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Loddon HERALD Vol 5 No 38, THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 ISSN 2653-1550
As wind and solar companies circle on Pyramid Hill, opponents tell landowners ...
DON’T SIGN By CHRIS EARL
THE Hill in under siege from wind and solar farm speculators eyeing farmland for potential renewable energy projects. Two multi-national companies are wanting agreements with landowners in the Pyramid Hill district. Projects that more 120 people on Sunday were told would change the face of the community and “our lives forever”. Opponents to the explosion of renewable energy projects across rural Victoria told people not to sign any agreement with the speculative companies. A message to an audience hoping for answers, definitely information, on what these companies want with local farmland. Loddon Valley Renewables Awareness Group’s first community forum came just days after Potentia Energy sent letters to landowners around Mologa announcing plans for a solar farm generating up to 662,000 MWh. The US and Japanese company will start information sessions in Pyramid Hill and Mitiamo next month. It says the project could be submitted for fast-tracked State Government approval be-
Byron Talbot fore Christmas. European Energy is eyeing a wind farm development at nearby Mincha - it had said community engagement would start by September but on Monday a spokesperson for the Danish company said “introduction letters” would be sent to neighbours this week. Community consultation is now expected in November when farmers are harvesting. Wimmera Mallee Environmental and Agricultural Protection Assocation’s Ross Johns and Simone Lewis, a neighbour to a wind farm development near Birchip, emphatically told Sunday’s forum that signing any paperwork with renewable energy developers could effect land use, values and access. Mrs Lewis said: “Sitting on the fence is not an option ... if you
sign (land) access you are deemed as being in support ... they (companies) are using our land as security for investors.” The Loddon Valley group has alligned itself with the Wimmera association. Mr Johns, from near Warracknabeal used the forum to take aim at the net zero policies of the State and Federal Government. Mr Johns said: “Australia has got this wrong.” And he said fasttracked approvals of renewable energy was not proper process. “If people in a rural community can’t talk openly and transparently about deals you (companies) are trying to do, what are you hiding,” Mr Johns said. Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh said government ideology had overridden logic on renewable energy. “How they get to net zero - they don’t care about you and the cost.” Pyramid Hill Progress Association president Drew Chislett and awareness group leader Byron Talbot said they wanted the community to be wise in decisions made. They said the push for answers would continue. Mincha cherry farm owner Tara Hammet and Mologa’s Bill Boyd were among residents who joined Sunday’s queue for more answers.
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Tara Hammet ... her cherry farm borders proposed wind farm
Mologa landowners Bill Boyd and Denise McDougal. LH PHOTOS
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