Do the available documents show that the Lal Lal Wind Farm's planning, technical and regulatory obligations are being met?
This website was created to help answer that question.
It shows the requirements, the evidence found, the gaps identified, the questions put to regulators and other organisations, and the responses received — or where no response was received.
Victorian Ombudsman complaints — August 2026
The Trustee has lodged distinct complaints concerning the administration of aspects of the Lal Lal Wind Farm record by Moorabool Shire Council, EPA Victoria and the Department of Transport and Planning. Lodgement of a complaint is recorded as a procedural event only and does not constitute an Ombudsman finding.
14 August — Council non-response / Condition 17
Online complaint concerning Council's administration of the Condition 17 records enquiry. The later 24 August closure correspondence was followed by a Trustee request for clarification as to the complaint assessed.
18 August — EPA Victoria
Complaint concerning EPA's regulatory decision-making and continuing compliance position in relation to Lal Lal Wind Farm.
18 August — Moorabool Shire Council
Separate substantive complaint concerning Council's historical administration, investigation and December 2022 no-breach determination.
25 August — DTP
Complaint concerning DTP's permit administration, the documentary foundation for its stated compliance position and the 2026 permit amendment.
Professional Standards & Complaints Pathways
A dedicated page now separates the Australian Acoustical Society pathway used independently by the Beneficiary in private capacity from the Association of Australasian Acoustical Consultants pathway used separately by the Trustee. The page publishes the independently existing professional clarification correspondence and governing professional-body material, while the formal complaint documents and confidential complaint-process material are not reproduced.
AAS — Beneficiary private-capacity pathway
Records the Gustaf Reuterswärd and Thomas Evans pathways, the underlying publishable correspondence, and the separation between Trustee correspondence and the Beneficiary's independent decisions.
AAAC — Trustee external-complaint pathway
Records the SLR, ARUP, Marshall Day and Resonate pathways together with the direct professional clarification correspondence that preceded external escalation.
Y23 Blade Incident — 104 days later
View the 27 August 2026 site footage and documentary comparison with the earlier May record.
3:34 am — J14aa noise complaint and monitoring record
SLR noise-monitoring equipment was operating at J14aa during the reported early-morning disturbance. The dedicated case-study page brings together the contemporaneous logger display, the Lal Lal Wind Farm complaint response recording an average wind speed of 9.5 m/s, the K15aa night-time limits used by SLR for J14aa, and the Beneficiary’s contemporaneous question whether the logger data formed part of the investigation.
The visible logger display is preserved as contemporaneous source material and is not, by itself, converted into a technical compliance finding. The documentary question is whether the underlying logger data was reviewed and, if so, what it showed.
Key issues at a glance
To show the gaps in the record
What the website does
The Lal Lal Wind Farm is governed by planning approvals, technical standards, noise requirements and regulatory duties.
The Trustee examined the available documents to see whether they explain how those obligations are being met.
Where the documents do not provide a clear answer, the website identifies the gap.
What happened when questions were asked
the requests made to regulators and other organisations, the answers received, and where a question was not answered.
This allows readers to see the gap, the question asked about it, and the response — or lack of response — in the same record.
Start with the main question
No technical knowledge is needed. Begin with the plain-English pages, then open the supporting documents when you want to check the evidence.
Commissioning and DTP disclosure record
The following developments add primary source material to the public record. They record agency searches, decision notices and later clarification correspondence; they do not determine the legal or regulatory effect of the underlying events.
Moorabool Shire Council — planning administration and governance record
9–22 April 2026: the Trustee sought administrative clarification from Henry Bezuidenhout, Executive Manager Community Planning & Development, and from Governance concerning the Elaine meteorological monitoring facility, commissioning timing and the documentary basis of Council's historical administrative positions.
14 May 2026: Governance advised that the FOI processes were complete, its involvement had concluded and no further response would be provided.
20 July 2026: the Trustee issued a Notice to the Chief Executive Officer inviting Council to state whether its administrative record accurately reflects its historical administration of Planning Permit PL-SP/05/0461 while Council was identified as the Responsible Authority for administration and enforcement.
DTP FOI CS019200 — decision and clarification
17 July 2026: DTP issued its Notice of Access Decision. The decision records eight documents located and states that no commissioning certificates, individual turbine commissioning records, practical completion certificates or handover certificates were located.
The Trustee subsequently sought administrative clarification concerning the identity of the applicant and the determination of Part 4 of the request. On 4 August 2026, DTP issued a supplementary clarification stating that, following relevant enquiries, it was unable to locate any documents in response to Part 4 concerning documentary authority for the identified departures from the NZS 6808:2010 definitions of background sound level and notional boundary.
Victorian Ombudsman — DTP planning-permit administration
10–24 August 2026: the Trustee gave the Minister for Planning a further opportunity to address the developed administrative record, including the basis for DTP's stated NZS 6808:2010 compliance position and the 2026 permit-amendment reconciliation questions. The 14-day period expired on 24 August 2026 without acknowledgement or substantive response recorded by the Trustee.
