Wedge-tailed Eagle,
Award winning protection

Photo courtesy of Carlos Jorquera, IdentiFlight

Goldwind is part of the Central Highlands community. We’ve been operating the Cattle Hill Wind Farm for over five years. During that time, we’ve implemented a range of wildlife management programs. We’ve learned a lot, and all of that knowledge will be brought to the Bashan Wind Farm project.

Protecting the
Wedge-tailed Eagle

Central Highlands is home to the Tasmanian Wedge-Tailed Eagle. On the mainland, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle is a common species in Australia. Despite this, it’s endangered in Tasmania, and protected under Commonwealth legislation.

Goldwind searched around the world for the best way to protect these majestic birds, and eventually we found one, way over in Colorado. We partnered with IdentiFlight to implement an advanced avian detection system, specifically designed to protect eagles.

IdentiFlight can identify and track the movement of eagles in real time, while calculating their position, height, speed and trajectory. IdentiFlight knows where the turbines are and it can be programmed to shut down turbines based on a range of parameters and conditions.

786,698

Eagle flights tracked

1,003,271

Turbine stops

It has been so successful that the eagle population and activity has actually increased every year since installation. The IdentiFlight project received the Clean Energy Council’s Innovation Award in 2021.

IdentiFlight detection and curtailment in action

Better than humans, building the body of knowledge

David Rogers, Senior Environmental Scientist at Goldwind, manages the use and reporting of IdentiFlight. Over the last five years, he’s become pretty good at it, and has learnt a lot about eagles while working with a team of expert advisors.

With lessons learnt from earlier incidents at the Cattle Hill Wind Farm, we will install an improved IdentiFlight system. You can be certain that the eagles will be in good hands, because David is also the Development Manager for the Bashan Wind Farm. Reach out to David if you would like to learn more about IdentiFlight.

The breadth of activity with 17,352,737 eagle images having been collected over the years is providing insights into eagle behaviour, with conflict now shown to be a regular occurrence, while previously it was rarely observed by humans at all.

Now we know that conflict is more common in the first half of the breeding season (June – October), while White-bellied Sea Eagles dominate in winter, with Wedge-tailed Eagles dominating in summer.

Planned Protections at Bashan Wind Farm

For starters, the layout of the proposed turbines has been developed according to eagle friendly principles learned at the Cattle Hill Wind Farm. Eastern slopes have been avoided, and the turbines will be lined up to avoid the central foraging area. We’ve completed two years of human based eagle monitoring which will be used for IdentiFlight’s implementation when the project begins. This will include tracked GPS data from catch and tag programs.

We’ve also taken unique approaches and implemented management plans for threatened ecological communities including the White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Brown Butterfly, Masked Owl, Swift Parrot, Spotted-tailed Quoll and the Tasmanian Devil.

Voluntary prefecture covenants have also been enabled to protect green and white striped orchids and Highland Poa grasslands.