A Rokewood community group has published an open letter voicing their support for the Golden Plains Wind Farm project amid some objections.
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The Golden Plains Wind Farm project will see up to 228 wind turbines installed across more than 16,000 hectares through the Rokewood area.
The turbines will be up to 230 metres tall, 150 metres in diameter, create up to 3500 gigawatt hours annually and power more than 500,000 homes, according to operator WestWind.
After several legal challenges from landholders in the area, the Golden Plains Wind Farm received approval for its planning permit amendment from the state government in November.
In the open letter, Rokewood for Wind Farms said the majority of residents wanted any legal action delaying progress on the project to stop.
"Golden Plains Shire community groups, families and businesses support the Golden Plains Wind Farm and want it to go ahead as planned without further delay. The wind farm has been stalled yet again by another baseless legal action being led by a complainant that lives 80 kilometres away from our town, which could delay construction by up to two years. This is unacceptable," the letter said.
Rokewood for Wind Farms member Kevin Blake told The Courier that the project had already provided direct benefit to the community, but farmers would also be able to reap the benefits of the project.
"As a community group, we've been able to produce some pretty good outcomes in terms of the community itself. The $1000 per tower for the community groups, that brings in $200,000 a year for the next 30 years. It's a thousand dollars per tower. It's a huge input not only to the community that's inside the wind farm, it's also available to people outside of the wind farm area," he said.
"The Golden Plains Wind Farm project has had probably the lowest number of objections across the state and the support for this is growing because we've got to look at the inputs of cropping that's happened where our chemical bills have doubled, fertiliser bills have doubled, $1500 for a ton of super phosphate, the increases that we're facing mean that we're going to have to have some other income other than just farming into the future."
WestWind said the project would provide more than $3.5 million in annual income across the 39 landholders affected by the project.
Mr Blake, a sheep farmer who is also part of the project's farmer working group, said the operator would also invest in infrastructure on the properties.
"From the farmers' point of view, we're going to have all-weather tracks, all-weather roads through our properties. WestWind has been very good at trying to work with us, as farmers, all of us, to make sure that the tracks are in the best possible positions for our machinery to work.
"Once the wind farm gets on board, we'll be able to start employing people as well. It won't be only just the 700 jobs while it's being built and the 70 jobs later, the farmers will start employing again and that's going to mean a number of jobs as well.
"We're pretty lucky, we've got a couple of thousand acres and but I'm getting a bit long in the tooth, I need to have somebody to help me. The wind farm is going to provide that revenue to do so and it's going to be a major benefit."
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