Project update - April 2025
30 April
An update on Victoria’s offshore wind plan
This month the Victorian Government released Offshore Wind Energy Implementation Statement 4.
This document outlines progress to date and the next steps to deliver offshore wind energy for Victoria - including transmission, ports, jobs, and opportunities for communities, Traditional Owners, and local businesses.
The next major step is an auction process to select which Gippsland projects will supply the first offshore wind energy for Victorians. This recently kicked off with a Registration of Interest. A Request for Proposal will follow this year and contracts awarded in 2026.
Photo courtesy of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
In the community
In Gippsland, Easter and the Tarra Festival go hand-in-hand – and this year the festival was bigger and better with an estimated 10,000 people taking part across the long weekend. It was great to be involved again this year, to connect with locals over a BBQ, and see Yarram’s main street taken over by tractors, trucks and creatively decorated floats!
Chatting with locals at the Tarra Festival
Working together for a healthier ocean
We’re proud to work alongside ocean leaders to achieve a healthy and productive ocean for Australia and the planet. Here’s a few things we’ve been working on.
Supporting Ocean Impact Organisation to uncover solutions for offshore wind projects to leave a positive legacy through Australia’s first Offshore Wind Net Positive Challenge – stay tuned to hear about the winners!
Supporting Ocean Decade Australia to help shape a thriving blue economy and healthy ocean in line with the UN Ocean Decade actions.
Joining Surfers for Climate to talk about solutions to protect our ocean from climate change at their recent Car Park Cinema events.
Joining the Australian Centre for Robotics and University of Sydney to trial their new Seeker Class Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, which collects high-resolution imagery of the seafloor to create 3D models.
Supporting the Maritime Emissions Reduction Coalition to find solutions to reduce vessel emissions for more sustainable operations.
If you're passionate about the ocean, don't miss Ocean with David Attenborough - coming out soon!
We joined the team behind the Seeker Class AUV in Port Albert
Let's get technical
A key focus for our team this year is to finalise Star of the South’s environmental assessment – an important step in seeking approvals to construct and operate the project. This includes completing 25 technical studies covering environmental, social, economic and planning aspects of the project. Here’s an overview of 2 of those studies.
Benthic ecology is the study of marine plants and organisms that live in and on the seabed.
Marine scientists used underwater cameras to examine the ocean floor at 80 locations, and took around 200 samples of sand, sediment and other materials from the seabed for analysis.
We learned that around 90% of the seabed is soft sandy sediment along with small areas of rocky reef and patchy seagrass. No protected species, communities or key ecological values were found.
This information will guide the wind farm design. We'll avoid high-profile reefs when positioning turbines and cables, to protect the important habitat they provide.
We’ll share more on other topics in future e-news editions. In the meantime, find out more here.
Supplier profile: Season Marine
Next on our tour of local suppliers is Season Marine, a new Gippsland business set up in 2022 to service future energy projects in Bass Strait.
We recently visited Season Marine at Barry Beach where Star of the South's Gippsland Operations Base is proposed to be located.
Founders, Tom and Morgan, shared that they brought together their maritime and construction experience to offer vessel services, storage, logistics, and steel and aluminium design and fabrication.
“We built this company to provide specialised solutions for the next chapter in Australia's renewable energy future”, Tom told us.
Season Marine Australia can be found on page 44 of the Offshore Wind Supplier Showcase.
Paul and Jason with Season Marine Founders Morgan and Tom (centre)
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