Up to 15,000 workers will build Gippsland’s wind farms. Where will they all live?

The sudden surge of up to 15,000 offshore wind workers into South Gippsland and Wellington shires will present significant challenges to councils used to dealing with far more moderate levels of growth.

“If you brought 600 jobs into a community over 10 years, you could grow with it,” Wellington Shire Mayor Scott Rossetti told the Gippsland Monitor. “But when you're talking 1,000 or 2,000 in a short period of time, it's clearly going to have a big impact.”

The state government is predicting 15,000 jobs during the hight of construction and 7,500 ongoing maintenance jobs.

In an attempt to mitigate the impact on townships and their residents, South Gippsland Shire Council, Wellington Shire Council and Gunaikurnai Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation (GLAWAC) have secured $4.7 million in federal funding to help lay the groundwork for the population boom.

Rossetti said the councils and Indigenous corporation will work with the Victorian government to establish “where they're expecting the population to surge, where the workers will be, what county workers are going to come in, where they're going to be based, how many are going to be here short-term and long-term”.

The second stage of the project will look at current infrastructure and capacities, and what residential developments will be required.

Rossetti said “we just want to make sure that the economic benefits are not at the expense of the communities that are living there”.

At a meeting earlier this year Wellington Shire’s Deputy Mayor, Cindy Madeley, told federal Climate Change and Energy minister, Chris Bowen, that Gippsland wanted to set an example of how to shift to renewable energy successfully.

Rosetti said the population spike would lead to “some revitalisation long term”.

“Offshore wind brings enormous opportunities for jobs, business growth, and investment and thanks to this funding, we can now plan with confidence,” he said.

One Gippsland describes itself as “a peak regional advocacy body” that aims “to connect the dots between government, business and community”. Chair of One Gippsland Nathan Hersey told the Monitor the funding would help ensure existing Gippsland industries like agriculture, commercial fishing and tourism wouldn’t be negatively impacted by offshore wind development.

“Offshore wind is something that One Gippsland has been supportive of,” he said. “But we've been vocal in saying we need support for the local area and to plan for the future.”

South Gippsland councillor Sarah Gilligan told Wednesday’s meeting she is “hopeful that towns will start to thrive again from this work, but in order to get all these things done we need to plan and that’s what this money is going to help us with”.