Sunday, November 18, 2012

Gas Plant Blows Up: Crows Blamed

One of the gas plants near Port Campbell and the Great Ocean Road "blew up" yet again today (approx 8.30am 19 November 2012). Though there are four gas plants in this part of south-west Victoria near the 12 Apostles there is every chance it was the Origin gas plant that 'exploded'. 

The diabolical roar and shooting flames looked remarkably similar to the other explosions of sound and the towering flame that is a regular occurrence at the Origin (formerly Woodside) plant.

Just last week (13 November 2012) a similar explosion happened and for the first time one of the spokes people from Origin decided to put a little spin on the 'explosion'. An Origin staffer wrote to us to try and explain the flaming roar that could be heard for many kilometres: "caused by a crow coming into contact with the main power source where it enters the gas plant and shorting out the circuit," they wrote.

What is laughably remarkable about this is that there is no admission from Origin about accepting responsibility for 'blowing' up this rural area. Pushed on this matter Origin would doubtlessly blame events over which they have no control and for which they could never have planned.

Though they might not publicly talk about that either because such an admission will raise the point about what other potentially far more catastrophic events has Origin not accounted for? 

it is now nine months since the EPA met with residents concerned about the life-wrecking noise coming from the Origin plant and still they have done nothing. The EPA are becoming much like the Corangamite Shire - on the issue of gas plant noise the shire has long been devoid of ideas and leadership.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Ill wind blows a headache

The article below  is about rural noise from wind farms but subsitute the words 'wind farms' with 'gas plants' and it could equally apply to the Origin gas plant and others near the Great Ocean Road and Port Campbell in south-west Victoria.  

Indeed, this paragraph, taken from the article, succinctly sums up a lot of what is happening during the gasification of Victoria's south-west: "The debate . . . has been polarised by ideology and is characterised by mistrust. And bubbling away in the background, as collateral damage, has been a good deal of rural misery, including claims that . . . noise . . .  is having a debilitating effect on those who live nearby.

  • article by: GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR
  • From:The Australian
  • November 03, 201212:00AM
Wind turbines
Increasingly, questions are being asked about the viability of wind energy. Picture: Stuart Mcevoy Source: The Australian

WHEN wind farm developers knocked on David Mortimer's door offering good money to use part of his marginal South Australian cattle property to host two wind-turbine towers, he was both flattered and eager to accept.

"We were very much in favour of it," Mortimer tells Inquirer. "In fact we were surprised we were going to get paid because we thought we were doing our thing for green energy and the world."
Sixteen years later, Mortimer wishes he had never answered big wind's call and says he would happily give up the money if his new neighbours would pack up their machines and go away.

Mortimer's dilemma - and the fact he has become Australia's first wind-turbine host to turn whistleblower on the potential health impacts of living near wind farms - contains a serious warning for Australia as it prepares to recommit to a target of more than 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020.

Research group RepuTex estimates more than 11,000 megawatts of renewable capacity will be required in the next seven years to meet the renewable energy target, and more than 80 per cent of it will come from wind.

Australia's renewables push comes despite growing concern worldwide about high-cost subsidies and rising electricity prices.

Germany is pushing ahead with new coal-fired electricity plants to replace nuclear, as political and public concern over the cost of electricity escalates. Britain's once-green Conservative-led government is in open revolt over wind. New British Energy Minister John Hayes this week ordered a new analysis of the case for onshore wind power as costs rise and opposition grows. Declaring "enough is enough", he said the great wind rollout had been based on "a bourgeois-Left article of faith based on some academic perspective".

As in Australia, despite industry claims of widespread community acceptance, questions are being asked about wind energy's cost, efficiency and aesthetic.The debate about wind has been polarised by ideology and is characterised by mistrust. And bubbling away in the background, as collateral damage, has been a good deal of rural misery, including claims that low-frequency noise from wind turbines is having a debilitating effect on those who live nearby.

