THE Newcastle Port Stephens Game Fish Club (NPSGFC) has joined community groups in accusing Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen of attempting to revive the region’s failed offshore wind proposal by rebranding it research and demonstration (R&D).
Mr Bowen announced on Friday that he had opened applications for R&D licences in Australia’s six offshore wind zones, including off Port Stephens.
While research “development” is largely theoretical and focuses on acquiring new knowledge, “demonstration” involves project-based testing in realistic or near-operational environments.
“These licences will give certainty to domestic and international developers, universities and research cooperatives to pioneer new technological advances in Australian waters,” Mr Bowen said.
NPSGFC President Troy Radford said the minister’s announcement confirms the government is determined to push industrial-scale energy projects into sensitive marine environments, regardless of evidence or community opposition.
“The offshore wind farm off Port Stephens didn’t stack up – full stop,” Mr Radford said.
“It failed on environmental risk, economic justification, and social licence.
“Calling it ‘R&D’ doesn’t magically fix those failures, it just tries to disguise them.”
The Federal Government had offered a feasibility licence to Norwegian Energy Company Equinor and Australian firm Oceanex to build the $10bn Novocastrian Offshore Wind Farm.
But Equinor pulled out in August 2025, declining to take up the lease.
Despite the project being shelved and years of community protests, the 1,854 km² area off the Hunter Coast between Norah Head (Central Coast) and Port Stephens, remains a designated offshore wind zone.
Mr Radford said the government has produced no credible explanation for how offshore wind infrastructure, even at an R&D stage, would avoid the same impacts that doomed the original proposal, including exclusion zones, disruption to marine habitat, and serious risks to navigation and fishing access.
By Sue STEPHENSON
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