Listen … carefully 

I am writing in response to the latest media bombardment from the Clean Energy Council, formerly known as the Australian Wind Energy Alliance. This was in response to Tony Abbott’s interview where he said in no uncertain terms that he finds wind turbines visually awful and very noisy.

My radio station of choice is triple j. I listen to this daily at work and on weekends, and enjoy the musical content and lack of commercialisation. Whilst listening to Dr Karl with Zan Rowe last week a person rang in with a question concerning health impacts from living in the vicinity of wind turbines. The answer that followed by the somewhat funny, often likeable doctor raised questions in my mind. There wasn’t a mutter or stumble, a tangent or a hesitation, no tweets from the audience and no need to refer to google scholar, just a torrent of denial of any sort of health impacts from wind turbines, all in all a very unscientific answer.

The definite nature of the response, although not surprised by his slant, aroused my suspicion. It all clicked after talking to my father on Friday night. This was a posed question with an already written answer, as was “Ian” from Macarthur who spoke to Neil Mitchell Friday morning. “Dennis” from Woodhouse who spoke to 774 ABC was also a suspect caller, again on Friday morning.

The ABC 7:30 Report Thursday evening spoke to Mark Butler, the Federal Shadow Minister for Environment, obviously pro Wind Farm. Hamish and Anna Officer appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Standard, over the course of a couple of days.

What we have seen is the full force of the wind energy sectors Media and HR departments trying to turn the tide after Tony Abbott’s interview, well helped by the heavily Left leaning and gutless Media. The ABC is well known for its allegiance to the Labour side of politics and the Fairfax run Standard is obviously nailing its colours to the mast in no uncertain terms, after the last few days’ stories and editorials.

Whilst the Fairfax Warrnambool Standard does a great job on covering local news, such as school fetes and country football and netball, their coverage on the issue of wind farms has been pathetic. No journalist has sought deeper answers or asked proper questions. It seems they get all they need to cover a story straight from the huge Media departments of the wind farm operators, the same rhetoric always. Any complainant is just a jealous neighbour suffering from Nocebo.

There is a reason that there is a senate inquiry happening at the moment. I spoke briefly at the Portland hearing about the effects of sleep disturbance and deprivation that I suffer as a neighbour of Industrial Wind Turbines, a consequence of being stimulated by low frequency noise and infrasound. Steven Cooper’s research at Cape Bridgewater along with NASA’s research done years ago by Neil Kelley, confirm that infrasound has been known, and hidden by wind farm companies for a very long time.

The noise testing done at home pre and post windfarm is farcical, designed and financed by the wind farm companies to give them the answers they seek, lost data, flat batteries and setting up testing equipment under trees etc to distort and manipulate the truth all part of the game. Low frequency noise and infrasound is not part of the testing.

No one who has not had to live beside a windfarm for an extended period, and who isn’t subject to strict “gag” clauses, such as hosts and other neighbours who receive money for tree screening etc. is qualified to speak on the subject of windfarm noise. The sheer stupidity of the comments from people who pull up under them and say “I can hardly hear them” shows a complete lack of understanding of the infrasound problem and can only be put down to absolute ignorance or complete arrogance.

These visually awful, or “somewhat graceful and beautiful towers of man’s going to save mankind from himself” windmills, depending on your persuasion, apparently blend in a little too well to the landscape for our avian friends. As reported in 2014 “conservative estimates of bird deaths are at 10 per tower per year” and during official searches at AGL’s Macarthur wind farm 64 carcasses were found including falcons, kestrels, shrouded kites and a spotted harrier, as well as 6 Wedge Tailed Eagles. For an individual this bird kill would be disastrous, resulting in prison, fines and (rightly deserved) bad publicity but for a wind farm it’s all in a “day’s work”.

The people who are writing in weekly to papers such as The Standard are not political activists. They are farmers, teachers, secretaries, retirees, Salt of the Earth people. People with far better things to do, but impacted to such a degree that they will fight, they will tell their story and they will pursue the truth. The only thing that keeps them motivated is the fact that they know they have a problem and it’s not just “in their heads”.

They are not the liars, the villains, the cheats, the greedy, or the soft of heart or will.

Peter Jelbart
Hawkesdale

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[Text includes material that was edited from the print version. ~ NWW Ed.]