ignorance or justification for the tornado of turbines is unacceptable and no excuse.
There is no question that turbine issues such as amplitude modulation does impact and destroy health. Infrasound or LFN may not be heard by most people but it is certainly felt and our bodies have an unwanted autonomic response to it. Infrasound has such a profound impact on unsuspecting people that infrasonic emitting weapons are utilised by Police Forces to control crowds and public health in the US has been harmed by the practice.
No epidemiological health investigations have been independently conducted in the homes of anyone being adversely impacted by wind energy plants in Australia. Pacific Hydro refused this opportunity during the Steven Cooper extensive acoustic investigation for 8 weeks and months analysing the data obtained from homes and the wind farm. Finding a particular and unique signature of sound which correlates with the sensations experienced by residents was unequivocably squelched by Pacific Hydro and the owners and the board continues to ignore our plight. Wind in trees and dBA as a measurement or boundary of what we’re exposed to and experience is outdated and irrelevant and should be changed as recommended by the Inquiry to fit current and larger turbines.
To ignore the important findings of not only the Inquiry but also independent experts in the acoustic field, such as Thorne, Huson, Cooper, Hanson, Rapley and others, is selfish and foolish and puts greed before public health.
Many rural Australians like me are losing their health, homes, farms and property values because a wind farm is built despite all well researched objections and disapproval. Mr Tehan has stood by allowing these developments and has virtually ignored these issues. Not once has he stood up in Parliament and spoken of our personal issues nor has he ever been in constant contact with me or acted in any progressive way to represent me. In opposition of our concerns he publically supports the renewable industry and businesses within the Shire at the expense of our wellbeing and amenity and is frequently seen in the media photographed alongside industry representatives.
After at least 6 years awareness of these problems Mr Tehan has little to exclaim that in response to his constituents his government supports health studies or he facilitated a meeting with Mr Dyer the wind farm commissioner. Mr Tehan your Australian public is telling you and the Government, that to put ‘jobs and growth’ above our daily concerns and doing your own job which is paid by and for us, is not only incomprehensible but reprehensible.
Melissa Ware
11 Nicholson Rd, Cape Bridgewater.
Dan Tehan may well ignore the suffering of his constituents, while his wind industry mates fall over themselves to deliver to Victorians precisely what they’ve delivered to South Australians: South Australia’s Lessons for the World: Subsidised Wind Power The Fastest Route to Social & Economic Disaster
But no amount of benign indifference on Dan’s part will save Victorians from what’s coming, if his wind industry buddies get their way. Welcome to your State’s wind powered future, Dan.
STOP THESE THINGS 
Hi everyone,
I just started a petition “Premier Jay Weatherill: DEMAND THE RESIGNATION OF SA ENVIRONMENT MINISTER IAN HUNTER FOR WIND POWER PRICE DISASTER” and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name.
You can read more and sign the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/premier-jay-weatherill-demand-the-resignation-of-sa-environment-minister-ian-hunter-for-wind-power-price-disaster?recruiter=135406845&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive
Please share this petition with anyone you think might be interested in signing it.
Thankyou for your time and for your assistance.
Congratulations Melissa, Carmel and STT.
Carmel, you have so articulately written above, exactly what so many thousands of rural Australians have experienced during their lifetime, literally to keep this once magnificent country going…..
My husband and I bought our property 36 years ago – only 580 acres, in the western district of Victoria, some of the richest grazing country in Australia, with a reliable rainfall of around 34 inches a year.
We started off in a most humble manner in this rocky barrier country. However we were fortunate enough to have mains power and of course rainwater, with the greatest asset of all, unbelievable bore water to the extent we’ve never run out of stock water, nor had a plumber on the place to fix problems with our many bores, several of which don’t even have casings due to the underlying volcanic stone in which they’re drilled. Our bore water is of domestic quality.
After all, our property lies in the lava flow of Mt. Rouse, part of the Victorian Volcanic Plain, and UNESCO’s Kanawinka Geo Park.
