Must be winding us all up
I WOULD have to be forgiven for thinking it was April Fools’ Day when I read about the proposed transportation of the wind turbine blades up to wind farm site west of Walkamin (CP, 30/6).
We are informed each of these blades is 57m long and weigh 10 tonnes. Of all the roads that access the Atherton Tablelands, these blades are to be hauled up the Gillies Range Rd.
Surely, nobody could even consider hauling these huge blades over one of Australia’s tightest, most winding mountain roads? Even B-double trucks with a maximum legal length of 25m are not permitted on this road. So, just how would they expect to haul a 57m long load up this 19km long and very twisting mountain road?
We are also informed there will be road closures which would be timed for minimal disruption.
There are to be 53 of these monstrous wind turbines erected, and there are three blades per turbine, so that’s a total of 159 blades they propose to transport up the range with “minimal” traffic disruption? Yep, it most definitely had to be April Fools’ Day. Ian Lummis, Tinaroo and the ridiculous war on the molecule that underpins all life. The cost of subsidising intermittent, unreliable, nonsynchronous windmills and solar panels is the cause of our misery.
On a level playing field coal-fired power costs 4 cents per kW to produce while wind costs 70 cents per kW. You do the maths.
A vote for the Greens, the ALP or the LNP is a vote for more-expensive electricity, fewer jobs and less money for health, education, roads and everything else we like. Peter Campion, Tolga 1812: Britain makes peace with Russia
and Sweden. 1822: Royal Agricultural Society of NSW
is formed. 1830: The French launch invasion of
Algeria and take Algiers. 1865: William Booth sets up the Christian Revival Association, later to become the Salvation Army, in London. 1940: The Vichy government in France
breaks off relations with Britain. 1943: A German offensive on the Soviet
front begins with Battle of Kursk. 1945: PM John Curtin, 60, who led
Australia for most of World War II, dies. 1946: Bikini swimsuits are modelled for
the first time in Paris. 1954: Elvis Presley makes first his first
recording in Memphis, Tennessee. 1965: Maria Callas gives last performance
at London’s Covent Garden. 1967: Israel annexes Gaza. 1987: Australian Pat Cash wins men’s
singles at Wimbledon. 2012: Lochie Hinds, 16, swims English Channel, becoming youngest Australian to compete in the open-water swim. 2014: Ukrainian troops force pro-Russian insurgents out of key stronghold in the country’s embattled east. 2016: Nick Kyrgios (above) admits he doesn’t “love” tennis after straight sets loss to Andy Murray at Wimbledon.