The Star of the South Wind Farm is the first of the proposed projects off Gippsland to submit its completed statements for environmental approval and public comment.

There are two parts: an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Commonwealth Waters and an Environmental Effects Statement (EES) for the transmission infrastructure in Victorian Waters and on land. These relate to the relevant federal and state environmental legislation.

The Dolphin Research Institute made submissions to both the Commonwealth EIS and the State EES. These are provided below as flipbooks and can be downloaded.

A link to the Star of the South portal with full EIS and EES documents is provided below to assist you in finding out more.

The environmental approvals process is in-depth, and the full set of documents runs into tens of thousands of pages.

We focused on the investigations, risk assessment and mitigation relevant to whales and dolphins. We also went to great lengths to edit dozens of pages, providing concise, focused statements that, in our experience, are more likely to have an impact.

Broadly, we conclude that the environmental assessments relevant to whales and dolphins were thorough, although with room for improvement. There are potential risks to whales and dolphins which, with appropriate mitigation controls, should be manageable and temporary.

OVERALL CONCLUSION
Conditional approval is recommended. The Star of South Offshore Wind Farm should proceed with enhanced measures to ensure:

• observer detections of whales and cessation of work,
• expansion of the protections for humpback whales,
• publicly accessible and verified reporting during construction and operation,
• significant investment to achieve a greater understanding of the ecology of whales in our region and perhaps other nature-positive and community outcomes.