We were most disturbed to hear in 2004, that our neighbour (6000 acres) and one further neighbour (10,000 acres) were planning along with AGL, to construct the 140 turbine Macarthur wind farm next to our property, covering 65 square kilometres.
After extensive research we discovered this could prove a huge problem, particularly for our ultra-fine shedded sheep enterprise, with dust from construction and potential impact from noise resonating within the walls of the purpose built shed.
We were told by AGL that there would not be a dust problem, there would be “no more noise than an ordinary working farm” and that there would be no health impacts. We were also told by AGL later, that the new VESTAS V112 turbines of 3 megawatts would be “quieter than the V 90, 1.8 MW turbines” originally planned. The Victorian Planning Department deceptively approved AGL’s request for amendment, ignoring many obligations under Section 52 of the Victorian Planning and Environment Act, particularly not bothering to notify neighbours.
We were offered turbines on our property, but refused this offer as after we are all only caretakers of this land, which we loved.
We had at that stage, spent 25 years working to the grindstone, improving our run down property and planting thousands of trees, so why would we then turn around and destroy it, just for money ?
I was bullied and intimidated by AGL during the Planning Panel hearing in 2006, as I dared to object to this proposal so close to our property. My husband and I attended the Panel every day for six weeks where we listened to the lies and spin by the same “pet consultants” used by and paid for by the wind industry over the years.
We also discovered that AGL had been working in this district for quite some time, conning the locals so AGL could claim and sign proformas saying “We support the Macarthur Wind Farm”. Of course AGL has continued to splash money around the district, sponsoring community groups, paying for students to attend sustainability conferences overseas, to mention but a few. There would be few families surrounding the Macarthur wind farm who have not benefited in some way either directly, or indirectly, from AGL’s generosity, never seen in this district before.
Those neighbours who objected, and continue to object to AGL’s Macarthur wind farm, the largest in the southern hemisphere are known as “whingers” and jealous they are not receiving money. Needless to say, this has divided our community.
FAST FORWARD FOUR YEARS ……
Macarthur Wind Farm began construction late 2010.
2011-2012
Late Spring/Summer incredibly dry to the extent dust billowed daily into our property in huge clouds.
2012
January AGL/Leightons set up rock crusher plant less than 1 km from our boundary (mind you 65 sq. kms in which to locate, but located very close to our property ….)
Dust spewed into our property/sheep shed and home to the extent shedded sheep drinking water contaminated. Even our local newspaper came to take pictures, but the conditions were so extreme this was impossible. Sheep poisoned and many losses. Forced closure of shed soon after, suffering huge financial losses since then. Thirty years of breeding gone out the door …..
October 2012
First turbines began operating, gradually coming on line by end January 2013.
I was impacted heavily right from the start, as was my husband not long after.
For more than three years now, my husband and I have been severely impacted, suffering constantly from headaches, ear and nose pressure, excruciating ear pain, burning in the head, tight chest, nausea, heart palpitations, dizziness, neck pain, not to mention SLEEP DEPRIVATION.
As a result of the above, since 2012 we have been forced to leave our property for at least two nights, literally three days of EVERY week to have a decent sleep and remove our bodies from the infrasound/low frequency noise and vibration pulsation as a result of AGL’s turbines placed FAR TOO CLOSE to our home and workplace. It’s certainly not easy running a farm when only at home for four days a week !!!
AGL have carried out fraudulent Post Commissioning Compliance noise testing at our property, that is, NOT within the Victorian guidelines of 5 to 10 metres from our home. Theirs was carried out 35 metres from our home. We employed an independent acoustic expert to carry out our own noise testing, concurrently, but within the required 5 – 10 metres. Despite numerous complaints, reports to Victorian Planning Dept., Moyne Shire and AGL, and our commissioning of an independent Assessment Report of such, the Macarthur wind farm has been deemed COMPLIANT.
Moyne Shire voted 6 – 1 against even accepting our independent Assessment Report (paid for by 23 families), containing incredible evidence of inconsistencies and non-compliance, let alone reading it and acting upon it.
