Voice for Walcha aims to empower the Walcha community by advocating for local voices, protecting our agricultural heritage, and ensuring that any renewable energy development is community-led, transparent, and environmentally responsible.
The latest information on key projects around Walcha
September 2026
If you are considering signing an access agreement, or if your access agreement is approaching expiry, don't treat the document as a routine renewal.
If you are re-signing, it is quite probable that the project, its ownership, its timetable and the regulatory environment may have changed considerably since many of the original agreements were signed. Before extending access to your property - or signing anything that may bind you to a future lease - there are some questions worth asking.
Your existing agreement expiring gives you an opportunity to review the arrangement. Don't assume a replacement agreement has the same effect as the one you signed years ago. Get your own advice before signing.
October 2026
EnergyCo has said its EIS for the transmission lines will go on public exhibition, Thursday, 16th October 2026.
February 2026
Winterbourne Wind is bogged down in the planning process, having first submitted its scoping report in September 2020. The EIS that followed was described by the then New England State member as “the worst EIS” he had ever seen. Since that time, the project has stumbled through the planning process, trying to rectify a number of deficiencies and shortfalls in information and design.
> Costs for wind projects are blowing out, while solar and battery prices drop.
> Thunderbolt Wind got approval 15 months ago — still no action.
> Winterbourne’s main backer, Copenhagen Infrastructure Group, has walked away.
> Vestas (turbine maker) is left holding the bag, but can’t fund the project alone.
October 2026
It is hard to overstate what that means for us. An 870 MW project west of Walcha, set to be the country's largest wind farm, is gone. Take a moment to feel the relief, because this community earned it.
