We’d like to share a further update about the proposed Tall Tree Wind Farm as we work through the community’s many questions that came up at our recent information sessions.

Answering your questions

We’re making good progress, and expect to publish these by 5 April – we will notify you as soon as this happens. Dealing with the strong response has also meant it has taken a little longer to respond to questions on our Q&A tool, but please be assured we are working through these for you too. We really appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Planning pathways policy change and the Tall Tree project

Some of you may have heard about a new policy from the Victorian government aimed at accelerating planning pathways for renewable energy projects under the Development Facilitation Program (DFP). We wanted to clarify and provide reassurance about how this relates to the proposed project.

The announced changes will only be applicable to projects that do not trigger the need for an Environment Effects Statement (EES) under the Environment Effects Act 1978 (EE Act). Based on the scale of this project and our due diligence on the land and surrounding environment, the project is expected to be referred under the EE ACT in Q2 2024, where in turn it is expected that the Minister for Planning will issue a decision for an EES to be prepared. This would make Tall Tree Wind Farm ineligible to utilise the accelerated planning approval pathway under the DFP. In short, the faster approvals pathway is not expected to apply to the proposed Tall Tree Wind Farm.

We will keep you informed on the community hub with updates on the referral under the EE Act and the subsequent decision, which will be published online by the Department of Transport and Planning once the application has been submitted.

As always, feel free to call us on the freephone number 1800 283550 or at our email address talltree@acciona.com.

Abbie Sutton & Dominic Luddy on behalf of the Tall Tree Wind Farm team