These same families submitted a claim of “Nuisance” to the Moyne Shire citing infrasound/low frequency noise as the cause of our serious health problems. The Moyne Shire after interviewing each of the 23 families, concluded there was NO “Nuisance” as the Macarthur Wind Farm was compliant .
My husband and I have submitted over THREE HUNDRED complaints of severe health impacts to AGL and over 200 politicians and government authorities since October 2012 and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE by AGL. Of course other families have submitted numerous complaints also.
All government departments and politicians are well aware of what is going on here, but have chosen to ignore our pleas for help.
Daniel Andrews plans to cover the entire western district of Victoria with thousands of turbines in the near future…..
This huge Australian company, in conjunction with Malaysia and New Zealand, which are making millions upon millions of dollars, thanks very much to the generous, ignorant taxpayers, is hiding behind inadequate government guidelines which DO NOT PROTECT PEOPLE’s HEALTH.
We’ve met on several occasions, with our recently re-elected Federal Member for Wannon Dan Tehan, mentioned in the STT posting above, and fully concur with comments made by Melissa.
Dan, over the years has been prepared to have himself pictured with the workers and management of Keppel Prince in Portland, a steel fabricating company which manufactures wind towers, which has squealed loud and long, about the jobs lost due to the slowdown of the wind industry.
In the meantime, Dan has neglected his duty of care to protect the health of his constituents by failing to stand up and be counted for the hundreds of impacted people in his electorate.
Yes, he did arrange for the National Wind Farm Commissioner to meet with many impacted residents from Waubra, Cape Bridgewater, Glenthompson and Macarthur.
This meeting took place in our home in late December.
But no, he has NOT been in constant contact with those residents ever since, as was claimed in the Hamilton Spectator recently.
The residents impacted by AGL’s Macarthur Wind Farm requested the National Wind Farm Commissioner to urge AGL to employ Steven Cooper (at AGL’s cost) to carry out the same full spectrum noise testing as Cape Bridgewater, but have not as yet had any response to their requests.
I have written to AGL several times since the beginning of 2015, requesting they employ Steven Cooper, as above, but as a result of my requests, they refused in 2015.
If AGL is such a wonderful corporate citizen, as this company claims, why will they not employ Steven Cooper, who is the only acoustician in Australia with the sophisticated equipment required (and who is now internationally renown for his methodology at Cape Bridgewater) to once and for all get to the bottom of what is causing so many people living near the Macarthur wind farm, so much pain and suffering to the extent they must regularly leave their homes for respite ?
What does AGL have to hide ?
Well done to STT for exposing the fraud and corruption within the wind industry and government which is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on an outdated form of power generation which is intermittent, unreliable and expensive, not to mention DOES NOT reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We are extremely grateful to STT for exposing what nobody else is prepared to (save the Australian newspaper and Alan Jones) and a situation whereby a small number of people are hugely benefiting financially at the expense of the ongoing pain and suffering of so many hard working, innocent rural Australians.
Well done to Melissa and also to the Hamilton Spectator for printing Melissa’s letter, and those letters of others suffering as a result of acoustic emissions from turbines in this district.
For the information of STT readers we have an arc of 90 metre high towers, 56 metre blades within around 1.7 kilometres of our home. Every paddock on our property is within 1.5 kilometres of a turbine, save one paddock and the closest turbine to our property boundary is 90 metres.
We have comprehensive independent evidence of ILFN in our home, and also have carried out noise investigations by an independent acoustic expert which shows that when the Macarthur wind farm is operating at 80 % capacity, the noise inside our now idle ultra-fine sheep shed regularly reaches 120 decibels.
No wonder, we should not be living in our home which is toxic with ILFN.
No wonder I in particular, can hardly go into the paddocks to work.
No wonder we’re so badly impacted by ILFN and vibration pulsation in our farm sheds, woolshed, idle sheep shed.
Would anybody like to buy our farm, which is our only superannuation ?
When do we walk off and where do we go ?
