Our campaign to stop the wind plant on the Molonglo Ridge

The Molonglo Landscape Guardians have one aim – to stop the construction of a wind farm on the Molonglo Ridge because we believe that it is an inappropriate site for a wind farm.

In May 2008, the company proposing this industrial wind installation finally conceded that the project was not viable and pronounced it dead.

We are a voluntary, community group. Our members are unpaid. We undertook the following activities in our campaign to stop the wind farm:

Lobbied decision-makers at local, state and federal levels;
Disseminated information to the public and local community organisations about the wind farm through newsletters, presentations, media releases and this website;
Researched the potential impacts of the wind farm on the local community and environment;
Conducted field trips for local Councillors and environment groups;
Gathered signatures on a petition opposing the windfarm
Attended numerous council meetings over a four year period and monitored decision making
Prepared submissions to NSW Energy Directions Green Paper (PDF 84 kb) and Department of Environment and Heritage Draft Management Plan on large forest owls
Researched and prepared submissions to several government inquiries including the House of Represenatives inquiry into renewable energy and the ACT Government's Googong Foreshores draft management plan;

Gave presentations to local and state government officials in NSW and ACT
Produced a regular newsletter that is distributed to 1000 homes surrounding the ridges
Produced proximity and visibility maps and photo montages of the proposed wind farm (now available from this website);
Kept this website up-to-date with news about Acciona's proposal for the Molonglo Ridge and Industrial Wind developments in general.

How is it that a voluntary, community group can do all this (and hold down our day jobs) yet EHN/Acciona – with access to a $77 million (€48.4 million) profit in 2004 and teeming with paid staff – could not even manage to respond to straight-forward, simple questions from residents? Instead, they left us in limbo for YEARS before finally abandoning the project. Not good enough, EHN/Acciona.

Last Updated: 13 December, 2008