French company plans to install wind turbines on Anzac graves
The mayor of a town in France that Australians fought to liberate is returning the favour.
Bullecourt Mayor Gerard Crutel is taking on a major corporation planning to install wind turbines where thousands of Anzac diggers are buried.
Bullecourt has a living population of just 260 but its number of Australian war dead is more than 10,000.
Throughout the village are marks of respect to the sacrifice made by Australian soldiers in World War One.
The remains of up to 4000 diggers lie beneath farmland - the site of two fierce battles in 1917.
But a plan to install six wind turbines is threatening to disturb their graves on the battlefield.
The area measures just one and a half square kilometres but is the target of energy company Engie Green.
But Mr Crutel said it will never happen.
“Money rules everything and it's really sad to see that,” he said.
"Dear Australia, I want to reassure you there won't be any wind turbines on the battlefield, I promise. Voila."
Engie Green says it was aware of the significance of the land, but was blindsided by Australia's outrage this week.
"We are willing to change the project by maybe sacrificing a part of it, in order to get everyone's approval,” a project manager said.
“We are really sensitive about this matter. "
Resident Colette Durand, 87, wanted to create a permanent tribute to the Australians who lost their lives in the town but whose bodies were never found.
She’s horrified by the wind farm plans.
"I'm sure they will find bones; hundreds of bodies are there in the ground. It's sure, that when we dig, we'll find plenty,” she said.
