Offshore renewable energy infrastructure area proposal: Pacific Ocean off Hunter

Possible benefit for cleaner electricity generation, however concerns regarding effective life cycle costing in regards to carbon footprint of construction, maintenance, and decommissioning.

Issues in relation to whale migration routes, noise/vibration underwater which may affect communication between whales - possible beachings. How are the companies running projects to be held accountable for this, and/or help pay for any adverse affects to wildlife - for example contributing to seabird, sealife/ whale rescue/rehabilitation centre. Obviously project companies have amazing technological capacity, so surely a small percentage of profits could go to developing technology to assist with whale/dolphin rescue in the event of increased strandings.

Complete lack of consultation with residents of Norah Head means i have no idea what possible benefits there could be to the Norah Head community. I can only see issues and concerns, which there are many - particularly as there has been absolutely no information provided on anything in regards to this zone and why it comes in so close to Norah Head - will there be construction/ maintenance worker traffic? Helicopters? Boats?

I am extremely concerned that there was no consultation, no opportunity to ask questions, no response from DCCEEW to request for extended submission time and more consultation. The first i heard about the proposed zone was approximately 10 days ago from a random flyer written by and anonymous resident dropped in our letterbox. On doing our own investigations and googling we can see there were numerous hunter news articles and press releases etc, however as Norah Head is not and never has been part of the Hunter these were not seen by myself or any of the over 200 people I have personally canvased. Out of this number we found 1 person who went to a public meeting. For everyone else desperate for information the meetings were long gone - 6 weeks ago. This lack of information and finding out with only days to go prior to submission has caused a very distressing situation for us.

I am indeed concerned about the effects on traditional ownership, local economy and tourism. More so I am concerned for the rest of the community who do not fall in to these categories.

Norah Head is the social and recreational centre for the entire northern end of the Central Coast (formerly Wyong Shire). The busy-ness of our roads on weekends and holidays is testament to this. In a low socio-economic area such as this the access to such a stunning natural coastline for all at no cost is extremely important. It seems this is being completely underestimated, and possibly not even considered. There are not many other free to access resources for this community. Very few quality parks, no boardwalks, one small national park with a few short trails, no bike trails. Our beaches are everything to this community. This is the centre of our lives, and it is why people move here, why we stay here.

Our family and many other families both young and old use the beaches, headlands, rock pools, rock platforms daily for recreation, relaxation, social gathering, exercise, connection, swimming, surfing, fishing and it a huge source of enjoyment for all of us. Part of this enjoyment is the uninterrupted horizon view, including the beautiful bomboras, reefs and Bird Island. Having hundreds of massive turbines up to 10km for the coastline will utterly destroy this visual amenity.

There has been no consultation or explanation of why they need to come so close to the shore at Norah Head. If the zone boundary was pushed out to 40km from the shore to ensure low visual impact there would be a loss of approximately 5% in area of the zone. If this is of concern to companies with project under development, then there is plenty of room for the zone to extend southwards. Indeed Hunter Central Coast Offshore Energy has already done their preliminary Marine Environmental Assessment on an area south of the proposed Hunter Offshore Zone, and has concluded that it would be a suitable site for their project.

This is massive concern for our family, our friends and visitors and almost all the people we know in Norah Head and surrounding suburbs. For the record we do not have even the glimpse of a view from our property.

Norah Head is a particularly beautiful part of the coastline, this is always the first comment from all our visitors from Sydney and other areas - wow its just so beautiful. It is so relaxing and special to be on the beaches swimming, surfing, walking without being able to see a building (other than the surf club) this is quite unique and special, and cannot be underestimated. The stunning heritage lighthouse which is visited daily by tourists and locals on exercising whale watching, fishing, enjoying exploring the pristine and unique rock platforms features heavily in tourism advertisements for the Central Coast, and is a delight to see it jutting out from the stunning blue surrounds of the headland.

the 'Top Carpark' as it is known at Soldiers Beach has a unique outlook, such that people who are elderly, injured, disabled, unwell or otherwise incapacitated can enjoy watching the ocean, waves, whales, birds and the stunning rock platform vistas without getting out of the car. This is such an important feature of our area. This would be completely destroyed by having 330m wind turbines only10km off the shore, which would clearly dominate the landscape.

There are many examples in UK/europe where subsequent wind projects have been required to be further and further from the shore, with Scotland having minimum of 25km from shore, and recent studies showing 40km off shore is required for low visual impact for 300m high turbines.

It seems an obvious solution to remove the small handle of the zone which comes in so unnecessarily close at Norah Head, and pushing it out to 40km only removes approximately 5 % of the area. If more area is required the zone could extend further southward - particularly as there are not the beautiful headlands and rock platforms to the south. As shown by the BMT report for HCCOE project this area is likely a suitable site for offshore wind.

Concern about possible swell impacts on Soldiers Beach which is a National Surfing Reserve. Surfing is and has been for a very long time an extremely important part of this community. New Zealand studies predicted a loss in swell of approximately 20%.

Pollution, potential oil spills etc, high rate of maintenance required for such infrastructure in our wild and harsh ocean environment is of great concern.

Access to the projects near Norah Head - how will construction, maintenance, decommissioning be carried out and will this go through Norah Head - our roads will simply not cope.

Potential noise impacts. Living within 300m of shore we are well aware of how sound travels depending on wind direction.

Light impacts - will this ruin the stunning dark sky and amazing star watching, new moon watching being in so close to shore.

What actual benefits are there to the local community - this seems to be stated over and over by both DCCEEW and projects/companies involved, yet we can't imagine any benefits whatsoever to Norah Head.