An ACT government consultant says a farming family on the NSW border south of Canberra threatened to hold him responsible for any deaths on the Monaro highway as a result of a new solar farm.
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The consultant, Rob Purdon, says the three brothers at Williamsdale had used emotive and threatening terms during a meeting in May with him and Phil Burns, representing Elementus Energy. The claim is in the Purdon Planning community consultation report prepared for the ACT Environment and Planning directorate, which is available on the ACTPLA website.
The McDonalds raised concerns earlier this year of glare from solar panels restricting vision for trucks, cars and school buses. At the meeting they said they would take legal action and use the media to oppose the solar farm, which was shifted from its original site at Uriarra village, after an 18-month community battle.
The Purdon report says the McDonalds have most of their property in NSW, and own two hard rock quarries operated by another party whose trucks travel Williamsdale Road and Monaro Highway. McDonalds lease a small parcel of land adjacent to the northern boundary of the solar farm in the ACT.
"Unfortunately some of the language used by the McDonalds was of a personally threatening nature to Rob Purdon [e.g. holding Purdon responsible for any deaths on the highway caused as a result of the solar farm]," the consultation report says.
The McDonalds' solicitor, Luke Bhatty says the meeting was confidential and without prejudice, and Mr Purdon's action in publishing an account was outrageous. "The allegations in it are a load of rubbish," said Mr Bhatty, who was at the meeting.
"The meeting was robust which is understandable, farmers' property rights are affected. I can't recall any [of the McDonalds] holding Purdon responsible for deaths."
The report is part of a development application seeking approval for the OneSun Capital Solar farm's 11.8 MW solar farm, worth $27.8 million.
Planning documents say the ACT government has approved three other solar farms on the Monaro Highway making it a "solar way" entry into the territory. These are an existing solar farm near Royalla, one opposite the Hume industrial estate and one near the intersection with the Federal Highway.
Passionate super-fine merino wool producers, the McDonalds settled a long-running dispute several years ago over access to their land with Actew during construction of a pipeline from the Murrumbidgee River through the Burra district to Googong Reservoir. The family has farmed in the district since 1814.
Elementus Energy has been trying to avoid the sort of public opposition which forced the move away from Uriarra Village, and has made several design changes, including relocating the eastern boundary site from 30 metres to 200 metres from the Monaro Highway and revised its landscape plan to increase screening from Williamsdale Road.
About 116 mature trees will be removed from the site and stored and used in new conservation works by the ACT government for future conservation projects, according to the consultants.
They said Molonglo Catchment Group and Royalla Landcare's concern on clearing of native vegetation and impact on the environment had been addressed in 2012 through the Commonwealth government's environmental protection legislation.
Construction of the solar arrays, which will be 2.5m off the ground and facing north, will take nine months. The solar farm will be fully automated, no on-site staff will be needed and only occasional maintenance inspections will be done.
"This means that after construction, general traffic movements to the site are likely to be the same or less than the usual farm transport movements associated with pasture management, stocking and de-stocking of the paddock," the planning consultants say.