Low-frequency noise is not unique to wind turbines, and the effect it can have on quality of life is well documented by the World Health Organisation, but there has been a deep reluctance by wind companies to release the information that would allow independent assessment of the acoustic impact of the turbines they are operating.

Submissions closed yesterday for a federal Senate committee inquiry into legislation that would make public wind-speed, noise and operational data held by wind-farm operators. Under the legislation, proposed by senators John Madigan and Nick Xenophon, if a wind farm generated excessive noise, it would not receive renewable energy certificates, which is how wind farms make their money. There is no guarantee the Senate inquiry will recommend the legislation.

The wind industry lobby group, the Clean Energy Council, says Australia already has some of the toughest wind-farm guidelines in the world in relation to noise. A previous Senate inquiry recommendation that urgent, independent studies be done into the possible health effects of living near wind turbines has yet to be acted upon.

Supporters cite reviews, many of them wind-industry sponsored, to dismiss claims of health effects. Others say none of the literature reviewed has been of studies of people living near large operating wind turbines. Simon Chapman, professor in public health at the University of Sydney, has argued that claims about health effects is a classic case of psychogenic illness, a "communicated" disease spread by anti-wind interest groups.

Chapman, a long-standing anti-smoking campaigner, is an aggressive advocate of wind energy, and equates complaints about wind turbines to early fears about microwave ovens, televisions and computer screens.

In an opinion article published in New Scientist, Chapman ridiculed complaints and said in a 35-year career in public health he had never encountered anything quite so apocalyptic.
Chapman's comments have infuriated those people pushing for proper research into what is causing people who live near wind turbines to complain.

Just as Chapman accuses anti-wind farm campaigners of exaggerating claims of ill health, others say the denial of a problem by the wind industry and people like Chapman is victimising the complainants and worsening their condition.

Mortimer has an open mind on what is behind the head-pounding and other symptoms that he says started shortly after the turbines arrived, and disappear when he leaves town for respite.
"I am still not saying categorically that it is the wind turbines that are causing my problems," Mortimer says. "But rather than take it seriously and try to find out, we have got Simon Chapman making absolutely scathing remarks and putting blogs on the internet on all the problems."
Wind company Infigen, which operates the wind turbines near Mortimer, says he has yet to make a formal complaint.

According to the company's investor relations manager, Richard Farrell: "The experts have found no credible evidence that directly links wind farms to adverse health. Evidence cited to support such claims is anecdotal."

Mortimer, who is fighting to stop more turbines being built near the home he relocated to - in part to get way from the initial wind farm development - says he does not blame Infigen for not wanting to believe him.

To support claims about health effects, Waubra Foundation chief executive Sarah Laurie cites peer-reviewed published work of Daniel Shepherd which, she says, provides "incontrovertible evidence of sleep disturbance and adverse impacts on health".

Chapman declined to discuss Shepherd's work but said he would write about it on his blog.
Laurie also accuses Chapman of failing to include "the most important literature review detailing the peer-reviewed published research on the then known adverse health impacts of low-frequency noise on human health" when he oversaw the National Health and Medical Research Council's "rapid review" of wind turbines and health in 2010.

Laurie says Chapman's co-reviewer in the NHMRC report, Geoff Leventhall, was the lead author of work published in 2003 that linked low-frequency noise and health effects.
Laurie is not alone.

Environmental scientist and acoustics expert Bob Thorne has submitted for peer review and publication the results of a scientific survey of people living near two Australian wind farms. Thorne's results show wind-farm noise and wind turbine-generated air-pressure variations can cause serious harm to health.

Acoustic engineer Steven Cooper says he is convinced "there has been a significant injustice done to the people of rural Australia". "I am not an anti-wind farm advocate, I am an acoustic engineer," he says. "And if you can operate the wind farms without creating a noise disturbance, or sleep effect, or health impact, there would be no objection."

