UPDATE 23 | SEPT 2025

Walcha Council has paid a pretty sum of money for 2 reports that have been commissioned.

Background

These 2 documents, linked above, have been commissioned by the Walcha Council, and have been completed by the winning tenderer for the task, Gyde Consulting.

Council is interested in hearing from residents and business owners in relation to the draft Land Use Strategy and Cumulative Impact Assessment and will be accepting submissions until close of business on Friday 3 October 2025. All submissions must be in writing and can be submitted by email, post or in-person to Council’s customer service counter.

Concerns 

(Dealing with the 2 documents separately)

Voice for Walcha expected the Cumulative Impact Assessment to be a Statement of IMPACTS felt by the community, economy and resources of the Walcha LGA.

In fact, it falls well short. It is instead, a statement of worker numbers and an expected timeframe that these numbers are expected to be present in the community of Walcha.

The impacts relevant to the presence of renewable project workers, includes, (but is not limited to), the following;

>  Impacts on residential house prices, due to project workforce demands
>  Impacts on rental prices in Walcha, due to project workforce demands
>  Impacts on housing availability, due to project workforce demands
>  Impacts on short term accommodation, for events, employees, contractors, tourism etc.
>  Impacts on social services such as health services, schooling, child care, police and safety, etc.
>  Impacts on employee availability for businesses and, crucially, Walcha Council
>  Impacts on the availability of tradespeople in Walcha, when a large project employer is recruiting.
>  Impact on Walcha’s water supply
>  Impact on Walcha’s sewerage services
>  Impact on Walcha’s waste service and disposal space.

A Cumulative Impact Assessment should report on the extent and type of impacts across each of these areas, and more.

It has not done this – and it needs to.

While a “particular focus” should be placed on “on housing supply and demand and the potential impacts of a short-term, transient construction workforce”, this does NOT exclude other impacts, particularly if significant. These may include;

>  Road safety impacts of additional trucks and vehicle traffic.
>  Road damage, and consequent road works cost and inconvenience, from additional trucks and vehicle traffic.
>  Road traffic congestion to commuting and school traffic along Thunderbolts Way between Walcha and Uralla, which is now the preferred traffic route for all project traffic. This also includes trucking of livestock, couriers, and other industry transport.

Action

A short submission from community members is crucial, and we ask that you take 15 minutes to put a submission together.

> Cumulative Impact Assessment

Write a submission to Council outlining the serious omissions in the Cumulative Impact Assessment – the “potential impacts of a short-term, transient construction workforce”. It is simply incomplete and needs to be completed by GYDE. They committed to doing the task, and they must complete it.

> Land Use Strategy

Write a submission to Council outlining your comments and concerns, if you have any.

Your submission is important, please set 15 minutes aside to ensure the right thing is done, and the rate payers and council get the report that was paid for.

Thank you everyone.