Noise Pollution
Bigger, louder and closer to townships
Noise pollution emitting from OSMI and HVP’s proposed Delburn Wind Farm
is a key concern of SCA.
Wind turbine noise is not a sound of nature. It is repetitive like a dripping tap. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has acknowledged that wind turbines produce low frequency and infrasound, and that the special noise characteristics are not natural.
The impact poses a major threat to the community:
1. Largest on-shore turbines
2. Too close to populated areas
According to the National Wind Farm Commissioner, the best locations for wind farms are on flat to moderately undulating land well away from neighbours (i.e. sparsely populated, broad acre farming areas). Refer to the resource below.
- The number of households impacted by this industrial scale wind farm will be in the thousands. Land zoned Rural Living falls within 3km of turbines. Residential zones in Boolarra and Yinnar are within 5km. Mirboo North and Thorpdale lay within 10km of turbines, along with housing estates in Moe and Morwell.
- Hepburn Wind is often cited as an example of a wind farm close to homes with little impact and broad community acceptance. Not only is this wind farm owned by members of the local community, it has just 2 smaller turbines less than 110m tall. A better comparison is the industrial scale, Murra Warra Wind Farm in western Victoria with 211m tall turbines. There are only 27 houses on neighbouring (non-associated) properties within 5km of a turbine. The nearest township is 15km away.
3. Victoria's weak and poorly enforced regulations
Hepburn Wind is often cited as an example of a wind farm close to homes with little impact and broad community acceptance. Not only is this wind farm owned by members of the local community, it has just 2 smaller turbines less than 110m tall. A better comparison is the industrial scale, Murra Warra Wind Farm in western Victoria with 211m tall turbines. There are only 27 houses on neighbouring (non-associated) properties within 5km of a turbine. The nearest township is 15km away.
4. Worse than the troubled Bald Hills Wind Farm (and Waubra and Cape Bridgewater
The Bald Hills Wind Farm has been proven to be in breach of the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Act. A recent independent and peer reviewed noise assessment found it to be non-compliant with the regulations.
The same bodies involved in the development of the Bald Hills Wind Farm are involved in the Delburn proposal. This includes OSMI directors Peter Marriott and Stephen Buckle, and Marshall Day Acoustics.

Among a number of key points, the WHO (who added turbine noise to their 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region) noted the following:
– Health effects of individuals living in the vicinity of wind turbines can theoretically be related not only to long-term noise exposure from the wind turbines but also to disruption caused during the construction phase.
– The noise emitted from wind turbines has other characteristics, including the repetitive nature of the sound of the rotating blades and atmospheric influence leading to a variability of amplitude modulation, which can be a source of above average annoyance (Schäffer et al., 2016).

