A GROUP of landholders in the King Valley have formed a community action group to prevent development of a massive solar farm on Oxley–Meadow Creek Road.
The project is proposed to be up to a 330MW site, one of the biggest in Australia, which could potentially produce enough clean energy to power 110,000 regional homes.
The project covers up to 1400 acres with an estimated build cost into the hundreds of millions of dollars, which will include a huge battery and sub–station, completed and producing power in 2024.
Spokesperson for the Meadow Creek Agriculture Community Action Group, John Conroy, said local residents and surrounding communities have been "left reeling" in the wake of what they believe is an "ill–conceived proposal" to turn so much highly fertile and productive land into a solar farm.
"While there is no denying that Australia must move to a more sustainable future, it is vital that this transition occurs without jeopardising our nation's food security," Mr Conroy said.
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"In the battle to address the dangers faced by climate change, it is imperative that we move to a green future and clean energy is vital to achieving this.
"However, in a country as vast and sun soaked as Australia, it is a staggering blow to common sense to suggest that our nation's food security need be threatened in the process."
The proposed Meadow Creek Solar Farm was being developed by a local landholder in conjunction with DNV (Norwegian owned), who just purchased Clean Technology Partners.
Working from the north–east boundary of the proposed site, across to the north–west boundary, these lines would have to go through one of several adjoining property routes.
Mr Conroy said the development manager for the project, Cameron Munro, made mention the developers would "try other avenues if none of the above routes were successful in negotiation with the landowners".
A hastily convened community meeting at the Bobinawarrah Hall was attended by 85–plus people including Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy, and rural city councillors Harvey Benton and Dave Fuller.
According to Mr Conroy, the "entire community at the meeting were against the proposal, and wanted it to continue to be prime agricultural land".
"Australia was abundant in both land and sunshine, but not so rich was our offering of fertile, arable land," he said.
"Even though this land is used for grazing, it can also be used for cropping and, according to the Victorian Department of Agriculture, Australia offers a mere four per cent of land that is 'suitable for cropping on a regular basis'.
"This means that 96 per cent of our country is 'not capable of supporting cropping due to land and soil constraints'.
"It is beyond belief that at a time where households are under considerable financial strain from the ever–rocketing price of groceries, we would consider sacrificing land that has reliable rainfall, fertile soils and the vanishingly rare conditions to keep food on our tables.
"Surely these paddocks are for produce?"
Mr Conroy said the local community still has faith that the government will not allow for such "egregious and wilfully reckless land use" to occur.
"As Australia, rightfully, moves to a cleaner future we can say yes to solar while still safeguarding our productive paddocks," he said.
Mr Munro said the Meadow Creek Solar Farm has been envisaged by a local farming family looking to diversify farming operations and support the growth of renewable energy.
"The proposed solar farm is in the early stages of planning and we're starting to speak with project neighbours and key stakeholders as a priority to share information about the proposal and gather feedback before moving on to more detailed concept design," he said.
"Grid connection is likely to involve around 2km of new transmission line.
"We're currently investigating options to connect, and a final route has not been determined.
"Consideration of agricultural land impacts is a key part of the planning approvals process for large scale solar farms.
"Studies are completed by a technical specialist and must detail the potential impact on agricultural land in the region, including how this could be mitigated or offset.
"We're encouraged by existing solar farm operations in the North East that are now successfully hosting both solar and agriculture, and we see this only becoming more of a trend in the industry."
For more information on the project visit www.meadowcreeksolarfarm.com.au.
