Decarbonising Australia’s energy market is central to protecting regional Australia’s unique landscapes, communities, and lifestyle from the compounding threats of climate change.
At the same time, efforts to decarbonise our national energy system must not result in net-loss outcomes for the ecosystems we’re working to protect.
Queensland’s renewable energy resources are strategically important to support Australia’s clean energy transition. Bungaban Wind is a valuable large-scale renewable energy project that can be grid connected and producing clean, competitively priced energy for Queensland’s homes, business and industry by 2030, while displacing around 4 million tonnes of carbon from the state’s annual energy generation profile.
Through a strategic partnership with Rio Tinto, Bungaban Wind also highlights the major value of developing new renewable energy projects to ensure the long-term sustainability of Queensland’s traditional powerhouse industries and critical resources sector.
wind energy project
with existing operations, with cattle able to graze right up to the base of the turbine
equivalent of cost-competitive, clean energy
Queensland’s critical minerals processing industry
from Queensland’s energy generation profile every year
Our development approach takes place over a number of years to ensure we can deliver high-performing projects that balance stakeholder and expert feedback, technical constraints, and regulatory requirements. The location of Bungaban has been strategically chosen due to its excellent wind and solar resource and high levels of historical clearance and disturbance. Bungaban Wind’s proposed layout will continue to be refined in response to stakeholder feedback and ongoing technical studies.
More than 99 per cent of the project’s temporary development footprint occurs within non-remnant, historically cleared and disturbed land, with critical infrastructure positioned away from sensitive areas, minimising overall biodiversity impacts.
Detailed ecological assessments have been ongoing since 2022, with further cross-seasonal surveys and cultural heritage assessments planned as the project progresses through the approvals process. Windlab is working with ecologists, experts, and regulators to produce a layout that results in the best possible environmental outcome, while still resulting in a high performing wind project.
Following construction, we will rehabilitate and restore more than 80 per cent of the development footprint. This will reduce Bungaban Wind’s ongoing operating footprint to approximately 1 percent of the combined 50,311-hectare area of the host landholders’ cattle properties.
The Bungaban Renewable Energy Hub is comprised of two individually permitted, complementary renewable energy projects within one location — Bungaban Wind and Bungaban Solar. Each project will require separate and independent regulatory approvals.
Bungaban Wind is currently being assessed under the Federal Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This is the Commonwealth legislative framework that protects and manages nationally and internationally significant flora, fauna, ecological communities, and heritage places.
Bungaban Wind was referred under the EPBC Act in April 2024 (link to Portal here). Preliminary Documentation was available for public comment in March 2026. Feedback received will inform updates to project documentation, prior to final submission.
Bungaban Solar was referred under the EPBC Act in August 2026.
Ecological and social assessment requirements for the Queensland Government's State Assessment and Referral Agency are prescribed in State code 23: Wind farm development and State Code 16: Native vegetation clearing.
A development application for Bungaban Wind, along with specialist studies considering environmental and social factors, was submitted to the Queensland Government for assessment in October 2024. These documents are available on the Queensland's Government website (reference 2410-43110 SDA).
Bungaban Solar's development application was approved by Western Downs Regional Council in June 2025.
Bungaban Wind and Bungaban Solar will have detailed end-of-life decommissioning and rehabilitation plans as a condition of their respective project approvals.
All built assets – from wind turbines and solar panels to highways, rail lines, and bridges – have a finite operating life. Bungaban Wind has an initial operating life of 30 to 35 years.
As part of our leading-practice approach to development, we build decommissioning planning into lease agreements with host landholders from the outset.
Atthe end of each project’s operating life, all above ground project infrastructure will be dismantled and removed from the site. Areaswithin the projects’ operating footprints, including tracks, hardstands, and laydown areas, will be restored to native ecosystems.
Many of the components used in renewable energy projects remain valuable after a project reaches the end of its operating life. Equipment and assets in good repair can be transferred to other projects, sold, or donated to support regional community organisations. Steel and other metals used in turbine towers, transmission structures, and overhead cabling can be sold for recycling. Advances in technology are also creating new and innovative solutions for recovering valuable resources from carbon-fibre turbine blades and other materials.
As Bungaban Wind nears the end of its nameplate term, options like upgrading and repowering turbines could extend the valuable operating life of the project for many years.
