The Lake Bonney Wind Farm with Ron Kandelaars: In the South East/Limestone Coast region of South Australia

There are no prizes for guessing why the Limestone Coast is so green. The lush pastures of the State's southeast dairy country and the patchwork quilt of pine forests all rely on plenty of rainfall.

With the rain comes the wind and some enterprising locals near Lake Bonney have capitalised on it. We had a look around the Lake Bonney Wind Farm with developer Paul Hutchinson.

It was cold and wet with a howling gale - just the sort of day Paul likes because it means the wind turbine is generating 1.7 megawatts of power - enough to power 3,000 homes.

All courtesy of the relentless winds that rip in over the Southern Ocean near Tantanoola.

The first 46 turbines have been built on a ridge and when the project is finished Sue Gurney says it will make a significant contribution to the national electricity grid.

"It will Generate about one sixteenth of South Australia's total requirement of energy on the hottest day in the middle of the day," said Sue. "So if everyone in South Australia was using their air conditioners on a particularly hot day then Lake Bonney Wind Farm would be able to produce about one sixteenth of that requirement."

Paul Hutchinson first came up with the idea in 1989. Now it's a reality and looks like something from "War of the Worlds". But the battle is to harness a constant resource and lessen our annual reliance on fossil fuels.

"To generate the same amount of electricity using fossil fuel like Brown Coal. If you loaded the coal into B-double semi-trailers and had them end to end they would stretch for 520 kilometres. said Sue. "That's from here past Adelaide. 920,000 tons of brown coal can stay in the ground due to energy that we're replacing here.

"We're doing an awful lot to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions." said Sue.

When completed, almost half a billion dollars will have been spent on the wind farm. Another 53 turbines will go up in stage two. And when you stand under one of the towers you realise just how high they are.

"Up to the hub which is the part that spins around it's 67 metres," explained Paul. "The blade is 37 metres long so that makes it exactly a hundred metres to the very tip of the highest point. That's the equivalent of about a 33 storey sky scraper."

The new windmills have had their critics but according to Sue, attitudes are changing.

"We've had people come out here and be sort of 'ho hum - I don't believe in wind farms. I don't like the look of them' and they get out here and they suddenly realise they don't really make that much noise, they're not ugly. People actually say they're beautiful, they're majestic."

You be the judge. The Lake Bonney Wind Farm is about five kilometres west of Tantanoola. Drop into the Millicent Tourist Information Centre and they'll direct you to the site.

Lake Bonney Wind Farm
5 kilometres west of Tantanoola
Maps available at Millicent Tourist Information Centre
1 Mount Gambier Road
Millicent