A worker has been killed in an incident during construction at Australia’s largest onshore wind farm in the state of Victoria.
According to Australian public broadcaster ABC, Victorian police said the 36-year-old man who died was crushed beneath a turbine blade at the site near Rokewood.
The site is part of the 1.3 GW Golden Plains Wind Farm project, the largest approved wind project in Australia set to feature 215 turbines across two stages.
Construction on the first stage began at the start of 2023, and the first turbines began spinning last month. Meanwhile, work on stage two began in June this year.
The project is 85% owned by TagEnergy, alongside Ingka Group (15%), with Vestas providing turbines and EPC services for stage one.
Union raised safety concerns at Golden Plains site
The Australian Worker’s Union (AWU) said it is “extremely frustrated and angry” following the fatal incident, which the union said “raises serious safety concerns”.
AWU Victoria state secretary Ronnie Hayden said the “devastating loss could have been prevented”.
“Just two weeks ago, union delegates from three different unions met with Vestas
management to raise serious safety concerns, telling them it was only dumb luck that no body had been killed on site yet,” Hayden said.
The AWU said it had “consistently raised alarms” about pressures on workers at the project due to significant delays in construction.
© Supplied by Golden Plains Wind FVestas told the ABC that a subcontractor died following an onsite accident where a turbine blade being stored on the ground was being prepared for installation.
Vestas Australia and New Zealand country head Danny Nielsen, said the company was devastated for the worker’s family and the entire team building the wind farm.
“With workplace safety as our number one priority, the site has been closed and we are working closely with the authorities, including the police and WorkSafe Victoria, to investigate what happened and work with the project partners to take steps to prevent it recurring in the future,” he told the ABC.
Speaking at a press conference in Melbourne, Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, expressed condolences and noted the state’s workplace safety regulations.
“Any accident in any workplace is indeed a deep concern and a tragedy,” Allan said.
Victoria’s WorkSafe minister, Danny Pearson, said it was a “heartbreaking tragedy.”
“Our thoughts are with the family of the worker as well as their workmates,” he said.
Wind sector safety
The Australian incident comes as the wind sector faces rising safety concerns amid a rapid increase in construction globally.
Safety incidents in the global offshore wind sector nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, according to a report from safety organisation G+.
Meanwhile, a recent study from the University of Strathclyde found the injury rate among workers in the offshore wind sector was four times higher than that of offshore oil and gas.
Last month, UK safety regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued its first immediate prohibition notice against an offshore wind farm.
During a routine inspection of the SSE project on 6 September, HSE inspectors found that there were no suitably trained first aiders or adequate equipment located on the project’s offshore substation platform to deal with a potential medical incident.
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