HWLE Lawyers has advised prominent Tasmanian landowners, the Downie Family and development partner Alternate Path on a landmark agreement with Gamuda to co-develop a portfolio of large-scale renewable energy projects in Central Tasmania.

The portfolio includes Weasel Solar Farm and Cellars Hill Wind Farm with a combined capacity of 600 MW of wind and solar energy generation and up to 600 MW of battery storage (BESS).

As a landowner-led project portfolio, the project planning has been developed in close collaboration with local landowners, community and government to be sensitive to the local environment and deliver local community jobs and benefits, including energy rebates to households within a 12km radius of the portfolio.

The HWLE Lawyers team was led by Brendan Earle (Partner) with support from Myra Stirling (Special Counsel). Tax advice was provided by Nima Sedaghat (Partner), with finance support from Peter Kay (Partner).

Brendan Earle, Partner, said:

“It was a great pleasure to support the Downie Family who have held pastoral land in Tasmania for over 200 years. Peter Downie is a respected community member and renewable energy advocate and his development partner, Andrew Clark (CEO of Alternate Path), is a leading expert in Australia and Asia on the development and delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects”.

Gamuda will take an equity stake in the portfolio to secure development rights for the current and future projects and deliver them under sole-source Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contracts. This will set the company up with a pipeline of energy construction work through to 2029.

The parties plan to use some of the power on site behind the meter for data centres, fuels timber processing and robotics factories. It is hoped this activity will reinvigorate the local town of Bothwell and provide a leading example of how the energy transition can benefit rural Australia.

Note to Editors:

HWLE Lawyers is the largest legal partnership in Australia according to the most recent partnership surveys published by the Australian Financial Review.

The firm comprises 1,794, staff including 285 Partners, 1,105 other legal staff and 404 support staff across offices in nine locations – Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Hobart, Norwest (Northwest Sydney), Perth and Sydney.

HWLE Lawyers is an independent, nationally integrated, full service commercial law firm, providing tailored and commercially oriented legal services.

HWLE Lawyers operates a different business model to the other leading national law practices, and this allows us to offer unrivalled value for money without compromising quality and service. Our low ratio of solicitors to partners ensures that our clients receive optimal access to partner resources for all matters.

For further information, please contact:

Russell Mailler, Chief Executive Partner +61 3 8644 3569 or rmailler@hwle.com.au

Angelique Kear, Head of Marketing +61 2 9334 8541 or akear@hwle.com.au