Cooper says there are reasons why the siting and monitoring of wind turbines requires close attention in regional areas, because of the low levels of background noise at night. All industrial noise guidelines include the concept of background noise and are based on the understanding that if the noise source exceeds the background level by 5dB(A) (decibels) then the noise will be "noticeable".
If it exceeds that level by more than 5dB(A) then the noise source will be "annoying" for a significant number of people exposed to it.

The term "annoyance" has a specific meaning in acoustics and includes adverse health effects, both physiological and psychological, including sleep disturbance, sleep deprivation, anxiety and stress.
Cooper says limiting noise levels to 5dB(A) above background levels is a general acoustic principle directed at preventing "annoyance" arising in a number of contexts - industrial noise, aircraft noise and road noise, for example - but he suspects some wind turbines have been able to operate well outside this guideline. This is because the wind-farm noise guidelines used in Australia rely on the assumption that increasing wind speed leads to increasing background noise, which will "mask" noise from wind turbines.

Cooper says his research shows this is not always true, particularly where turbines are located on hills and ridges elevated well above the rural homes below, and developers claiming to be concerned about noise nuisance from their turbines should be ready to support uniform national legislation protecting both parties' interests.

Clean Energy Council policy director Russell Marsh says it would make no sense to introduce an arbitrary federal requirement that was at odds with state planning systems for wind farms. "It would set a dangerous precedent that could potentially affect all industries that operate under the planning system."

Friday, November 2, 2012

Senate Submission from the Great Ocean Road

3 November 2012

Massive noise from the gas plants near Port Campbell and the Great Ocean Road this morning. The EPA have a phone number they would like people to use to advise them of pollution, like when we are forced to experience what we call another gassing; toxic noise from the co-located Origin and TRU energy gas plants.

We've reported to the EPA number as other affected residents have but nothing ever happens. Some of these affected locals met with the EPA in February 2012 to discuss ways to make the gas plants accountable for their noise. Nothing has ever happened.

When will the EPA and the Corangamite Shire act to protect  people being affected by this industry which, given it regulates itself, is essentially unregulated since the EPA has no presence in south-west Victoria and the Corangamite Shire is impotent and devoid of ideas?

Perhaps the Australian Senate will hear, or at the very least read and take note, our recent submission to them on rural noise.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

City of Lights on Great Ocean Road

The total darkness of rural nights can overwhelm some overseas visitors to Australia. Many, especially those used to big Asian cities, can sometimes feel a little uncomfortable on nights when the stars and the moon are hidden by clouds and the world is dominated by a cloak of black rather than a sheen of neon.

Some visitors might then consider it fortunate that an industrial glow lights the night sky near the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. The lights and flame from the gas plants near Port Campbell would almost certainly be mistaken as a city by some visitors unfamiliar with the coast. Some though might even think the city was burning thanks to the red glow of the flame which lights up the night sky.

The Origin plant (left): picture taken inland from the ocean road
But as far as I know there have been no recent phone calls to the local CFA to report a fire. There have however been plenty of calls to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) about the toxic gas plant noise. One fella tells me he logged at least 70 phone calls with the EPA. When one gas plant operator, Origin, tabled the number of complaints about noise at a recent community meeting they allegedly suggested just one noise complaint (in a three month period) had been received.

The numbers, like polluting the night sky of one of Australia's most popular tourist coasts, don't make sense - no matter where you might come from.


CORRECTION
I have since been told by a fella who wants to remain anonymous - he's worried the gas plants my not use his services if he is critical of them - that people have  reported fires that turn out to be the gas plant flame. The flame that can be seen is supposedly the emergency flame. There is a device which allows for a flame to operate nearer ground level (and would be much less visible - but it's probably not working correctly and so isn't used). The Origin gas plant was first owned by Woodside and it has been plagued by operating problems since first commissioned some five years ago.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Yet Another Explosion at Origin Gas Plant: More EPA Inaction


Below is a copy of an email sent to the EPA following yet another explosion from
the Origin gas plant at Port Campbell, near the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles

Dear EPA,

The Origin gas plant has exploded (1.50pm 27 September) yet again - I wonder how many times this happened without Origin being held to account in the two months we were away.

