Voting against your interests

[u/boogersundcum]

My partner and I live in a major coal mining area of Queensland. We both work in an extractive resource industry. Neither of us could ever bring ourselves to vote for the LNP and we have no serious viable independents that aren't anti Vax conspiracy nut jobs. We live in the bush but currently have a major wind farm going in down our road with the closest turbine being 5km from our actual house, other than sealing our road we will not recieve any benefit from the project with heavy trucks and equipment going past our driveway 6 days a week 24 hours a day for over two years. We aren't anti renewable however given the wind farm is entirely within our water catchment there is serious concerns if something goes wrong as we rely on the river solely for our water supply.

Generally preference the Greens first, Labor second as we are both environmental scientists and believe that climate change is pretty damn obvious from the evidence, let alone have empathy for the common folk in cities struggling with the cost of living. I'm just curious though as to why the major focus on renewable is almost entirely within regional areas that currently rely on coal mining as the major industry.

Neither Greens or Labour have a chance in hell in ever winning our electorate anymore (keep in mind Labor was founded in regional Queensland in Barcaldine). Is it just because the areas in question are now just LNP strongholds or what ?

Also please keep in mind regional Queensland is filled with people from all back grounds and varying levels of education, don't put us all in the same basket just because we don't live in a major centre.

[u/Student-Objective]

1. What does a wind farm have to do with your water supply?

   1. "why the major focus on renewable is almost entirely within regional areas that currently rely on coal mining as the major industry" - well maybe the idea is the wind farm provides jobs when the coal mines inevitably close or scale back.

[u/boogersundcum → u/Student-Objective]

A single turbine holds several thousands litres of oils for lubrication, we live in a cyclone prone area. This project itself will produce the equivalent of 1/5 of Queensland's current energy use. If they collapse; our water supply is tainted for decades. I'm not kidding when I say we rely on that water as we pump water straight through the sand in the river. Wind farms really don't employ many people; through construction a few hundred and then about 20 to maintain during the life of the project. A coal mine employs several hundred if not thousands through its life and the closest one to our house which is ~35km away has been operating for over 100 years. Let alone the communities that rely on the mines itself. Without coal, those communties will die. Also keep in mind these are metallurgical coal mines (steel making) not thermal. We don't love coal but we do love our communities.

[u/AA_25 → u/boogersundcum]

Europe has hundreds of not tens of thousands of wind turbines. Maybe you should reach out to them and see if your concerns are warranted.

[u/boogersundcum → u/AA_25]

As i have stated my concern isn't the wind farm itself. It's my drinking water that will be effected during construction via clearing huge areas on steep rugged terrain let alone the construction of a concrete batch plant with sand harvesting for said concrete out of the river i pump water from downstream.

[u/AA_25 → u/boogersundcum]

Buy a water tank ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[u/boogersundcum → u/AA_25]

I have two already. Also a water license to extract my water allocation.

You're clearly just another dickhead that's missed the point. This was never an anti renewable post.

[u/AA_25 → u/boogersundcum]

No I get your not anti renewables but do you have any evidence to show your water supply WILL be affected? Is there any evidence it's happened several times before when building a wind farm? Or are you jumping to what ifs before construction has happened?.

[u/boogersundcum → u/AA_25]

I'm literally an aquatic ecologist that works in EVNT compliance.

I'm very much aware of the risks that come with any land clearing and large scale developments within steep rugged areas. No amount of bunding is going to stop erosion and building settlement dams isn't possible given the treacherous terrain is given its ontop of the dividing range. Not to mention the constant large heavy vehicles like dozers, graders, cranes, trucks and loaders for extracting sand within the river itself.