In the largest windfarm in the southern hemisphere, ‘renewable energy farmers’ look to the future

David Lawler, who is early talks with a renewable energy developer. ‘We’ve got to think of the benefit to the whole community,’ he says. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian

You can see 119 wind turbines scattered across the landscape from the highest point on sheep grazier Brent Finlay’s southern Queensland property. Within a few months, there will be 162; within a decade, with another gigantic project proposed next door, about 350.

And that’s just to the north. In every other direction, Finlay says with a sweep of his hand, wind developers are knocking on farmers’ doors.