Our sincere thanks go to all exposing what Alby Schultz, the late member for Hume in NSW described as “the greatest government sponsored fraud in the history of Australia”.
Wow, what an excellent presentation, Carmella! I know you wrote this 3 years ago but this needs to be published everywhere on earth until the crime that these wind companies and governments have committed is fully realized and justice is served.
People who have conscientiously been stewarding their land are the most assaulted by this wind turbine incursion.
Reblogged this on Patti Kellar.
THE ALIENS HAVE LANDED.
Imposing in there hundreds,
Such an army on display,
Those alien grey metal monsters
I saw while on my way.
Aliens on our shores have landed,
So tall, backs straight and true,
At night they watch through flashing eyes
Of red, at me and you.
Some have scaled the mountains,
Others near schools and homes,
Of one thing I am certain,
Those aliens have no souls.
No “whispering” from their ranks at all,
An unearthly sound they make,
It envelops each and everyone,
No more can humans take.
Three giant arms revolving,
Enveloping all around,
They’re here to ‘save the planet’,
The biggest “con” I have found.
Such hideous tall grey monsters,
Invade green and pleasant lands,
To stay for generations,
Unless the people make a stand.
These aliens feed on power and wind,
Without either, they will die,
They’re NOT environmental friendly,
They’re for profit, (at a cost), that’s WHY.
MY VERBAL PRESENTATION TO DAC MEETING – CAMBRAI SOUTH AUSTRALIA FEBRUARY 21 2013
My name is Carmel Connors.
25 years ago I joined up with Bill Evans and many other locals to regenerate the Waterways Farm property in Keyneton and beyond, because the land had become degraded from farming practices over the years.
We covered 20-30% of a 150 hectare property with new life to bring back the balance of biodiversity. This was one of the most significant tree planting endeavours ever undertaken in this state, with no government assistance. Something like a quarter of a million trees were planted over many years. Many other property owners in this area have also endeavored to do the same.
So I am here today to support my friends who I have had a lifetime connection with.
We came to live out here in search of meaning. And the land gave us that meaning. Many of us built lives from the ground up, starting from scratch. No mains power, no mains water, no mains anything. And it was the land that sustained us for all that time, while we raised our children and worked hard to make it all worthwhile. The lives which we created, were designed to get away from all the pressures of an increasingly complex world.
This search for meaning is something very deep in all of humanity. To have a connection with the natural world and build meaningful friendships.
We have watched the trees grow, and seen the wildlife come back.
We thrill at the sight of a new birds to the area. We watch in profound silence, the Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, and so many other life forms going about their lives. We listen to the sweet sounds of bats in the dark, and the wind in the trees, that we planted. And all is at peace
35 or 40 years later, we are faced with this unprecedented train wreck, an environmental and social disaster of such unbelievably massive proportions it has made us all sick at the thought.
Now we are being told to continue to feel that peace of mind when we sit outside on the porch at the end of the day to relax…. and watch a bunch of huge industrial machines…..
We are sensitive creatures we humans, not machines, and it is utterly inhumane to think that we can live in any comfortable way amongst these things which are out of all proportion to the environment, at 150 metres, which dwarf the landscape….. and completely dominate the sky.
I am deeply distressed along with many others that anyone could think this dirty rotten industrialisation of our lives and landscape is ok.
So we cannot, as a community in any way accept this intrusion into our lives and allow ANY corporate company, who does not share our love for this land, assault our hills and lives.
DESTROY our community……. DESTROY an already fragile environment which has been systematically hammered by unsustainable farming practices, to create a LITTLE BIT of Pacific Hydro’s SO CALLED GREEN ENERGY.
WE……… have been quietly going about doing this for years.
As soon as these wind farm companies erect these monsters they sell it on to some other company and head off home to their wind farm free lives, leaving us all with a deeply unacceptable way of life.
In the process taking away far more…….. than they offer ….and leaving us all …….with a truly meaningless existence.
Green energy is now a dirty word to me.
