Queensland scraps wind farm proposed to power half-a-million homes

A Queensland wind farm proposed to power about half-a-million homes will scrapped by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie who cited community concerns with the large-scale renewable project.

The Forest Wind project, proposed to include up to 226 turbines for the Wide Bay region between Gympie and Maryborough, will be repealed, sparking a furious rebuke of the Crisafulli government’s energy policy from environmental advocates and parliamentary rivals.

Bleijie, Queensland’s state development and planning minister, insisted there was no realistic pathway for the project, blaming the former Labor government for bypassing consultation and steamrolling community concerns.

The LNP says the former Labor government, under both Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) and Steven Miles, ignored consultation on renewable projects.Credit: AAP

The decision comes after the state government introduced new laws for mandatory public consultation for large-scale solar and wind farms aimed at empowering regional communities to voice concerns against renewable energy projects.

Bleijie said the former Labor government’s policy of streamlining renewable projects to support its pathway to energy transition targets created “fear and anxiety in local communities”.

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“The Crisafulli government has introduced nation-leading laws to give local communities a say on major developments in their own backyards,” the deputy premier said.

“A new planning pathway for regulating wind farms which commenced in February 2025 was the first step to requiring all wind farm proposals be impact assessable and subject to the same rigorous approval process as other major development projects.”

The Crisafulli government also cited concerns about the environmental impacts of the 160 metre-tall wind farms to the state forest region, but the Queensland Conservation Council insists the pine plantation at the proposed site was ideal for large-scale projects.

The QCC’s director, Dave Copeman, said pine plantations were well-suited because the local biodiversity had already been impacted, and he accused the government of putting ideology over the need to build renewable energy.

“If the Crisafulli government is serious about protecting Queensland’s environment they need to be building renewable energy in the right places – not randomly axing projects at the whim of the deputy premier,” he said.

“It’s important that all renewable projects are rigorously assessed for their environmental and community impact, but since being elected, the Crisafulli government hasn’t actually meaningfully improved the environmental assessments of renewable energy projects.

“They talk about the environment and use it as a cover to kill renewable energy projects and further fuel climate change.”

Premier David Crisafulli has said he will stick to the previous Labor government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 but will repeal its renewable energy target.

The LNP government has also said it will run its network of state-owned coal-powered plants beyond the 2035 date the former Labor government committed to ending Queensland’s reliance on coal.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles, who legislated an ambitious 75 per cent emissions reduction target as premier in early 2024, said the LNP’s ideological opposition to renewables would jeopardise investments into the state’s energy sector.

“Wind delivers some of the best, most reliable, cheapest energy we can get, but the LNP really hate them and they’re out there cancelling them,” Miles told reporters on Monday.

“And that has caused this great movement of capital out of our renewable energy future into other states.”

With Catherine Strohfeldt

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