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MOSTLY SUNNY
Peace and music
Boolarra’s answer to Woodstock saw thousands congregate in the small town for the annual folk festival. Attendees enjoyed music, food and markets over two days of celebration. MORE - PAGE 12 Photograph: Katrina Brandon
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Plans for Delburn
By PHILIP HOPKINS
THE Delburn Wind Farm developer has allayed speculation that the project would be affected by the federal government’s rejection on environmental grounds of the Port of Hastings as a construction site. The company, Osmi Australia, said it was not affected by the Commonwealth’s decision regarding the proposed Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal at the Port of Hastings. “An offshore wind terminal is not required for the delivery of the Delburn Wind Farm components, and the project was never reliant on a new terminal at the Port of Hastings,” a company spokeswoman said. “The options for the delivery port are still being considered.” The majority of onshore wind farm components such as turbines, nacelles and blades are not currently manufactured in Australia. “There is some domestic capability for towers to be made in Australia, but
larger towers are not manufactured here,” the spokeswoman said. Delburn involves the construction of 33 wind turbines each about 250 metres in height on plantation forest land owned by HVP Plantations. The site is bounded by Coalville and Hernes Oak to the north, Thorpdale to the west, Darlimurla to the south, and Boolarra and Yinnar to the east. Morwell is about five kilometres to the north-east of the development site. Transport of most of the turbine components to the site will be via the Princes Highway and Strzelecki Hwy over dimensional route. The Strzelecki Hwy is the main sealed, two-lane, twoway arterial road that runs through the heart of the site boundary and provides access to and from the site. Osmi said the design of the wind farm minimises the use of existing public roads wherever possible, to reduce the impact of construction traffic on local residents. Some local road upgrades will be
required along Deans Road, Varys Track, Golden Gully Road, Smiths Road and Creamery Road to ensure they are of adequate width, bearing capacity and slope so they can be used for large component delivery, along with the movement of over-dimensional loads. A traffic management plan will be prepared in consultation with the three local councils and the Department of Transport. The head contractor and major subcontractors have not been appointed. “As soon as this occurs, we will inform the community and the hundreds of people who registered to work on the wind farm,” the company said. Construction of the Delburn Wind Farm is currently planned for the third quarter of 2024. “We will keep the community updated as we get closer to construction commencing,” Osmi Australia said. The Delburn Wind Farm recently deployed new fire detection technology that it said was a first for Australia
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and the wind farm industry. The AI fire detection technology monitors the surrounding plantation and landscape. A Pano AI camera has been deployed to capture ultra-high-definition images and monitor the HVP plantation and the wind farm site. The camera captures 360-degree views over the plantation every minute, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On a clear day, the cameras can monitor up to 30 kilometres away. Osmi Australia says the technology will provide the community and HVP confidence that any fire that starts in the plantation and surrounding area can be detected quickly and the location shared with emergency responders. The cameras continuously patrol the landscape and use AI technology to detect smoke and fire, which is then verified by trained staff in the Pano Intelligence Centre. If a fire is confirmed, an alert is then sent to fire response agencies and wind farm staff. Continued - Page 3
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