Also, as directed by the EPA we called the pollution line last week when the noise was a constant for more than 24 hours.

We asked for someone from the EPA to get in touch with us to advise on what action would be taken following our complaint

Not surprisingly we haven't heard from anyone at the EPA.

sincerely
us and us

Sunday, September 16, 2012

A Reminder to the EPA

In August (2012) the EPA announced in a strategic plan that finally it was finally going to take the toxic noise produced by the gas plants near the 12 Apostles seriously. This gave us hope that the EPA might actually start fulfilling their charter and actually begin to do something in regard to policing the industrial noise in south-west Victoria.

It's the middle of September (2012) and not surprisingly we are almost certain nothing yet has happened in this regard. So below is a reminder about some readings that were taken more than three years ago, before Origin bough the troubled Woodside gas plant.

Woodside Readings from Sat 31 Jan 2009

LEQ average: 51.7dBA
L90 average: 40.8dBA

Sun 1 Feb:

LEQ average: 48.3dBA
L90: 40.8dBA

Of course, nothing has ever come of this or anything else

sincerely

Mr and Mrs Rogered

Note: the gas plant is only licensed to emit 35db of noise. Noise is not a linear measurment and the above readings are more than double the licence limit. The EPA of course did not act on these readings

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Street Talk

The EPA might be finally starting to take our claims about noise seriously if articles at the Standard and the ABC are any indication. But it's still talk on the EPA's behalf and we can only wonder how long these compliance plans will actually take to implement (my family and other concerned residents met with the EPA in February 2012 and nothing yet, not one second of noise monitoring, has happened).

Talk in some respects however can be good. Over the past few months we have received  emails and phone calls and street talk from locals who appear increasingly disaffected by Origin Energy (and other gas plants) and the gasification of the south-west coast. And that is from what is happening onshore.

Origin has plans to explore more of the Southern Ocean for gas reserves. One can only wonder if they will ever stop to consider the fisherman from Apollo Bay, Port Campbell and Warrnambool who will be again affected by their planned seismic booms. Doubtless the fisher folk will, if they haven't already, join an increasingly long line of disaffected south-west coast residents.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Silent Regulators: Loud Gas Plants

The Origin gas plant near Port Campbell and the Great Ocean Road
There are massive amounts of industrial droning noise coming from the gas plants near the Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell and the Twelve Apostles - we believe it is far beyond the 35db permitted by law. For my family the noise makes it far too loud to go outside. As ever, on clear and windless blue sky days we are prisoners in our home. 

 We understand the EPA met with Andrew Mason at the Corangamite Shire some weeks ago and we believe one of our suggestions - about delegating a resident (given the EPA do not have the staff to regulate) to conduct random noise testing was going to be tabled at the meeting.

Not surprisingly we have heard from no one about the suggestion or the details of the meeting.
The  bureaucrats are good at silence. If only they could apply such skills to the Twelve Apostles gas plants

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Gas Developments Answer for Asian Tourism

I'm off to Asia soon. Going on a tour of some of its great sites, to ramble about its islands, its temples and its history.  There'll be visits to Phuket in Thailand, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Hue in Vietnam.

Of course I'll also be making time to visit all the gas plants, or at the very least all the industrial zones, that have been set up around some of Asia's most renowned tourism assets.

Oh hang on a minute I've got that wrong. Unlike what has happened near the 12 Apostles on Victoria's Great Ocean Road there are no gas plants or monstrous industrialism near Angkor Wat, a place that much like the Twelve Apostles is recognised the world over.

Perhaps valuable tourism assets in Asia have been protected from industry. Or maybe the custodians are clueless to how the glow of gas flares can add to a tourist asset, fill the night sky with light.  Just how wrong can these people get? Don't they want more visitors to their parts of the world?