25 August 2026: the Trustee lodged a formal complaint with the Victorian Ombudsman concerning DTP's administration of Planning Permit PL-SP/05/0461, the documentary foundation for its compliance position and the 2026 permit amendment. The complaint seeks independent administrative investigation; no Ombudsman finding or determination is recorded.
Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner — documentary pathway
2025: the AEIC considered the Beneficiary's complaint and the Commissioner recorded reliance on EPA Victoria's stated regulatory position when concluding that the AEIC could not assist further.
March–July 2026: the Trustee provided the developing and crystallised administrative record to the AEIC for documentary completeness only, including the EPA reconciliation notice. No review or action was sought.
Operator — Procedural Opportunity Completed
21 July 2026: the Trustee issued the Notice — Crystallised Administrative Position inviting the Operator to identify any additional statutory, planning or documentary authority relevant to the twelve reconciled matters.
31 July 2026: the Trustee issued the Notice — Completion of Procedural Opportunity recording that the procedural opportunity previously afforded had concluded. The Trustee recorded that it would continue its administrative, regulatory and legal considerations on the documentary record as presently reconciled while remaining willing to consider any relevant material subsequently identified.
Professional acoustic record - opportunity to clarify
26 July 2026: the Trustee issued a procedural-fairness Notice inviting clarification of professional positions and any documentary or authorising basis not apparent within the record.
29 July 2026: additional SAC material was forwarded for information, without changing the Notice.
5 August 2026: DTP's 4 August FOI clarification was forwarded to SLR for information after DTP stated that relevant enquiries had located no documents responsive to Part 4 concerning the identified NZS 6808:2010 authority question.
8 August 2026: no response, acknowledgement or request for additional time is recorded by the Trustee. No adverse inference is drawn merely from the absence of a response.
A separate professional-conduct complaint lodged by the Beneficiary with the Australian Acoustical Society remains recorded only as a procedural event; no AAS finding or determination is presently recorded.
Recent questions added to the record
These notices show the latest formal questions raised about identified documentary gaps.
Notice - Opportunity to Clarify Professional Positions and Authorising Basis
The Notice provided a procedural-fairness opportunity to clarify professional acoustic positions and identify any documentary or authorising basis not apparent within the Trustee's record.
The record now includes the complete correspondence sequence: the 26 July Notice, the 29 July SAC information update, and the 5 August forwarding of DTP's 4 August supplementary FOI clarification. As at 8 August 2026, no response, acknowledgement or request for additional time is recorded. No adverse inference is drawn merely from the absence of a response.
Notice — Completion of Procedural Opportunity
Lal Lal Wind Farm — Operator documentary record
Following the Trustee's Notice — Crystallised Administrative Position dated 21 July 2026, the Trustee issued a further Notice recording completion of the procedural opportunity previously afforded to the Operator.
The Notice records that, as at 31 July 2026, no substantive response identifying additional documentary material, an authorising document or documentary explanation had been received. It further records that the Trustee will proceed upon the documentary record as presently reconciled while remaining willing to consider any relevant material identified subsequently.
Notice — Administrative Record — Governance Consideration
Planning Permit PL-SP/05/0461 — Moorabool Shire Council
The Notice asks Council whether its administrative record accurately reflects its historical administration of the permit while Council was expressly identified as the Responsible Authority for administration and enforcement. It invites Council to identify any clarification, supplementation or correction it considers necessary.
The Notice expressly concerns historical permit administration. It does not concern present operational-noise regulation, EPA functions or a present-day compliance determination.
Notice — Documentary Reconciliation of EPA's Current Regulatory Position
Lal Lal Wind Farm — K15aa
This Notice asks EPA Victoria to identify the documents that explain how its current position is reconciled with the laws, planning requirements, NZS 6808:2010 and other documents applying to K15aa.
It records a request for a documentary explanation. It does not make a compliance finding.
Notice — Crystallisation of Administrative and Regulatory Record
This Notice records the completion of the present phase of the Trustee's administrative and documentary record concerning the Lal Lal Wind Farm.
It explains that the documents assembled to that date were preserved as a stable public record while later developments could be added separately.
The requirement, the evidence and the gap
What was required
The planning conditions, technical standards and other requirements that applied.
What the documents show
The evidence found, the main questions raised by it, and the gaps identified.
What response was given
The requests sent to regulators and other organisations, their responses, and where no response was received.
Plain English, backed by the documents
The website uses plain English wherever possible. Exact legal or technical wording is used only when it needs to be preserved.
The documents are published so readers can check the evidence, see the gaps and read the responses for themselves.
Shadow Flicker — Documentary Record
Published 1 August 2026.
The new page presents selected assessment extracts, a Beneficiary video record, historical operator responses, the 2025 incident reference, 2026 observation correspondence and the Trustee’s later clarification request. The unredacted source email is not published.