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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Matthew Kelly

Coast residents not happy with offshore wind proposal

Video Protest

About 400 Central Coast residents have rallied in opposition to the proposed Hunter-Central Coast Offshore Wind project.

The rally, held at Soldiers Beach on Sunday, was the second such event held within a month.

Locals have voiced concern about what they say was a lack of consultation, the close proximity (10km) of the proximity of the project zone to the coast and its impact on visual amenity and marine life.

"Many of the locals who attended had no idea about this proposal until they heard about our event. On hearing some of the facts surrounding the giant turbines, they were completely horrified," Love Norah Head spokesman Nick Anderson said.

"To get an idea of the scale of this, the project will house hundreds of 350 metre high floating turbines, each taller than the Centre Point Tower."

"To say we have concerns about this would be a vast understatement. To many residents, this is a very unsettling prospect."

A three month consultation period for the project was launched in Newcastle in late February.

The proposed 2810 square kilometre area extends from Port Stephens in the north to Norah Head in the south. While some parts of the zone are up to 50 kilometres from the coast, the southern edge of the zone is only 10 kilometres.

More than 1900 submissions were received during the community consultation process, which included sessions at Doyalson and Wamberal during March.

The majority of the submissions received by the Department of Climate Change, Energy and the Environment were from the Central Coast (38.3 per cent) followed by Lake Macquarie (17.6 per cent) and Newcastle (15.5 per cent).

Almost 94 per cent of the submissions were from individuals.

Seventy per cent of the submissions contained comments about the environment including fishing and visual impacts.

In addition, the Maritime Union of Australia has called for the zone to be extended further south to Terrigal in order to maximise the area's resource and job creation potential.

Mr Anderson said most locals were supportive of renewable energy projects, however, they had serious concerns about the sustainability and suitability of the Hunter Offshore Wind Project.

"It seems that Central Coast residents are being asked to give up their coastline to allow the industrialisation of the ocean for the promise of a few jobs for the Hunter Region," he said.

"Lack of notification and appropriate and meaningful community consultation are just the start of our issue with this proposal. From an environmental perspective, there's evidence suggesting that these monstrous turbines can directly impact the migration pathway of the Humpback, Southern Right, Minke, and Pygmy Blue Whales.

"Construction of turbines will require Sonar Floor Mapping which is known to temporarily, and in some cases, permanently impair the hearing of mammals using ecco location."

The office of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen was contacted for comment.

Mr Bowen said recently that we would take time to read all of the submissions before formally declaring the zone in coming months.

An announcement regarding successful proponents will follow.

Sunday's meeting followed a similar event held last month that attracted about 500 people.

Organisers are seeking to move the zone 30 kilometres offshore in order to protect the area's marine life, visual amenity, and national surfing reserve.

To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.

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