The future of a quarry designed solely to supply the enormous 1,332 megawatt (MW) Liverpool Range wind project is now in the hands of New South Wales’ (NSW) final planning arbiter, after the project collected 80 opposing submissions.

The Tilt Renewables project is located inside the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone; it is an area thick with wind proposals and locals upset at the rapid and radical changes occurring to their landscapes. 

The goal of the quarry is to mitigate some of the transport logistics tha might be felt, particularly by people living in Cassilis at the southern tip of the wind project. 

Quarry developer Australian Resource Development Group says it will provide up to 700,000 tonnes of hard rock for construction a year for the Liverpool Ranges wind project for five years, cutting out a 300km round trip to Dubbo, where the nearest large quarry is.

The proposed quarry, inside the footprint of the massive wind project and off the single-lane Rotherwood road, attracted 80 opposing submissions during the planning process meaning a final decision will be made by the Independent Planning Commission.

A public hearing will be held on October 22.

Once again, most of these objections were from people and entities nowhere near the project itself, and many indulged in the type of language commonly used by mis- and disinformation groups, such as the term “swindle factory”.

“This destructive quarry serves no useful purpose as Wind Turbine Monstrosities like this Liverpool Range plan will be nothing but a massive blight destroying ecology, biodiversity and even killing people,” said Save Our Surroundings Moulamein.

“Liverpool Range Quarry is a horrible plan at Cassilis because it’s dedicated to enabling the despicable Liverpool Range Wind Turbine Disaster that everybody hates with a vengeance!” said submitter number 53. 

“This project is NOT needed; none of this or the Wind Turbine projects would be needed if our Governments had the common sense to build Nuclear Power generation plants at the locations of existing Coal Fuelled generation plants. This project and the REZ as a whole is a very unwelcome and destructive imposition on our communities and environments,” noted one of the few nuclear proponents among the submitters. 

Hands off my road!

One of the big issues for opponents was that it along with the wind project would increase traffic on the nearby Vinegaroy road link by 287 per cent, a figure Renew Economy could not source. 

“I object to the proposed quarry on Vinegaroy Road. As a local I am already going to be faced by a heavy increase in traffic on my day to day journeys with the recent approval of the TILT Liverpool Range swindle factory. A 287% increase in traffic since surveyed results last year is unacceptable to residents, locals and those transiting through our district,” one comment said. 

Australian Resource Development Group was at pains to point out that actually, the quarry will reduce traffic movements on that road – by 125,000 trips.

“With specific reference to submission from ID 18, this property is located on a section of Vinegaroy Road which will experience the largest decrease in heavy vehicle movements relative to what is currently approved to occur under the LRWF consent should the Project proceed,” the company said in the submission response report. 

Tilt Renewables’ 2022 modification report for the wind project asking to swap in bigger turbines and cut 47 from the design would see overall peak traffic rise by 137 per cent. 

Quarried out

Quarries are not uncommon in the area, although the nearly 50 other operating or dormant quarries nearby are classified as small to medium-sized operations on the NSW Resources’ Minview mapping site. 

The proposed quarry is marked with an approximate location by the X.

Screenshot

Fears for rubbish, rivers and box gums

Of the 86 submissions from individuals and stakeholder groups, of which 80 were noes, once again most came from people living more than 100km away. 

Only three submissions came from people living within 15km of the proposed quarry, another 37 from people or groups between 15km and 100 km away, and 43 from people nowhere near the project. 

Many people conflated the wind project with the quarry, despite the later being an opportunity to reduce the impact on the community.

Opponents are worried about water runoff into a nearby river and the impact on critically endangered box gum trees, some of which will be cut down to develop the quarry.

They also expressed fears over what the quarry will be used for, expressing fears around issues such as equipment dumping that are often seen in online groups dedicated to spreading disinformation about renewable energy. 

“If this quarry then becomes a dumping ground for obsolete turbine blades, batteries and solar panels, the toxins from these defunct RE forms will then pollute the nearby waterways, thus impacting imperative drinking water for both humans, livestock and wildlife,” one comment said. 

The quarry decommissioning issue highlighted both the number of theories popular in online groups fomenting misinformation, and community distrust as to what will happen to the quarry in future. 

“What’s to stop the land owner repurposing this “quarry” as land fill for obsolete batteries, solar panels, turbine components?” said the submission from Uarbry Tongy Lane Alliance Inc.

“The ‘Project Life’ is stated as 3-4 years, however reading deeper into the document it states that the quarry will “remain operable” and remediation will not fully occur until the “closure and decommissioning of the LRWF Project” which is expected to have a lifespan of 20-25 years.

“Who is to be held accountable for the remediation if this company no longer exists? Is the money being held in trust by the Government for this remediation?” another worried. 

The quarry owner says the planing permit is only for the lifetime it is needed for the wind project, which does not include rehabilitation as a dump.

Australian Resource Development Group also pushed back hard against a requirement by the Wurrumbungle Shire Council that it sign a voluntary planning agreement with it before it could be granted development approval 

The quarry owner pointed out that the project is not in the shire’s area, any road upgrades are to be handled by Tilt Renewables given it will be the entity mainly using the roads leading to the area for transport, and that the rules say these are separate to planning permits. 

Instead, it’s offered to put funds into a fund with the Upper Hunter Shire Council, specifically for the Cassilis community. 

Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.