Outback Sisters (32 page)

‘How much land is needed for the turbines?' asked a bloke right near the front. Logan couldn't see him but he sounded fairly elderly. Perhaps this was a way for farmers nearing retirement to still live and work the land but have a slower pace of life?

‘Very little actually,' Charlie said, clapping his hands together as if this excited him. ‘You'd be surprised. We estimate less than one per cent of most landholders' properties. Of course, easements are sometimes needed for access tracks, but we do our best to use existing farm roads where possible. Although we reserve the right to upgrade the road to cope with large loads during construction, so—' he shrugged and grinned ‘—this is often a win for the landowner.'

The next question came from the woman sitting next to the possible Simone. Angus couldn't help staring in case she turned to look at her neighbour.

‘I've done a lot of reading on this,' the woman said, ‘and I'm not a hundred per cent convinced. What do you say about the group outside who are adamantly opposed to the whole wind-energy business due to the effects it has on people's health and a farmer's livestock?'

Charlie cleared his throat, his smug smile appearing again as he leaned into the microphone. ‘I'd say they should get their facts straight before they try to scare others.'

‘Facts?' asked the woman.

‘Research has shown absolutely no detriment to livestock from the actual turbines,' Charlie stated. ‘Most of the bad press can be traced back to a case about thirty years ago in the United States where turbines on one wind farm were poorly located in the flight path of migratory birds. Things have progressed a lot since then and here in Australia, planning conditions for new wind turbine developments require extensive research on local bird life at all stages of the process. As a result, bird deaths or other animal deaths in rural regions rarely have anything to do with wind farms. The only effect of having turbines on your property is that livestock need to be kept away from the site during construction. Obviously for their own safely.'

‘What about crops?' shouted a man down the back.

Angus didn't hear Charlie's response properly because the red-haired woman turned towards the speaker and his stomach clenched. It wasn't Simone. He shouldn't have felt so damn disappointed by this fact, but deep inside he'd wanted it to be her. She was still on his mind ninety-five per cent of the time, but Logan seemed to have moved on. His mood had improved dramatically since the weekend—although he'd been working away the last couple of days, they'd talked on the phone. And when Angus had seen him again today, Logan had been decidedly chipper. Angus wondered if maybe he'd found someone for a one-night stand in Carnarvon. Either way, maybe he wasn't as cut up over his split with Simone as Angus had initially predicted. Should he really make such a drastic decision about the future of their farm because of his guilt over one mistake?

‘Next question?' Charlie asked and then pointed to a guy a few seats along from Angus and Logan.

‘You mentioned minimal effect on cropping and livestock, but what about the farm as a whole? Any limitations we'll be locked into?'

‘Very few and all such things would be negotiable when you enter a lease.' Charlie took the next question.

‘Speaking of leases,' asked the lady who had kicked off the Q&A, ‘can you tell us anything about them? I've read about an “option to lease”. What exactly is that?'

‘We start with an agreement known as an “option to lease”, which means our team can access your property to assess wind-farm feasibility with the option to move into a lease agreement at a later stage,' Charlie explained, subtly glancing at his watch before continuing. ‘This lease agreement usually comes into being when developers commence construction on the turbine site.'

‘So can the farmer back out at this stage?'

Angus liked this woman. She was asking all the right questions, but he didn't think Charlie shared his opinion.

‘No; option to lease is usually binding to the landholder,' he stated, his tone becoming condescending, ‘whereas the developer can withdraw at any stage before construction commences.'

‘Doesn't sound fair to me,' exclaimed the lady. ‘I think this is a waste of my time. I'm going home to watch
The Big Bang Theory
.' And with that, she got up and walked towards the back of the hall, a ripple of laughter from the audience following behind her.

Angus sighed. He liked
The Big Bang Theory.

Charlie seemed to think everyone had been laughing at the woman, rather than him, and he continued undeterred.

‘I think what we all want to know,' asked a tall woman, also near the front, ‘is how much money will we make?'

The crowd laughed again and a couple of people clapped. ‘Amen,' shouted someone down the back.

Charlie shook his head. ‘I'm sorry, but that's like asking how long is a piece of string. Remuneration varies significantly and of course depends on many factors, such as the performance of the turbines, location of the site, distance from major transmission lines. Payments are of course based on a percentage of gross revenue, but I'll be happy to discuss this further with you following the meeting if you are interested. Next question?'

‘How long are the leases?'

‘Lease agreements are generally for the life of the wind farm, which is usually about twenty-five years, with the option for renewal.' Charlie took a white handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the sweat from his shiny brow.

‘Will it decrease the value of my land?' Again, the crowd muttered their approval.

‘Actually, we believe the opposite to be the case. A senate inquiry found that the value of properties that are host to wind turbines should increase, as long as the contract states that the rights to rentals for the turbines transfer with any property sale.'

As Charlie looked to the crowd for another question, Angus sighed. Before he made a decision he'd like to hear the other side of the argument as well, but from sensible people with factual evidence rather than the group of dissenters outside.

‘What about noise pollution?' asked someone else. ‘Do houses have to be a specific distance away from the turbines?'

Charlie shook his head. ‘Generally we assess the location of all houses on a potential turbine site before going ahead with a development. Although there are no legal restrictions on how close a house can be to a turbine, mostly we prefer to be away from residential dwellings due to the noise emissions.'

‘So you're admitting noise is a problem?' shouted the tall woman.

‘That's not what I said,' Charlie said, looking past her and pointing to the audience. ‘Last question, I think. You at the back there?'

‘What about spraying? Will I still be able to spray any crop grown under the turbines?'

