In early December 2021, I was doing deliveries for my business and was planning to leave Latrobe around midday to travel to Smithton, aiming to be back by about 4 PM. I was aware of a meeting happening that evening in Smithton, which focused on birds and wetlands. However, I wasn’t particularly interested since I was always more of a bush boy and was not particularly interested in saltwater. I decided that since I didn’t have much else on, I could delay my deliveries, finish in Smithton at around 5.30 PM, grab a meal, and tootle off and listen to the meeting to see what it was all about.
The meeting took place at the Smithton Town Hall, featuring key speakers Dr Eric Woehler from Birdlife Tasmania and Dr Vishnu Prahalad, a Wetlands Researcher/Lecturer at UTAS. They explained the significant value of the Boullanger Bay/Robbins Passage area, highlighting its global significance for Birdlife. They addressed the key points of Ramsar listing, which is an international covenant for wetlands of high value.
There are nine possible Criteria to be satisfied for an area to become Ramsar listed; however, satisfying three is ample for inclusion. In Australia, there are 67 Ramsar listings, but only four have satisfied at least seven of the possible nine criteria. Remarkably, Boullanger Bay/Robins Passage has already satisfied seven criteria and remains unlisted. One must ask why.
The Boullanger Bay/Robbins Passage and Robbins Island are home to 20,000 resident and migratory shorebirds, with eight species registered as Threatened, Endangered, or Critically Endangered under the Federal EPBC legislation. These species include the Far Eastern Curlew, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Great Knot, Red Knot, Curlew Sandpiper, Fairy Tern, Orange-Bellied Parrot, and White-Throated Needletail.
There are more species of birds in the Boullanger Bay/Robbins Passage and Robbins Island area than in the rest of Tasmania combined. Additionally, Robbins Island is now home to the last wild population of Devil Facial Tumour Disease-free (DFTF) Tasmanian Devils.
After leaving that meeting and driving out of Smithton that evening, I felt disgusted and embarrassed in myself for not being aware of the international significance right on my front doorstep. I vowed to fight the windfarm development in the courts, as we should not industrialise an area that holds such high environmental value, not to mention the cultural value. What I did not realise at the time was that I would also have to fight a corrupt political outfit.
The Robbins Island Windfarm Development Application was lodged with the Circular Head Council in 2022, receiving over 300 submissions, with approximately 95% of responses opposing the development.
The Circular Head Council ultimately approved the Development Application, imposing a condition from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) known as a FF6 Condition. This condition requires the developer to shut down the turbines for three months during the migration of the orange-bellied parrots (OBP) to mainland Australia, and for two months when they return home to Melaleuca. The EPA applied the FF6 condition after receiving correspondence from the Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC) department, which advised that the preferred decision would be to refuse the permit. The FF6 condition could be seen as watering down the refusal recommendation or a more propitiate approach.
Once the Circular Head Council approved the development, five appellants with a total of 51 Grounds of Appeal lodged an appeal with the Tasmanian Civil & Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT). The developer also appealed the EPA’s FF6 condition.
Following 15 days of appeal hearings, the longest in Tasmania’s history, TASCAT dismissed all 51 Grounds of appeal and upheld the developer’s appeal. This decision means, to this point, the Developer has been given a free ride or, should I say, unwavering top-end-of-town support. The Developers argued that there were virtually no orange-bellied parrots traversing Robbins Island and that there was minimal risk from the windfarm on the plight of the orange-bellied parrots.
Currently, there are only approximately 100 orange-bellied parrots left in the wild and taxpayers, that’s you and me, have funded the recovery program for the species to the tune of $7.5 million since 2016. TASCAT removing the FF6 condition must have been a slap in the face to the EPBC department.
In early 2024, the Solicitor General (Legal arm of the Crown/Government) informed the EPA that there had been an erring in law because TASCAT had approved the Development without having assessed the State Coastal Policy against it. Clause 1.4.2 states that no development will be permitted on an actively mobile frontal dune. Despite this, the developer had been approved to bulldoze a road and construct wharf infrastructure through Back Banks on Robbins Island’s eastern side.
Once the EPA received written advice from the Solicitor General, they were legally forced to take TASCAT to the Supreme Court of Tasmania for failing to access the State Coastal Policy when approving the Robbins Island Windfarm. There was a high possibility that the Supreme Court would find the approval in breach of the State Coastal Policy, which could result in an order declaring the approval invalid.
On May 6th last year, the Liberal Government (with Labor snuggled up in bed with them) acting as cheerleaders for the Windfarm Development, announced intentions to introduce legislation into Parliament to amend the State Coastal Policy and apply it retrospectively to facilitate the Robbins Island Windfarm and short circuit the Supreme Court case.
This legislative change occurred while the Supreme Court case was being played out. If anyone else had interfered with a Supreme Court case in this way, it would be called Contempt of Court and attract the full force of the law.
The draft State Coastal Policy Validation Bill was released for public submissions for just 14 days. During this period, 403 submissions were received with over 97% opposing the bill. In just three business days from the close of submissions, they tabled the bill and it was passed by both houses of Parliament. The speed was possible because the Liberals had Labor snuggled up with them and therefore had the numbers in Parliament. More Independents are needed to break this Lib-Lab duopoly.