The only thing green about this whole wind farm industry is dollars. It is the biggest, utterly flawed, fraudulent and socially unconscionable, destructive industry that exists in our time.
Surely you are here, on this panel today to protect US, the people who live here…….and not a big corporate interest, whose only desire is to line the pockets of people who do not love this country like we do with all our hearts and souls.
Haven’t we damaged this planet enough? Is nothing sacred?
This fragile and denuded ridge top is part of the Barossa Character Preservation and Protection Zone. Which must do just that…….preserve and protect.
There is only one answer to the unending escalation of problems associated with the PLACEMENT of wind farms everywhere, and we all now know that wherever they put them there are problems.
And this is to PLACE them AWAY from ALL COMMUNITIES and put them in designated wind farm areas.
With a 20km EXCLUSION ZONE from all human habitation.
If this were to happen, then the wind farm companies would not have to pay landowners millions of dollars to host them, and consequently divide once strong communities, and THAT money could then be spent on new Infrastructure development which these wind farm companies SHOULD be paying for.
This would also SOLVE most of the associated problems involved with what is a truly unimaginable intrusion on top of people and their homes, their sense of peace and well-being, which has already created unprecedented levels of stress ………and feelings of despair.
SOLVE the devaluation of property values……. SOLVE the very real stress related health issues involving audible sound and infrasound which are bound to occur, along with shadow flicker and noise from substations.
SOLVE the very real and obvious danger of loss of human life in out of control fire events, in hard to access country, because we now know that aircraft will NOT go anywhere near turbines.
SOLVE the terrible and unnecessary damage to the treasured and precious natural landscape balance, and loss of already endangered native flora and fauna.
In fact how can we justify more damage of any kind to this Earth and call it ‘GREEN ENERGY’.
I am so very afraid that the powers that be have got this all wrong and this wind farm roll out business is just another example of a long list of unethical corporate intrusion, completely based, on nothing more than out of control greed. And nothing to do with saving the Planet. This system of wind farm rollout is not the answer to our energy problems when it destroys everything in its path.
The only true renewable energy has to be in the form of reforestation of this planet which NO government even talks about anymore. The real problem with climate change is that we have deforested this earth and its natural systems to such a dangerous level that we are on the brink of destroying it completely.
We now know that not one coal fired power station has been shut down because of wind turbines. Even though thousands of them have been planted all over the world. Not one.
Wind turbines do not lower carbon emissions. Forests do.
If the government was really serious about lowering carbon emissions then they would help every Australian household install solar panels and small backup wind generators. They would help implement reforestation initiatives on a massive scale into barren and degraded land.
But no, there would be no money in that for energy companies or governments would there? We would all become independent of a system, where we are forced to keep paying higher and higher prices for, and yet use less and less.
And I believe that everyone here today knows in their hearts and minds that this is not the answer to our energy needs, unless you are not educated enough to understand the most basic principles of land care and the natural and perfect systems that this planet has had in place for millions of years.
Its natural systems that give back to the earth, not destroy it.
We didn’t fall out of the trees yesterday. We have known for a very long time that the greed on this planet will eventually destroy the very environment that we depend on so much for our existence.
These inappropriately placed wind farms are a CRIME against the people and the environment. I don’t care what Pacific Hydro or any other wind farm company want to call it, but it is NOT GREEN ENERGY when there is nothing but a trail of destruction, wherever they go.
So I finish today by saying to Pacific Hydro ‘You take your destructive version of Green Energy and you go and shove them in your back yards and you explain to your neighbours, friends and family what exactly is so good about them, and leave us to continue our naturally sustainable version of GREEN ENERGY THANKYOU
OH AND LASTLY I HAVE SOMETHING FOR THE STAFF OF PACIFIC HYDRO.
THIS IS OUR IDEA OF GREEN ENERGY AS OPPOSED TO YOURS. ( I gave them a young gum tree)
TAKE THIS BEAUTIFUL TREE HOME AND PLANT IT — AND SEE HOW GOOD IT FEELS!!