‘All that information is our booklet.' Charlie held up a thick brochure—the one Logan had been trying to make Angus read for months. ‘Now I'm sorry, but we're going to have to finish question time,' Charlie said, not sounding apologetic at all. ‘Sandra and I will be available to speak with individuals who are interested in considering Future Power's proposal. While I don't want you to rush into an agreement, I will be honest and say that we have had a lot of interest from landowners in this region, so don't dither for too long. Thank you for your time.'

Logan turned to Angus. ‘Well, shall we go talk to them?'

Angus frowned, not yet convinced that this was the right move. ‘I'd rather sleep on it. Do a little further research of my own.'

‘I've done loads of research,' Logan said, his tone frustrated. ‘You heard the bloke, we don't want to miss out.'

Angus wasn't so sure. ‘Look, if our property is suitable, then taking an extra twenty-four hours to think things through is not going to stop them. You heard them, they have to assess potential sites and I'll bet they'll be looking at quite a few properties before they make a decision.'

‘But what about …?' Logan paused. ‘Ah, fuck it. Whatever.' He shook his head, stood and stormed out of the hall.

* * *

Logan waited by Angus's ute, cursing his damn terrible night vision, which meant he'd driven all the way home earlier today so he could come to the meeting with his brother rather than come here straight from Carnarvon. Dammit, he should have known Angus's change of heart was too good to be true.

‘I didn't say no,' Angus growled as he approached the ute and beeped it open. ‘I just said I want to think about it a bit more.'

Logan climbed inside, shoved his seatbelt into its lock and then folded his arms in exactly the manner Angus had the whole way through the meeting. Before Charlie Myers had even opened his mouth Angus had been scowling, not at all open to this exciting opportunity. Logan was too pissed off to reply. He'd been trying to get Angus to think about this for months.

Angus started the ute and drove them out of the car park. Neither of them said a word until they reached the turn-off onto the Geraldton-Walkaway Road and Angus finally broke the angry silence.

‘How much research have you done into this Future Power company? That guy seemed like a tool.'

‘Of course I've done my research,' Logan scoffed, tired of not being taken seriously. ‘Being a journalist is mostly research and I'm good at it. They're a financially sound business with a good track record. This wouldn't be their first project; we wouldn't be guinea pigs. Don't just rule it out because you don't like the face of the company.'

‘That's got nothing to do with it,' Angus sighed. ‘I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting sick. I've got enough lives on my conscience already.'

Fuck
. Logan's fists clenched tightly. He understood the guilt Angus carried around but this reasoning was ridiculous. ‘All that stuff about adverse health effects is hearsay. There's been nothing proven that living close to wind farms has any kind of ill effect on humans
or
livestock.'

Angus shrugged. ‘Maybe so but that doesn't mean people don't listen to the hype. I don't need the grief from our neighbours.'

Logan couldn't believe what he was hearing. ‘Do you really give a damn about how Loretta and Brad feel about this? Are their opinions more important than mine? Hell, for all we know, they're considering this too. We could miss out, have the turbines on the property next door and not reap any of the benefits.'

‘I meant everyone in our area, not specifically Loretta and Brad. You know I don't give a toss about those two.'

Logan closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers against his forehead where a headache was taking hold. He thought about Frankie's belief that telling Angus about his eye condition might help convince him they needed to give leasing a shot. He didn't want to manipulate anyone, but Angus didn't have all the facts. If he was still against the idea once he knew why Logan was so keen on it, then at least they could consider alternatives.

He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. ‘I know you think I want to do this to get away from the farm, to further my journalism career, but that's not true.'

‘So you keep saying.'

Logan's jaw tightened. ‘You don't know everything, okay? It's got nothing to do with my career. The reason I want to pursue this,' he said firmly and slowly, as if he were speaking to a naughty toddler, ‘is because I'm going blind.'

Angus turned to look at him and the wheel turned with him. The ute swerved but Logan's hand shot out to bring them back to the middle of their lane.

‘What the hell?' Angus said, slowing right down. ‘What do you mean you're going blind?'

‘Why do you think I drove all the way home today, so you could drive us tonight? Wouldn't it have made sense for us to meet in Carnarvon and me drive home after that?'

‘I just thought you wanted to make sure I attended the meeting,' Angus said, his voice catching a little.

‘Well, that too,' Logan admitted. ‘But the main reason is my night vision is all but gone.' He swallowed. In some ways admitting this to Angus was even harder than admitting it to Frankie. ‘I can't safely drive at night anymore and this is only the beginning.'

‘Hang on. Can you go back a little? What's causing this blindness?'

And in the dark, as they travelled the lonely road home, he told his brother all about retinosis pigmentosa—the symptoms, the prognosis and the fact it runs in families.

‘Bloody hell!' Angus said when he'd finished. ‘How long have you known?'

Logan considered lying but decided against it. What would be the point? ‘I've been noticing my night vision getting worse for a while now—particularly when driving—but it was only diagnosed a couple of months ago.'

‘What?' Angus exclaimed. ‘And you've kept it to yourself till now? Does Liv know?'

‘No. I didn't want to burden either of you. I've probably got a few more years where life won't really be hindered by this thing anyway.' He also didn't want pity. It would just make everything so much more real.

‘But if it's genetic, don't we have a right to know?'

Logan raised his eyebrows. ‘I didn't think either you or Liv were in the baby market anytime soon, so I didn't feel there was a huge rush. I needed to come to terms with this myself before I told anyone.'

‘Babies?' Angus screwed his face up at the thought. ‘This isn't about babies. Didn't you think we might need to know because we also might be affected by it?'

He stared ahead and then blinked. Was the road blurry?

‘I'm telling you now, aren't I?' Logan said. ‘I'm sorry … but I needed time.'

Angus heaved out a breath, pushing aside his own fears for the moment as his brother's reality finally dawned. ‘No, I'm sorry. Fuck. I don't know what else to say.'