Mr Guy said while the Liberal Party supported wind farms, there was significant community opposition to the proposal. "The Liberal Party is supportive of wind energy in areas with broad community support and not major destruction of environmental or aesthetic grounds," Mr Guy said. "We are talking about a proposal in Spa Country Australia, one of our biggest tourist attractions and this is clearly going to impact on that area - the Minister for Planning needs to consider that."

A new landscape guardians group has been set up to fight plans for two big wind farms. The Western Plains Guardians are worried about proposals for farms at Nerrin Nerrin, south-east of Lake Bolac, and at Stockyard Hill, south of Beaufort. Each is believed to have at least 100 turbines. Group spokesman Warick Read says a moratorium on further wind farms is needed until a national code for assessing them is in place. "The groups really would like to see the Government engage with the community a little bit more and just say, 'look, just pull up on these things a little'," he said. "I suppose people are feeling as though they're being railroaded into it, that these companies propose these developments and they're over a certain size and the council doesn't really have any input into it at all. "If only they could open the guidelines a little bit more and make it a lot more transparent."

Plans for a multimillion dollar wind farm near Crookwell have re-opened old wounds in the Yass Valley. ...Epuron sold the planning rights for the Gunning and Yass wind farm projects to Origin Energy in January and recently submitted environmental and engineering investigations for the Gullen Range wind farm project to the NSW Department of Planning for approval. The news has re-ignited the concerns and emotions of property owners in the Black Range area who continue to fervently oppose the building of turbine towers on Conroy's Gap.

People who find themselves living next door to a wind farm are unlikely to have their land compulsorily acquired, despite some residents complaining that the turbines are hurting their health. Michael Pickering, an expert on compulsory acquisition with LAC Lawyers in Melbourne, said there is no straightforward legal process open to landowners who believe their properties should have been acquired before energy companies were permitted to erect large turbines.