Working with the community
Local input gathered through the development phase has supported Gawara Baya’s balanced and responsible design and shaped our regional community investment program.
We’re grateful to the community, Traditional Owners, and regional experts for sharing your deep knowledge, advice and feedback over more than four years of detailed consultation.
As Gawara Baya moves into the construction phase, we look forward to working with you to deliver the shared benefits and initiatives that make a difference in your community.
Your support and advice is central to ensuring we identify and address potential issues early so small challenges don’t grow. If you have questions, concerns or feedback about the project, we’d love to hear from you.
Leading-practice First Nations Engagement
Windlab acknowledges the Gugu Badhun People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which Gawara Baya will be located.
We honour the Gugu Badhun People’s deep and enduring connection to Country and community. We pay our respects to Gugu Badhun elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, everywhere.
As a renewable energy company our activities are inextricably linked to land. The Traditional Owners of the lands on which our projects are located and the regional communities that support our activities are at the heart of what we do.
In 2022, we signed a landmark Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Corporation. The ILUA puts Indigenous stewardship at the fore of the project’s environmental management strategy.
For more information on the ILUA, interested members of the Gugu Badhun community are encouraged to contact the Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Corporate RNTBC.
Our commitment to Reconciliation
The clean energy transition is a priority focus at all levels of government in Australia. We see an enormous opportunity for the ‘Renewable Generation’ to support First Nations Peoples to achieve at their full potential through employment, procurement, and business engagement in the sector.
Windlab’s priority is to build respectful, trusting, and mutually beneficial partnerships with First Nations communities across Australia, support opportunities for Traditional Owners to participate in the development of Windlab’s projects, and demonstrate respect for First Nations culture, knowledge and agency in everything we do. In this way, Windlab aims to support Indigenous people to shape the direction of renewable energy developments on Country and across Australia.
Named in language, brought to life in culture
Gawara Baya means ‘Wind Song’ in the language of the Gugu Badhun people, the Traditional Owners of the land on which the project is located.
The logo, created by a respected Gugu Badhun artist, Allison Hoolihan, uses a leaf to symbolise the song of the wind, moving across Country and sharing stories of the Gugu Badhun People, old and new.
Detail within the artwork represents the Mount Fox volcanic crater, and ‘Yamani’, the Rainbow Serpent from the creation stories of the Gugu Badhun people. The brown and green of the logo shift with the seasons, representing the wet and the dry.
The Gawara Baya Community Benefit Fund is investing in sustainable development initiatives that matter most to locals.
Supporting opportunities for locals
Local employment, contracting and supply opportunities are available at Gawara Baya and will be advertised soon.
Check the Partner with us tab for the latest job opportunities and procurement information.
Follow Windlab on LinkedIn for new job listings, information about upcoming supplier sessions and the latest from across Windlab’s portfolio of projects.
If you’re interested in local employment, trades or supplier opportunities, please register your interest by emailing gawarabaya@windlab.com and we’ll add you to our database.
Local perspectives driving meaningful regional outcomes
Windlab is a signatory to the Clean Energy Council’s Best Practice Charter for Renewable Energy Projects.
The Charter provides a leading-practice framework for renewable energy companies to collaborate with stakeholders to ensure projects protect community, environmental and cultural values, and deliver the meaningful and sustainable regional development initiatives that make a difference in the lives of local people.
