MPs sleep soundly near wind farm

Politicians who spent the night in an abandoned house listening for noise from wind turbines say they couldn’t hear anything, but local residents are howling out for help.

Liberal MP David Ridgeway, Labor MP Russell Wortley and Greens MP Mark Parnell bunkered down in the house in the state’s Mid North last night as part of the Parliamentary Committee into wind power.

The house’s owner vowed never to return because the wind turbines drove him wild.

But did the politicians hear anything?

“It wasn’t that bad, bit windy, a fair bit of rain, sort of a few strange noises but I couldn’t pick whether one of them was the noises from the windfarm or not,” Mr Ridgeway said.

The other pollies slept peacefully too.

“I stayed up for quite a while last night to try and hear the turbines, but there are a lot of factors that affect it,” Mr Wortley said.

While Mr Parnell said: “From the bedroom, in a house, two kilometers away, I really don’t think I could hear it.”

The politicians stayed one night, but local residents say they would have to stay for at least a week to catch how bad the problem really is.

“I really think you almost need to live with it for a while to experience it under different conditions,” local resident Ally Fricker said.

Bob Lamb said: “It can vary from the sound like there’s a large truck or a train in the distance coming towards you, but it never moves.”