Best I pass out the Corangamite Shire's contact details to some Asian bureaucrats.
The Corangamite Shire watched over the industrial development near a part of the Great Ocean Road and should be able to set the Cambodians, the Thais and the Vietnamese straight.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A Stab in the Eye on a Winter Day

Some fine winter days near the 12 Apostles recently. The days might even have been considered perfect, at least for June, if not for being bombed by the constant cycle of noise from the Origin gas plant – we emailed the EPA about the demented industrial sounds but so far have yet to hear back. 
We used to send correspondence also to the Corangamite Shire but have given up on them in much the same way they seem to have given up on safe guarding this coast from inappropriate industry. 


That's all for now - have to go and stab myself in the eye: tis a far more pleasant thought than spending any more time contemplating the Origin gas plant or the Corangamite Shire.
More About Waubra Foundation and Noise Watch Inc
Noise Watch Australia Inc and the WaubraFoundation are organisations that have been confronted by a lack of relevant assessment of development conflict by the planning system, especially before the system approves change that dramatically changes  landscapes and causes extraordinary stress in people’s lives. 

While there is no public money to undertake evaluation, and while affected neighbours are often excluded from the development process by the authority, the changes are solely in the hands of the proponents. 

When fallout from industrial sites such as the gas plant increases regulatory responsibility  falls to the EPA to ensure safe conditions. The under-resourced EPA failings in country areas is a tragedy.

Because of these failings the responsibility is with the company to provide evidence for EPA prosecution. Of course, it doesn’t happen, particularly when noise and vibration is the stress source. 
This genuine interest by the above groups in our plight perfectly highlights the failings of both the Corangamite Shire and the EPA to act on what is increasingly recognised as a debilitating issue for the local residents here, and critically, for all Victorian.  Sadly the situation is similar in other Australian states.


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

NSW Shire Councillor Seeks Advice

The view from 1km of two gas plants near the Great Ocean Road
Here at Twelve Apostles: What a Gas we've had a phone call (via the Waubra Foundation) from a NSW shire councillor. The gas companies have their eyes on one of the small towns in his area. He wants to stop them coming into town, knows that if one gets in more will follow. But he wanted a first hand account of the gas driven calamities that have occurred in the Corangamite Shire, near the Great Ocean Road.




So we told him a few truths:

Be wary of the gas plant consultants/proponents who will try and make even coal-seam gas mines sound like days spas;

Once they're in, they're in: The original consultant employed by the first gas plant to be built near the Twelve Apostles assured the community that only one plant would ever be built - there are now four;

Ask about issues the proponents will never tell you about - like the numbers of trucks that will be shuttling along narrow country roads to and from the gas plant and the night-time lighting which will reconfigure the night-scape (the lights from the Twelve Apostles gas plants are so bright at night that they can be mistaken for a town);

Ask how is it possible that gas companies are permitted to self-regulate for noise: the Environmental Protection Authority are understaffed and under-funded. From our experience the EPA is almost powerless in country areas. The gas companies therefore take their own readings about the noise they emit. And if they do, on the off chance, take an excessive reading, the wind, birds, tractors and perhaps the untimely flatulence of one of the gas company employees taking the reading will be blamed;

The gas companies have a great escape clause in many of their operating licences. This refers to Unplanned Events. Not irregularly does the gas plant near to the home of Mr and Mrs Rogered 'blow up'. A great explosion of sound - like the sound of a fighter jet - shakes houses and results in a flare some 10metres or more high. This is an unplanned event and even if it happens twice a day it will not be regarded as excessive noise;

And about that flare: that 10metre flame is permissible even on days of Total Fire Ban. Hard to believe after the events of Black Saturday. But then, a lot about how gas companies really operate is hard to believe:

And finally, don't fall for the sucker-punch, the lure of the lucre. Gas companies will dole out sponsorship for community programs. At Port Campbell the life savers wear bathers with a gas company logo on them. In this way the companies get under a community's guard: don't let them in. Raise the money the old fashioned way - rally the organisation's troops and cart hay for a farmer or build a farm shed. Keep the integrity.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Gas Plant Glow

Gas plants light up the night near Port Campbell and the Great Ocean Road


The night time view of the Origin and TRU gas plants near the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles. The picture was taken about 1km from the plants on a main road. The glow of the flame is visible some 20km away.

