Waubra – The Way the Wind Blows Waubra’s residents tell their stories. Since the Waubra wind farm started generating power in 2009, the town has acquired a dubious reputation: the so-called `Waubra Disease’ is now known internationally. But how much sense does it make? Whilst there’s a small number of complainants among the population of 500, there are also 30 families hosting turbines on their land as well as many turbine neighbours – including community leaders – who live happily with the turbines.
Neil Barrett of Takone Projects has been researching the Waubra situation over the past year. Whilst his attempts to understand the issues raised by complainants are on-going, it has become clear to him that the apparent good health and well-being of the great majority of the community deserves to be more widely known. In these videos you will meet some of these down-to-earth farming people who live and work happily with wind turbines: people who are not `gagged’ from speaking out, people whose views should be taken seriously by all those who are concerned about climate change and the urgent need to develop renewable energy. Duration: 11 segments averaging 4 mins each, total 40 mins.
In this introduction, the producer briefy notes that his attempts to understand the complainants’ problems were unsuccessful, introduces the turbine hosts and their neighbours and their location in relation to turbines, describes his study of wind farm opposition in Germany and Denmark and gives some essential information about Waubra and the impact of the wind farm. If you have already viewed the condensed version, to avoid repetition you should fast forward 1’20” into this introduction.