General News
19 March, 2025
Couple 'beyond disheartened'
A couple from Kinnabulla is devastated not only by the decision from a company to build a wind farm in their community but also, they say, by the secrecy of neighbours who invited the corporate entity to build on the land.
"Our dream, to live on our farm, to work hard on our farm and to raise our children on our farm, is being taken from us," Maddy and Tom Rumbold detailed in a letter to Wimmera Mallee News.
"We are beyond disheartened.
"The words to describe how we feel don’t exist."
Like others, the couple received correspondence from Cubico, the company responsible for the project, in early February.
Despite Cubico stating in its advertising material it communicated in an open and transparent way, Mrs Rumbold said the community had been blindsided.
"We have been kept in the dark for way too long and the expectation seems to be that we will cop it on the chin, live with it and, if offered, accept compensation," she said.
"Our farms feed people globally.
"We produce a mass amount of grain per year and this needs to be protected to ensure both national and global food security well into the future."
Mrs Rumbold said the community didn't need money tainted with blood handed to it, it needed families to stay in the area to grow.
"Our community needs families to continue providing support to local businesses, the school, daycare/kinder and the sporting clubs," she said.
"This won’t happen if our environment becomes industrialised."
She said families didn’t want to raise children among battery storage systems or turbines.
"Families won’t stay in an area with neighbours who have broken trust and shown no regard for people who once thought well of them," she added.
"A community populated by individuals who don’t care enough about their neighbours to call in for a cuppa and a chat before making devastating decisions is not a community that we are proud to say we are part of."
Meanwhile, a furious resident who attended an online community information session held on Wednesday night by Cubico has told Wimmera Mallee News of her disgust at the company's deception and lack of transparency.
"If I get told one more time it'll be good for the community, I'll vomit," the resident, who wanted to be anonymous, said.
She said there was an active group of people against the project based east and south of Curyo and about 54 people, which was only a portion of those against the construction, attended the information session.
The group, she said, wanted Cubico to know it was a "strong no" from them when it came to the Curyo project.
The meeting was scheduled to run for 90 minutes but was cut off after just 30, and it was highly moderated, with participants' cameras and microphones being disabled by the business running the session.
The resident said she feared, should the project proceed, the community would become full of fly-in, fly-out farmers because living in the town would no longer be sustainable.
"It will decimate the area," she added.
"And the impact on community health and wellbeing is already happening."
Among concerns shared by the resident and other community members against the project were noise pollution and restrictions on farming and living within a set distance of the turbines.
The resident confirmed the group was now carrying out its own fact-finding and was considering locals' legal rights.