Controversial Geographe Bay offshore wind farm zone halved in size but given green light by minister

An offshore wind farm zone will go ahead off the coast of Bunbury at almost half its original size, the Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister has confirmed. Minister Chris Bowen capped off his two-day trip to the South West in Bunbury on Monday to announce the zone will now be in two parts with the total area cut to 4000sqkm from 7600sqkm after the community consultation period. The zones will now sit at least 30km away from the coastline and 40km away from Bunbury — but is still controversial with fears protesters would disrupt the minister’s announcement. Mr Bowen heralded the declaration as an important step forward for WA’s energy future, touting it would create 7000 construction jobs and 3500 ongoing jobs if fully utilised. “It will also provide at fully utilised more than 11GW of energy for Western Australians,” he said. “That’s a lot of energy for Western Australians as Western Australia’s energy needs grow.” Mr Bowen estimated a wind farm would be operational between 2028 and 2032. There were 2670 community submissions received by the Federal Government during the consultation period between late February and the beginning of May. Feasibility licence applications are now open for two months with companies able to stake their claims for developing in the zones. There are currently three companies with public plans to utilise the South West region. The minister’s announcement did experience some turbulence, however. While it was initially slated for outside the Southern Ports office, it was moved into the closed-to-the-public port harbour due to the fear of protesters interrupting. There were also concerns from port staff while entering the site there was a black SUV tailing the pool vehicle. After the announcement, State shadow energy minister Steve Thomas and Forrest MP Nola Marino held a media conference decrying the consultation period. Dr Thomas said there was unprecedented opposition to the proposal. “It’s hard to find an issue that’s united the South West as much as their opposition to this wind farm proposal,” he said. “Everywhere Nola (Marino) and I go, we get the same message, ‘we don’t want it in our area because we use that for our recreation and we’re culturally attached to it’. “It is madness for Anthony Albanese to just ignore that.” There has been loud criticism from local groups since the proposed zone was announced, with a rally attracting more than 100 protesters, including One National leader Pauline Hanson taking place in June. Mr Bowen argued the updated zone was a result of listening to “genuine” concerns. “You get a mix of people who have genuine issues and concerns that need to be addressed quite rightly about visual amenity, environmental concerns, recreational fishing who are not necessarily against it, but have very genuine issues to be worked through,” he said. “You get other people who are against offshore wind, against renewable energy, against action on climate change . . . and you’ll get other people spreading misinformation, disinformation. “I engage very, very carefully and solidly with those people with genuine concerns hence the changes, I make no apology for the changes, changes are based on genuine community feedback.” With the interruption of recreational and commercial fishing a major concern, the new zone cuts overlap with recreational fishing by 60 per cent, according to Mr Bowen. He conceded commercial and recreational use of the area would be disrupted during construction but said he expected recreational fishing to happen within the zone. “I know a lot of people enjoy recreational fishing and they will be able to continue to,” he said. “There’s been a lot of lies told by Andrew Hastie and others about recreational fishing — the proponents will need to show when they put in a feasibility licence application that they can coexist with recreational fishing. “We know from overseas that there’s often an exclusion zone of around 50m around each turbine, but that leaves a lot of room for recreational fishing because the turbines tend to be 2km apart from each other. “Recreational fishers can continue to do what they’ve always done and enjoyed and indeed a lot of evidence shows that fish come in to explore around the wind turbines to feed off the ecosystem that’s created by the wind turbine so fishing improves.” With the Government touting the creation of thousands of jobs for the project, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, Electrical Trades Union and Maritime Union Australia (WA Branch) expressed their support in unison. AMWU State secretary Steve McCartney said the wind farm could provide stable jobs for South West workers. “AMWU members in the South West have spent 20 years campaigning for good local manufacturing jobs that allow them to live at home, earn a decent living, and see their families every night,” he said. “Mandating that a local wind supply chain industry in the South West be used to service large-scale renewable energy projects gives them that opportunity. “Coupled with green metals production in Collie, the future economy of the South West is in well-paid, secure green manufacturing jobs.” The proposal also garnered cautious support from the Conservation Council of WA who said while offshore wind was a key in a transition to a net-zero future, it had to be done carefully to reduce environmental impact. Western Australia Marine Science Institution chief executive officer Luke Twomey said a collaborative approach was needed to make the right decisions for the region. “The announcement of an offshore renewable industry zone in Geographe Bay presents a unique opportunity to co-ordinate and collaborate on the collection of the baseline scientific information needed to make good, fact-based decisions for the region,” he said. “The region marked for development is vast, but our scientific knowledge is limited. It will be necessary to collect robust baseline scientific information to assist trust and transparency when making these important decisions.”