Waubra Wind Farm

Jemimah and I visited the Waubra Wind Farm on Sunday on our way home from church. We pass by almost every weekend, but it is a long time since we had dropped in for a bit of a look. It was a beautiful day, and I'd hoped that I would have some good photos to show you, but the sun was in just the wrong position, and most of the nice photos are the ones without the wind turbines. Typical. Just imagine the following hills covered with 128 windmills, and you'll get the idea, anyhow.

When Waubra was completed back in 2009, it was the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. (Nowadays it ranks at number three). It is really quite an impressive sight as the turbines come into view - some places you can see them on every horizon. Jemimah and I had a bit of a chat about those who believe that such wind farms have adverse health outcomes for local residents, and we also discussed some of the benefits of such green power. The Waubra Wind Farm produces enough energy for the nearby city of Ballarat. Quite impressive, when you think about it.

We spent a bit of time reading the information boards and educating ourselves, but to be honest, the thing that had my amateur geologist most excited was the discovery of the square crystals of iron pyrites (fool's gold) in the slate slabs covering the ground outside the Visitors' Centre.

Just like with children's toys, where the carton is often more exciting than the contents, so it was here, where the rubble on the ground was more exciting than the display. We gathered a few bits to show Daddy at home, and then we were back on the road. Amongst landscape like this. Beautiful, isn't it?

While on the subject of electricity, our local supplier had a scheduled shutdown on the weekend for five hours. Despite having UPSs on our computers, whatever they did has totally disrupted our Internet access. Hence the lack of posting from me this week. I'm posting this from my iPad. Lets see what it looks like on the screen, eh? Thanks for your patience.