In early 2024, the OBP recovery team managed, for the first time, to strap tiny transmitters to 16 OBP to track their flight patterns. By December 2024, they had collected data proving that the OBP frequently used Robbins Island, much more than experts had previously thought. Some juvenile OBP may be wintering on Robbins Island.
One can ask why the government (and Labor) is so hell bent on overriding everything to build a wind farm in such a sensitive environmental area. To answer this, one must first ask why the Government failed its own legislative requirements. The government failed to complete a State of the Environment Report in both 2014 and 2019 and was still late in completing it in 2024. This might answer some of the questions you are now asking yourself.
The final call regarding the Windfarm development lies with the Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who has deferred her decision for the third time until March 25th 2025. Given the fact that the Tasmanian Devils on Robbins Island represent the last wild population of DFTF animals and that we now have conclusive data that the orange-bellied parrots are using Robbins Island, there is no way Minister Plibersek can approve the Windfarm development. Doing so would be in breach of the EPBC Act and would most definitely see her in the Federal Court if she approves the Windfarm.
That said, my bet is she will abrogate deciding as there will be a federal election called before March 25th and the government will go into caretaker mode. It will then fall to the new government and potentially a new Minister, to make the decision.
Additionally, there is another flutter to be played in this saga and that is the Supreme Court case set down for early next month with the Circular Head Coastal Network armed with the new data regarding the orange-bellied parrots. No doubt it will throw a cat amongst the pigeons, or should I say, orange-bellied parrots.
It will be interesting to see how the feathers fall.
Malcolm Ryan is a 6th generation Braddon resident and businessman who grew up on a 480-acre dairy farm about 80km from Robbins Island.
Click HERE to read more about Malcolm Ryan on our The Who’s Who of the Braddon Beagle page.
The Robbins Island windfarm proposal is probably the worst in the world at the moment. Were another nation or state to propose siting a windfarm in a RAMSAR-worthy area, one which will adversely impact so many surrounding terrestrial and marine ecosystems and fisheries, and one will directly impact so many migratory and other birds, we’d scoff at the government and politicians backing it.
Here in Tasmania, however, the Liberal-Labor Party are working tirelessly for corporate investors, mostly from abroad. Mister Ryan asks why the Lib-Lab alliance are hell-bent on bending or ditching democratic process and any protections on the environment, and the answer is simple – money.
The Lib-Labs believe their only real job, other than offering a confident smile and a firm handshake to their electorate, and bellowing “jobs n growth” in response to any and all criticism of bad planning, is to ‘create investment opportunities’.
They believe that by enticing foreign investors to set up windfarms across our north, promising the investors that the Marinus Links and TasNet’s enormous new grid (the NWTD) will ship their privatised Tassie wind energy to the Mainland market, they can take a slice of the action.
Getting us to pay for TasNet’s new grid and all the tens of millions spent on Marinus Link so far, our two major parties can see gold in the distance – investor gold. There won’t be any actual ‘jobs and growth’ but there might be ‘efficiency dividends’ from TasNet and TasHydro that will flood state coffers – and how could that be a bad thing?
It’s a bad thing because we pay for a vast new industry we don’t benefit from. TasHydro will ship the energy offshore and if we need any, we’ll have to buy it back. In a drying, warming and increasingly unstable climate, instead of planning for Tasmania, the Liberal-Labor Party are planning for the Market, and the investors who have their ear.
The reason Liberal-Labor are ferociously dismantling democracy to get Robbins Island up and running is it will show global investors that Tasmanian communities and our precious remaining wild spaces won’t be allowed to get in the way of corporates making money. If Robbins Island doesn’t happen – and it shouldn’t – Lib-Lab fear the investors will look elsewhere.
At no stage are Lib-Lab planning for us, for our kids or grandkids. Nor are they planning to address the climate-biodiversity crises or make our economy healthier by being more equitable. It’s time for rusted-on Lib-Lab voters to look elsewhere for candidates that will examine the evidence, and hold the rich and powerful corporate sector – and their political proxies – to account.
Great, informative article Malcolm. I have fought against Robins Island and other “Wind Factories” from an engineering perspective and the expensive, defective and inefficient power they produce. I knew they were an ecological disaster but not to the extent that you have highlighted. Now you have enlightened me to the extreme level of corruption by all brands of government and private interests involved in these projects. It sickens me that fellow humans can be such cowards in their quest for power and money.
Having heard the Robins Island proponent state his selfish obsession to build, in his own words, “a dynasty for his family”, it highlights the insatiable greed of individuals for wealth. Obviously all levels of government are also onboard to continue building the pyramid scheme economy. It is always about money and power and they will say and do anything to convince us to get onboard with them as well.
Government and interest groups talk about sustainability but the definition of sustain means to last over time, so therefore sustainability is the ability of something to last. In this case it should be our ecology not the economy. Robins Island and any other such development is destructive on a cataclysmic scale to our precious ecology. It is not just the birdlife and the Devils we need to consider but the effects upon the entire ecology, right down to the microscopic sea critters that will be polluted by this development.
We must protect the wild orange-bellied parrot population at any cost as well as the entire ecological package. It is very hard to come back from extinction!!!
Well done again Malcolm.
Al
Absolutely incredible that the two major political parties in this country pointblank refuse to listen to environmental experts, verified data AND the community regarding this proposed catastrophic development. Thank you, Malcolm, for a beautifully written, well researched piece. We can only hope the next federal government sees sense and chooses not to destroy this spectacular island.