March 4, 2026
“Your concerns are our concerns” … that’s how South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff summed up a sometimes fiery meeting held in Kumbia last week to discuss various renewable industry projects in the South Burnett.
Residents affected by projects – or projected projects – in the Wambo, Coopers Gap, Ellesmere, Ironpot, Chahpingah, Alice Creek and Kingaroy areas filled the supper room in the Kumbia Memorial Hall to overflowing.
Many residents expressed concerns about the demand for water that projects were already drawing from aquifers, saying bores were increasing in salinity and aquifers were not being replenished.
(Water is being used by contractors for dust suppression during construction.)
And former councillor and local landholder Scott Henschen queried whether the water quality in watercourses and Boondooma Dam was being monitored.
SBRC General Manager Infrastructure Aaron Meehan urged landholders to stay engaged with the Department of Natural Resources in regards to water table issues.
There were also concerns raised over noise, biosecurity risks and traffic hazards with the number of construction vehicles coming into the area, as well as wear-and-tear on roads.
Residents were also concerned about turbine fires, “lithium explosions”, and asbestos being detected in interstate projects.
Others raised end-of-life issues, ie. would landholders be left responsible for the demolition and removal of turbine towers, disposal of the blades and removal of the concrete pads?
Tarong West project manager Toby Coates attempted to allay the last of these fears, saying the responsibility for the removal of all above-ground infrastructure was usually built into contracts, and this responsibility was passed on if the project changed hands.
He said Tarong West suppliers would also be required to ensure their components were free of asbestos.
Mayor Duff, who organised the meeting, said she shared residents’ frustrations about how renewables projects had been rolled out in the South Burnett.
She emphasised the South Burnett Regional Council had rejected approval for the construction of the Kingaroy Solar Farm but had lost when the developer challenged it in the Planning Court.
Often by the time Council found out about projects, agreements had already been signed between developers and individual landholders, she said.
And the assessment about whether wind farms, solar farms or battery energy storage systems went ahead had been taken out of the hands of councils by the State Government.
Mayor Duff expressed support for mandated minimum 3km setbacks around windfarm sites as well as bonds to cover future decommissioning.
Well-known anti-renewables campaigners, Property Rights Australia vice-president Jim Willmott (who unsuccessfully stood for the Senate at the last Federal Election as a Libertarian Party candidate) and Kilkivan Action Group’s Katy McCallum (who unsuccessfully stood for One Nation in the Federal seat of Gympie) were vocal during the meeting.
They urged the State Government to “call in” the Tarong West project, which recently gained its final environmental approvals.
Mr Willmott said he believed there were projects that “we don’t event know about” at Johnstown and Goomeri.
“Who wants the South Burnett to turn into an industrial wasteland?” he said.
Ms McCallum said renewable projects were “a death to rural Australia and our towns”.
“Once these communities are destroyed, they’re not going to come back,” she said.
SBRC CEO Mark Pitt said Council would be employing a dedicated staff member within weeks as a single-point of contact in regards to planning issues, including renewable projects.
Mayor Duff said she would consider organising a similar meeting in Blackbutt to hear residents’ concerns about the Taromeo solar farm project.
