Canberra yesterday welcomed as “very touching” the scrapping of a planned French wind farm on the site of a World War I battlefield where thousands of Australian soldiers died.
French energy company Engie Green had planned to erect turbines on the grounds of the former Bullecourt killing fields in northern France, where about 10,000 Australians were killed or wounded in 1917.
Many bodies were never found and the planned site for the wind farm is a natural burial ground near the Bullecourt memorial that is visited regularly by Australian families.
“This is wonderful news for every Australian and especially those with a family connection to the Battle of Bullecourt,” Australian Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan said in a statement. “The Engie group has listened to the concerns of the Australian people and they have acted with empathy by canceling this project.”
Tehan told Sky News he was also grateful for the efforts of the French government, saying it showed “how the French still, 100 years on, take so importantly what Australians were prepared to do for them.”
“From the local mayor right through to the minister for veterans’ affairs, they all referred to the diggers and the legacy of the diggers ... it’s very touching for all Australians,” Tehan said.
Diggers is Australian military slang for the nation’s wartime soldiers and reflects the digging that troops on the front line did to create trenches.
The family of one of the fallen, Valentine Starkey, who died aged 23 in the second battle of Bullecourt, said it was “heart-warming” that a small group of Australians and French were successful in lobbying against the wind farm.
“They’ve had petitions, even the mayor of the local area ... was against this,” Ashley Starkey, the great-great nephew of Valentine, yesterday told the Australian Broadcasting Corp of the support from French locals.
He said some Bullecourt residents had already been campaigning against the wind farm proposal for at least a year on behalf of the soldiers’ families.
“They’re not against wind farms, and neither am I, they just didn’t want them on this specific battlefield,” he added.
Engie said the project was axed as the company was “sensitive to the emotion aroused in Australia and anxious to alleviate the fears” of everyone involved in preserving the memory of the fallen.
“The recent reactions have highlighted the symbolic nature and sacredness of the site,” the company said in a statement to reporters.
“Respectful of the memory of Australian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice on French soil during the First World War, Engie has taken the decision to cancel this project,” it said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in