A recent beaching event near Dunsborough in which 28 pilot whales died had nothing to do with offshore wind farm plans for the area, the state government has confirmed.
A recent beaching event near Dunsborough in which 28 pilot whales died had nothing to do with offshore wind farm plans for the area, the state government has confirmed.
Consultation opened in February on a Commonwealth plan for an offshore wind zone to be set up off the South West coast, spanning a 7,674 square kilometre area from Cape Naturaliste to the south of the Peel region.
It’s estimated that around 160 pilot whales washed up onshore near Dunsborough yesterday.
Social media has been abuzz with theories that that “sonar testing” offshore had led to the beaching incident – a thought bubble rubbished by Premier Roger Cook today.
Mr Cook said he was not aware of any sonar testing happening off the coast, with the windfarm plan still in early consultation stages and not guaranteed to result in a windfarm zone being established.
“This is early days,” he said.
“Everyone just needs to take a chill pill, take advantage of the consultation period, and please stop these loopy conspiracy theories in relation to the role of offshore wind and power.”
The offshore windfarm consultation is part of a federal initiative which seeks to set up wind farms off coastline around the country and has been met with considerable backlash in parts of eastern Australia.
Public consultation is open on the windfarm zone until May 3
Mr Cook said Western Australia did not have the land constraints as other states and reiterated the state’s commitment to onshore wind projects.
“We have an abundance of land in Western Australia to significantly grow our wind powered electricity generation,” he said.
Western Australia currently has 15 government and privately owned onshore wind farms in operation, with more in the work.
The state’s wind farm assets at Warradarge and Yandin are currently constrained from fully contributing to the power mix by the capacity of connecting energy transmission infrastructure.
Several companies have expressed an interest in developing offshore wind infrastructure in the proposed south west wind zone.
The federal government expects a wind zone would create as many as 12,000 jobs during construction and 6,000 permanent roles.
The proposed wind farm area off the coast of Bunbury. Photo: DCCEEW
