Atmosphere Minister Tanya Plibersek has blocked a port for Victoria’s first offshore wind farm as “clearly unacceptable” due to the danger to fragile native wetlands within the Mornington Peninsula.
The nation’s first designated zone for offshore wind mills was declared by the Albanese authorities in 2022 to be in an ocean mattress 20 kilometres off the coast of Gippsland’s city of Golden Seashore, with the Port of Hastings proposed as a base for the meeting of the wind farms.
Minister Plibersek refused the proposed port facility in Hastings on December 18, saying in a notification of her choice printed on th surroundings division web site that the mission was deemed “clearly unacceptable” below nationwide environmental legislation and “can not proceed”.
Victoria’s Port of Hastings.Credit score: Angela MacDonald-Smith
Australia is a world signatory to the Ramsar Conference on Wetlands, an settlement signed by greater than 170 international locations which pledges to advertise the conservation of wetlands and Plibersek argues in her choice that the Hastings port would threaten native marine, hen and vegetation.
“The Victorian Renewable Vitality Terminal Proposal mission would have had unacceptable impacts on the internationally protected Western Port Ramsar Wetland,” a spokesperson mentioned.
The mission’s abstract listed many potential impacts together with lack of habitat for migratory birds, potential oblique habitat lose and modifications to water high quality. Over 10,000 waders and 10,000 geese and swans go to the wetlands all year long .
The whole mission space would have taken up 146 hectares from the Port of Hastings, and would have concerned clearing vegetation, dredging and reclamation of the seabed for the wharf, roughly 600 metres by 100 metres extensive.
A Victorian authorities spokesperson mentioned the state was proud to be growing Australia’s first offshore wind business which shall be “essential for delivering nationwide vitality safety and create hundreds of jobs”.
“We’re assessing the Commonwealth’s suggestions to find out the subsequent steps,” the spokesperson mentioned.
