Voice for Walcha is a group of interested and passionate members of the community who value the local environment, the area and the people to such an extent, that we feel it is worth fighting for.
Specifically, we feel that the disproportional and aggressive influx of Wind Turbine projects, is entirely out of whack with the communities wishes, and needs to be restrained.
We are conscious of the value of renewable energy, but highly concerned that a small community of 3,000 is being asked to carry the (energy) load for 30% of the state. This is based on the projects from the Walcha Energy Office alone, with 4000MW of wind, and 700MW of Solar planned.
The introduction of around 800 turbines to this community is excessive and highly undesirable to the majority of the community. Walcha is an area of prime agricultural, high value land, located against the Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage area, incorporating the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. The area and community will be heavily and negatively impacted by such projects, and we need to give a strong message that it is not the place to carve an industrial project such as this. The community and resources within our area will be put under enormous strain, and we are strongly of the opinion that this scale and type of project is simply unsuitable for this area.
Voice for Walcha met on the 31st August with 40 helpers, to plan our next steps and talk about our purpose. At that time, the following committee was nominated to drive future action;
