22.12.2023

Upper Burdekin / Gawara Baya to be decided upon by Minister Plibersek by mid January 2024, while Chalumbin / Wooroora Station wind farm to be decided upon by 13th Feb 2024

Our Northern Queensland forests are important - they provide crucial buffer zones to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. STOP Upper Burdekin (now renamed Gawara Baya) and Chalumbin (now renamed Wooroora Station) wind farms!

The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, a living wonder and one of the most important landscapes in the world.

The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area needs biodiverse and intact *buffer zones* - these forests, escarpments and ridgelines should not be sacrificed for wind farms.

Read the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area sensible statement on renewable energy siting here: https://www.wettropics.gov.au/.../WTMA%20postion...

Habitat clearing and fragmentation is a disaster for the thousands of animals who have already been catastrophically impacted by Cyclone Jasper and flooding in North Queensland. The wildlife of the Wet Tropics doesn't stop moving at the boundary - it moves through and around and needs critical connectivity to do so. The habitat around the Wet Tropics supports the ecosystems of this very special place, and supports the threatened wildlife.

Both Chalumbin and Upper Burdekin sites are full of threatened species and ancient wilderness. They are also in close proximity to the Wet Tropics - Chalumbin / Wooroora Station wind farm has turbines proposed for only 1km away. Insanity to even propose this.

In approximately 30 days Tanya Plibersek will announce her decision on whether to approve the Upper Burdekin/ Gawara Baya wind farm. This one breaks our hearts because here is some of the most remarkable wilderness Australia and no one knows about it.

The Upper Burdekin / Gawara Baya landscape on the Seaview Ranges, North Queensland, supports:

- a thriving Koala population - Koalas are now Endangered.

- the rarest Australian bird, the Red Goshawk, was spotted here.

- threatened Sharman's Rock Wallabies

- threatened Northern Greater Gliders

- Spectacled Flying Foxes and Bare Rumped Sheathtail Bats live here, particularly susceptible to turbine strike and barotrauma

- Masked Owls, Eastern Ospreys, White-Throated Needletails live here - they are at significant risk of turbine strike.

Chalumbin/ Wooroora Station wind farm site near Ravenshoe FNQ is host to remarkable cool, high elevation ridgelines anticipated to be a climate refugia as temperatures increase. Directly adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, it is a buffer between rainforest and dry open woodland. Here lives:

- threatened Northern Greater Gliders

- threatened Magnificent Brood Frogs

- threatened Masked Owls

- threatened Spectacled Flying Foxes

- threatened Wet Sclerophyll forrest

- Many other species of batlife, birdlife, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, a thriving ecosystem of inter-dependant life.

Placing a wind farm on these precious landscapes is madness. Would you place a wind farm next to the Blue Mountains, the Tasmanian rainforests or Kakadu? It wouldn't happen!

Our mature forested landscapes in Qld are already combating climate change by serving as carbon sinks. They cool the earth, provide homes to wildlife, enrich the soil, support the microbiome. They also support threatened species.

We hope Minister Plibersek does the right thing and rejects these two ecologically disastrous wind farms.