"He possibly used it as a reason to knock it back," says farmer Don Jelbart. "But there are plenty of others available. He's got to come forward with one thing - that's how it seems to me the politics work."

Mr Jelbart is one of a strong core of locals who vehemently oppose the planned 52-turbine wind farm, proposed to run 14km through the coastal farming community.

They say the project would spell danger for a variety of birds that live in the wetlands on either side of the planned turbine site. And they remain unconvinced that wind power is a viable alternative to coal power.

"They are pretty useless, and that's widely recognised," said Mr Jelbart. "The community will suffer as a consequence ... and you're not saving a single bucketful of coal in the La Trobe valley."

But farmer Lindsay Marriott, who researched wind power extensively before striking a deal with the project's founder, Wind Power, to have seven turbines on his land, says the opposition is overstated. "There is an ever-increasing number of people for renewable energy in this community, and there always was," Mr Marriott said.

"Eventually Australia is going to have to take up renewable energy."

Whatever their views, the residents are again in limbo as they wait for the minister to consider a resubmitted proposal from Wind Power. In an embarrassing backdown on Friday, the Government agreed to set aside its decision to veto the project in exchange for Wind Power dropping its legal action.

The move followed the courtroom revelation that the minister had acted against the advice of his own department in blocking the wind farm.

With the Liberal member for Gippsland, Russell Broadbent, still on a determined campaign to resist the wind farm, Senator Campbell's predicament is as tough as ever. He insists the threat to the parrot - a species "up there with polar bears and the Siberian tiger" in the endangerment stakes - is real.