LOCAL government and state MPs this week joined the chorus of concerned voices from Meadow Creek calling for the State Government to reject planning approval for the proposed 330MW Meadow Creek Solar Farm.
Rural City of Wangaratta Mayor Dean Rees, Wangaratta-based Ovens Valley state MP and Shadow Minister for Water Tim McCurdy, together with Shadow Minister for Roads Danny O'Brien, met with around a dozen residents on-site, to discuss their ongoing concerns that the proposed development does not belong in a valley of prime agricultural land.
A planning permit for the proposed $750m project on a 566 hectare site, which could generate enough solar power to supply more than 100,000 regional homes, is currently before the State Government, with a 28-day public submission process ending on October 28.
"We need people all over the place to put their opposition in to this project and why they oppose it, not just because they don't like it," Mr McCurdy said.
"We're not anti-solar around here, we're not anti-renewables.
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"We're quite invested in wanting to make the environment a better place, but at the end of the day, this is not the right site, it's not the right place."
Mr McCurdy said people were frustrated because the "government isn't listening....hasn't come to talk to us...haven't even visited the site".
Mr O'Brien said he shared concerns that the state of the local roads simply aren't fit to support the increased traffic and demands associated with a development of what is proposed.
"This is not about being against renewable energy, but it's about having them in the right place with the right infrastructure in place...we're simply not getting that from this State Labor Government, making sure the roads are up to scratch, particularly in a place like this," he said.
Mr O'Brien said councils were not getting the support needed from State Government for local roads, and the government should be looking at contributions from developers to upgrade local infrastructure, such as roads.
Mayor Rees, who will not be part of a new council to be elected this month, said the solar farm was "not warranted, not needed" at the proposed site.
"We've got communities crying out for solar in other areas where we can't crop and graze to build communities," he said.
"This is just tearing communities apart."
Mayor Rees said the State Government's removal of the right to appeal a decision through VCAT - on major projects like Meadow Creek Solar Farm - "was not good for democracy".
"If this project got approved, the government or applicant needs to put millions of dollars into upgrading these roads," he said, noting council simply doesn't have the funding.
"Unless there's millions of dollars worth of infrastructure from either the applicants or the government to pay for these upgrades of these roads, including sealing, the dust for these neighbours will be astronomical."
Local resident Susan Davies said she supports solar, but believes the large solar farm doesn't belong on the proposed site and she is worried about her health from the dust from increase traffic on the unsealed roads, and when they have floods or fires.
"This is fantastic farmland, a productive food bowl and a safe rainfall area...why go industrial zone in the middle of it?," she queried.
She accused the State Government of "vandalism" by removing local government out of the planning process.
"I just feel that we're got no voice, we've been neglected," she said.
"We're all standing here trying to yell and bark and just be heard...hopefully someone will come to our rescue and actually listen and come and have a look and realise this isn't the right spot for a solar factory."
Darren Edwards, who lives a kilometre from the proposed solar farm site, said he is incredibly concerned about the project going ahead.
He doesn't want to see prime agricultural land lost to solar facilities that he believes are better suited to other locations on less productive land, and worries about consequences and exposure to any fires and "toxic fumes" if the battery system catches alight.
"The roads here are a major concern, they flood up to five times a year, and we can be isolated for days on end," he said.
"There's been absolutely no consideration or thought for the mental health and wellbeing of people who are in this community...it's just been bulldozed along.
"We are suffering, and nobody tends to care about our feelings.
"This is our lifestyle"
Ross Schutt, who has lived and farmed near the proposed site for 60 years, said he shares the concerns fellow residents had raised.
And he also worries about the potential financial implications for local landowners on the value of their homes and properties.
John Conroy, a member of the Meadow Creek Agricultural Community Action Group, said the drought-proof valley "that might flood 10 times a year" is not an appropriate location for the proposed solar farm.
"There is a proposed 250 megawatt, 1000 megawatt hour battery energy storage system for this site....that's 50 40-foot containers of lithium iron, weighing about 50 tonnes a container," he said.
"If they've got this here and floods come through and it lights a fire or it starts this thermal runaway, who accesses the fire?"
Mr Conroy recently joined Indi federal independent MP Helen Haines in Canberra where they met with federal government departments about the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The group is hoping the act can be used to stop the development, based on the discovery of three endangered species - Sloane's froglet, Gang-gang Cockatoo and the Eastern Bandy-bandy snake - known to habitate the proposed site.
