10 February 2021
Plans to build a massive 400MW wind farm on a ridge outside the former gold-mining town of Nundle, 50km south of Tamworth, have hit rocky ground after they failed to win the support of the local council and even inspired a new anti-renewables acronym: NINE, or “Not in Nundle, Ever!”
The Hills of Gold wind farm is being proposed for development by Engie, which bought the project from Wind Energy Partners in September of last year and submitted an Environmental Impact Statement to the state planning department a month later, in November.
According to the DPIE planning portal, the department is currently in the process of collating submissions on the state significant development, which, as of this week, will include a nine-pager from the Tamworth Regional Council, detailing why it “finds itself unable to support” the wind farm in its current form.