More than 300 people visited the wind farm at Leonards Hill at the weekend to watch Melbourne artist David Booth, who works under the name of Ghostpatrol, breathe life into Gale, the turbine formerly known as T1.

The community event was part of the statewide Sustainable Living Festival and included a tea party for families to enjoy.

Hepburn Wind, Australia’s first community-owned wind farm, was recently honoured in Canberra for doing Australia proud by winning the World Wind Energy Award.

The Hepburn Wind co-operative is based in Daylesford and is owned by almost 2000 members.

The project established the Hepburn Wind Community Fund, which will provide more than $1 million in community building grants over the next 25 years and has already helped 23 community groups in the Hepburn Shire.

Hepburn Wind chairman Simon Holmes a Court recently told the Bendigo Advertiser the community energy model was getting a foothold in Australia.

“One of the exciting things is that we’ve been giving a lot of moral support and advice for the Castlemaine group, and also to Woodend, because they’re doing similar projects,” he said.??