All around the plants, for many kilometres, is black. It's not just the noise from these plants that is an impost on this part of the coast. In the post below Gary Goland talks about the failings of regulators in regard to noise etc. Apparently the Corangamite Shire insisted the Origin gas plant be cast in its position on one of the highest points in the district. Brilliant, really.


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Corangamite Shire and EPA Failings Highlighted

Our endeavours to fight the inappropriate the conflicting industrial development, the industrial drone that comes from the Origin gas plant, near Port Campbell, the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles, have been heard by others, notably people from Noise Watch Australia Inc and the Waubra Foundation

We made contact with Waubra Foundation CEO, Sarah Laurie, after seeing the ABC's 7.30 Report. Sarah's genuine interest in our plight perfectly highlights the failings of both the Corangamite Shire, Origin Energy and the EPA to act on our concerns about the gas plant and its invasive noise, to act on what is increasingly recognised as a debilitating issue for us and other country Victorians whose lives are cruelled by industrial noise.

Sarah kindly put us in touch with Gary Goland from Noise Watch Australia Inc
" Working with others in our community to challenge the failure of our development and regulatory systems to deliver quality of purpose; change to engage public interest, to recognise the harm and cost of continuing to ignore [noise] conflict, is the best chance we have of gaining recognition for what is happening.  Cross disciplinary input is desperately needed to evaluate cause and effect for public interest, given planners, and regulators administering our law, are  not doing a thing to ensure public safety.  Poor management is connected to more than noise intrusion.  Happy to assist where I can Greg."   Every location is different even when the threat is the same."

Gary Goland, Noise Watch Australia Inc

Friday, June 22, 2012

Italy adds Voice to 12 Apostles Gas

Marco from Italy adds his voice to the gas plant built within view of the Great Ocean Road and near the Twelve Apostles:

"I've thought that this could happen only in Italy
We call them EcoMostri (EcoMonsters)
See here for example
http://campodarsego.blogolandia.it/2010/12/13/ecomostro-di-fiumicello-unaltra-voce/
Sorry to see that it happens also in Australia." Comment posted by Marco from Italy.

Thank you for your comments and the link, Marco. Some of the worst features of the EcoMonster here go beyond it being built in a high visible era. It's that the regulators; the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), do nothing. And the local Corangamite Shire is more impotent than Silvio Berlusconi (without Viagra).


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

12 Apostles' Neighbour

The Woodside cum Origin gas plant has been built on one of the highest points - nope, not hidden low in a gully, or even hidden by trees - near Port Campbell, some 10km from the 12 Apostles.

The Origin gas plant near Port Campbell and the Great Ocean Road: built on one of the area's highest points
The gas plant is visible from the Great Ocean Road. Many assurances were given by gas plant proponents that no gas plant would be visible from the Great Ocean Road. No-one has ever been made to be accountable for this or other breaches, including the flare which pollutes the night sky.

Corangamite Shire Fails Locals

Does anyone live in a place where their local council or shire supports you when problems arise?

If so, can you let me know where that is for once again the Corangamite Shire has failed to act, failed to answer questions posed to them. It is hard not to draw the conclusion that the Corangamite shire is short of ideas.

Part of an email to shire CEO Andrew Mason is below. The questions posed in it remain unanswered:  

Given the recognised failings of the EPA I can think that there is no other reason except expediency which motivates the Shire to again refer the gas plant noise issues to the EPA? I hope I am wrong but councillor Griffin's comments certainly highlight the Shire's perceived lack of urgency on this matter.

My family's amenity continues to be comprimised by the gas plants at Port Campbell.

