The Founder’s Vision
Refocusing our farm
“Blind Creek Solar Farm is part of a broader program to increase the resilience of our property while enhancing its carrying capacity and addressing climate change.
We have shifted our approach to help with the move towards a more sustainable future. This includes rehabilitating environments, rebuilding the soil and sequestering carbon while improving our land for animal production.
As part of this refocus, it makes sense to use degraded country to become renewable energy farmers. The solar farm will co-exist with lamb production, regenerative agriculture, a soil carbon project, a green-waste humus compost facility and restoration works to improve the biodiversity and water-holding capacity of the catchment.”
Dominic Osborne, Project Founder & Landowner
Founding pillars
Regeneration
In 2019, the site’s farming practices began shifting towards a more sustainable model. The aim is to use diverse grassland species to improve the soil’s moisture-holding capacity, organic matter, and soil microbial activity. Use of intensive rotational grazing maximises the grass’s recovery periods, while cover cropping of diverse species extends the growing season of cumulative vegetation species to all year round.
The property is in the process of receiving certification under the Ecological Outcome Verification Scheme run by the Australian Holistic Management Co-operative.
Renewables
The property is a desirable site for a solar farm as it is flat, treeless country with a 330 KV line running through its middle.
Grass species suited to shade will be planted immediately under the panels for prime lamb grazing. Normal grass species and cover crop species will be planted in the areas between the panels.
Restoration
Environmental zones equal to 15% of the total area of the property have been excluded from agriculture and other enterprises to promote diverse birdlife and native animal populations. Creeks will be rehabilitated and revegetated using the principles of Natural Sequence Farming.
More than 14,000 trees have been planted including along Blind Creek and Deep Creek to reduce erosion and restore the riparian environment. Eighty hectares has been fenced off from grazing livestock for Greening Australia’s Rivers of Carbon Project and Greening Australia’s Black Glossy Cockatoo Project. The property is accredited under the Office of Environment and Heritage’s Land for Wildlife Scheme.
Carbon Sequestration
The project is in the process of registering as a Carbon Soil Project. This involves removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, primarily by increasing the amount of decomposing plant material and microbes it contains.
The goal is to change the agricultural soil conditions and improve crop and pasture growth.
Green Waste Humus
Development approval has been received to turn green waste from our tree business, mixed with crops, into humus compost to replenish our soil and for resale to farmers and gardeners.
Agriculture
The solar farm will co-exist with rotational grass fed lamb production, allowing for very short periods of intensive grazing. Panel spacing is designed to allow tractor access and grassland enhancements for grazing lambs. The site is flat and sandy, with the project designed to allow animal production to continue on the land as it has for 155 years.