In Tasmania's North East, ACEN Australia, a "platform" that is 100% owned by the foreign company Ayala Group (See ACEN's Major Project proposal, p. 4) is proposing two massive new wind farms with up to 210 new-generation, enormous towers, producing enough electricity to power 700,000 homes.
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The two screen grabs above, both taken from maps in ACEN's 2022 Major Project proposal (the first is on page 4 and the second is a copy of UPC's original map in Appendix B) also omit Tomahawk. The arrows show where Tomahawk should appear.
This is not just about being left off the map. Incredibly, ACEN doubles down even further in their Major Project Proposal where they are required to identify stakeholders and who they will be consulting with (see the proposal p.59): The Tomahawk community will be the most effected in the entire region but gets absolutely no mention.
For those who have never visited Tomahawk this is a satellite image. Admittedly no metropolis, but hardly inconsequential.
However, as you can see from the map below, Tomahawk will be the most severely impacted township in the entire north-east.
The above map is from the ACEN North Wind Website, accessed in January 2025.
ACEN selected these sites in 2019. The Federal Government's Best Practice for Wind Farm developments states that community consultation should begin at the site selection stage. However, it was not until October 2024, five years later that ACEN held their first 'community information day' in Tomahawk, where they showed us a similar map with just the 'envelope' outlines shown.
We were not shown the above map until a month later, in November at the Tomahawk recreation ground. On seeing this layout, the community was horrified. We asked the ACEN representatives if any turbines could be be moved and were told ‘that is not going to happen.’
On the 18 November ACEN wrote to the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner in response to a request we had previously made to the Commissioner, that any towers near the town be moved at least 5-10 km away. ACEN told the Commissioner that a set-back from Tomahawk of 5 km or more would make the "Waterhouse Envelope" non-profitable.
Subsequently, through this website we pointed out to them that, contrary to Australian Wind Farm best practice they had left the significant landscape off their map. At a meeting with ACEN representatives in May 2025 we also pointed out that most of the turbines in the 'Waterhouse' envelope in this layout are actually in the Tomahawk postcode area, and that this misinformation was either negligent, or deliberate.
Since then ACEN have moved six. We have recently been informed they have deleted nine.
In the same letter (18 November) they also told the Commissioner they had been holding “community events” to share information and discuss the project since 2022. Even according to their own website they did not commence their community information days until October 2023. Tomahawk was not on their list.
And this is the company the State and Federal Governments are trusting with the environmental and social impact assessments.
The proposed towers are 270 metres high, almost as tall as Sydney Tower, which as everyone knows, dominates the Sydney skyline. Dwarfing the towers at Mussleroe, these structures are at a colossal scale unseen in this state, and apart from any visual, noise, flickering, wildlife or environmental considerations, will dominate the landscape.
On their latest map (March 2025) ACEN have drawn a new 'exclusion zone' by moving six turbines on the left of this picture. Where they would be moved to, the company will not tell us.