How do my family and other effected residents get the Corangamite Shire to view the health of some of their residents the way councillor Griffin does?

'A group of Victorian councils will call on the planning minister to investigate claims that wind farms cause illness.
"The wellbeing of our residents is supreme," said Moorabool mayor Pat Griffin.'
The Weekly Times May 30 2012

Joke for the Day

A gas plant proponent walks into a meeting of concerned local residents . . . and tells the truth.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Bob Brown Foundation

An email to the Bob Brown Foundation

Hi guys,

Woodside built a gas plant near the 12 Apostles and the Great Ocean Road. I spent a lot of time fighting the plant and might have some insights into what will happen to the Kimberley.

I'd love to share them.

You can get a few ideas here:
http://twelveapostleswhatagas.blogspot.com.au/

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Lesson for Broome and the Kimberley

Port Campbell is on Victoria's Great Ocean Road and just 11km from the 12 Apostles. Woodside built a gas plant near to the town some four years ago.

The plant regularly explodes - great explosions of sound regularly occur from it - and at night its never-ending flame pollutes the night sky. Originally when the first gas plant was built its proponents promised there would only ever be one. There are now at least four gas plants close to Port Campbell.

Offshore exploration and seismic testing continues close to the Port Campbell Marine Park.


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Backpacker meets 12 Apostles Gas



I am a twenty five year old English girl, making my way around Australia on a working holiday visa. I have been living in Port Campbell for the past two months, and am failing to comprehend the necessity of a gas plant in one of the most beautiful spots in Australia.

The Great Ocean Road is renowned for it’s beauty, and is something that, as Australians, you should be extremely proud of.

The gas plant can be seen for miles around, particularly in the evening, when it appears as though a small town has developed in the midst of the fields. Although it can be seen during the day, once the sun has set, and the lights from the plant appear, the picturesque views that were once available in Port Campbell are no longer available.

I find it astonishing that a country the size of Australia could not find another spot for a gas plant. Was it that the developers were left with no other option other than to develop in a place which attracts thousands of tourists each year, has some of the best views in the world, and is home to a majority of native species and vegetation?

The noise coming from the plant is also of major concern. On an average day the noise is an annoying droning sound. However, on a number of days the noise is reminiscent of a small force of fighter aircraft above. This is no exaggeration, the sound coming from the plant is that bad that I often find myself looking to the sky expecting to see a helicopter.

As a tourist, and someone who has travelled throughout Australia I do not understand the logic in the location of this gas plant. I think some serious questions need to be asked, and more importantly answered.
Yours sincerely
Jodie Channing

A note to the CEO of Corangamite Shire

'A group of Victorian councils will call on the planning minister to investigate claims that wind farms cause illness. "The wellbeing of our residents is supreme," said Moorabool mayor Pat Griffin.' The Weekly Times May 30 2012

 Dear Andrew
I wrote to you recently in regard to ongoing noise from the Port Campbell gas plants and what I believe are the Shire's obligations under Part 6 Division 1. Section 58(2) (e) of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008: said act states noise is a nuisance and I am lead to believe the Council has a duty to act, to investigate complaints.

In regard to Section 62(2) of this I am of the opinion that the Council must act on my family giving notice of a nuisance. I received your letter dated 17 May 2012 in which you advise that council is again referring the ongoing noise issues to the EPA. The council is as aware as I am of the current limitations of the EPA.

It is four months since we met with the EPA and still there has been no action or any notable correspondence from them. Given the recognised failings of the EPA I can think that there is no other reason except expediency which motivates the Shire to again refer the gas plant noise issues to the EPA?

I hope I am wrong but councillor Griffin's comments certainly highlight the Shire's perceived lack of urgency on this matter. My family's amenity continues to be comprimised by the gas plants at Port Campbell. How do my family and other effected residents get the Corangamite Shire to view the health of some of their residents the way councillor Griffin does? I would be grateful for answers to our questions

sincerely, Mr and Mrs Rogered