KEY POINTS:
The Elliots have been farming Lammermoor Station for the past three generations and want to see their children do the same.
Tired of being battered by the crippling fluctuations in prices for the fine wool, sheep meat and beef they farm in the Maniototo, they want to harvest
something with a more reliable return - wind.
Sue Elliot, Maniototo born and bred, reckons Project Hayes, Meridian Energy's plan to site the country's biggest wind farm on her farm and those of four neighbours, will mean salvation for them and the community.
"For us, it's about a dependable income. This is the kind of thing that could really help our community," she says.
The Elliots regularly work 16-hour days and see farm returns dip by 50 per cent between seasons. They are not following the swing to dairying sweeping through Central Otago and the Mackenzie Country further north.
Turbines on the property would provide tens of thousands of dollars in revenue and would not have the impact in the vast Lammermoor Range that opponents claim, says Elliot.
"We try and work with our land we don't work against it. We want to be here for generations."
This is country where mail is delivered three times a week, cellphone coverage is patchy and the local Paerau School has five pupils. The construction workforce would breathe new life into the area, she says.
Like other farmers, the Elliots are not given to speaking out but feel they have no choice given the campaign run by the project's foes.
While the landowners are backed by Meridian might, they face powerful opponents in a battle looking less like David versus Goliath by the week.
Artist Grahame Sydney, famed for his central Otago landscapes, told the Environment Court that given the choice he would rather see New Zealand consider building a nuclear power station - preferably near Auckland - rather than a windfarm in the area. Former All Black captain Anton Oliver has described the windfarm as a "Government-sanctioned corporate rort" and recent poet laureate Brian Turner says on the Save Central website the project is "a return to 'Think Bigism'."
Sue Elliot also runs a fly-fishing business in the Taieri River which meanders through the Maniototo Plain on her front door and is aghast at any thought of going nuclear.
"It would be a disaster for our green image."
In Environment Court evidence last month, Meridian made a point of stressing the wind farm site did not prominently feature in an art archive produced by 30 artists expressing Central Otago landscapes. Sydney said: "To say that demonstrates any lesser significance is churlish."
The latest big name to lend weight to opposition is another former All Black, David Kirk, who is the head of Fairfax Australia and a friend of Grahame Sydney.
He personally paid for an advert in a Sunday newspaper which featured a defaced version of a landscape painting by Sydney under the headline "100% Vandalism". On Friday Sydney said Kirk's support gave opponents "another layer of seriousness".
He said the growing threat to power supplies had helped his group because public attention was now on power planning and, by extension, the reliability of wind.
Sue Elliot is bemused by the attention the area is now getting.
"People used to look up the Maniototo and say 'that's where all the crap weather comes from'.
From the road, anyone driving into the area will only be able to get glimpses of the wind farm which is on private land, she says.
When the Herald visited last week, in a Meridian-run media visit, access to the 200sq km windfarm site was restricted by poor road conditions.
While not giving details, Meridian says Hayes is a notch down from prime wind sites around the country but the Elliots say it's nearly always blowing on the top of the property which is intensively farmed.
It is especially windy in spring.
"While the wind was howling we could be using it and leaving water in the lakes," says Sue Elliot.
The Project Hayes scrap is a variation on theme for Meridian.
It cancelled its $1.2b Project Aqua hydro development further north on the lower reaches of the Waitaki in March 2004, after strong opposition from some of the same figures involved in the present fight. Aqua would have been almost the same size as Hayes and its power would have been close to coming on-stream now.
Spokesman Alan Seay says wind could provide up to 30 per cent of the country's power needs, as long as the wind farms were spread far and wide.
Apart from high-profile opposition, there had been strong support from locals who see power use soaring, driven by demands for warmer homes and the South Island dairy boom.
"New Zealand's got to get its power from somewhere, and most people realise this."
PROJECT HAYES
* Meridian Energy wants to build what will be a world-scale wind farm on the Lammermoor Range, 70km north-west of Dunedin.
* The wind farm on five properties will have 176 high turbines capable of generating 670MW - and at maximum output could supply up to 263,000 homes.
* Meridian says it is the perfect complement to hydro generation, allowing it to conserve lake water when the wind's blowing, particularly in spring.
* Opponents say the area's beauty will be spoiled by access roads and turbines over 100m high at blade tip. They also question the reliability of wind power.
* The Environment Court is now holding hearings on the project.
