Friday, August 1, 2008

No Wind Farms for Scone. No Coal Mines in the Hunter Valley

Travelling to Sydney last Wednesday, I saw this sign in the Upper Hunter Valley (a beautiful area). The white sign, not the yellow one.

"No Wind Farms for Scone."
When I arrived in Sydney and saw some news I noticed that there have been protests against a new mine in the Valley.

I think that all these protesters, if they are locals (and I think they are NIMBYs), should permanently switch to '24-Hour Earth Hour Running' for a taste of what it will be like without the things they are protesting about. I don't think they get it.

For those unfamiliar with the Hunter Valley and Central Coast, NSW, here is a map.


View Larger Map

There are power stations dotted along the highway from Branxton to Singleton (Bayswater, Liddell, Redbank), as well as around the Lakes (on Lake Macquarie: Eraring and Vales Point power stations, and on Lake Munmorah, Munmorah power station).
I just tried to find information on an old employer of mine, GEC Construction, to find out which power stations they worked on (I know in the late 70s I spent a couple of Easter holidays working on tenders for power stations in Queensland and Victoria). Funnily enough they don't seem to have a presence on the web in Australia.... I wonder why they don't seem to be building power stations in Australia any more?

2 comments:

Egg said...

Phatty has his own personal wind generator?

Anonymous said...

The protests in the hunter are about greenhouse gasses - same as the (majority of) protests against the mines in the same area. Most of those people (myself included) are happy to have wind turbines anywhere, including in our own backyards.

The protests in scone aren't by greenies. They're by a front group, probably funded by the nuclear lobby. Similar front groups are all over australia and the UK.
http://en.envirowiki.info/Anti-wind_power
http://scone.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/anger-at-wind-farm-meeting/372447.aspx