This article is featured in The Land and is republished with permission.
Ted Fenwicke and his neighbours came up with the idea to put land unfit for farming on the market for renewables two decades ago, and emotions still run high.
A small syndicate of eight landholders approached developers in 2005 to show some of the rocky, hilly, windy sites north-east of Walcha as a potential wind farm, now the proposed Winterbourne Wind Farm Project.
"I had some people actually say that the only reason I was going to host it was because I was lazy and couldn't work hard enough on our own place," he said.
"That was hard to take because rightly or wrongly, you measure yourself by your ability as a grazier, to provide, to do a good job, to look after your land.
"And then to have people saying you're lazy and you're only doing it because you're greedy and you don't care about the community, that really hurts."
Mr Fenwicke said the discussions surrounding what defined prime agricultural land and social media disinformation made it more difficult to share his experiences in increasingly heated moments.
"What I used to really love about my town and everything else, was the fact that everyone would listen to everyone's point of view," he said.
"For a long time I had to deal with a mixture of anger, grief and sadness. But then I think you reach a plateau where you know those people who are against it, you won't change their minds"
Setting up an income stream, and a source of resilience for the next generation of farming to see their way through a changing climate, Mr Fenwicke said he and his fellow hosts had become closer through the process.
"What we've found is, yes, we've lost some friends, or we don't talk to people as much as we used to, but the people that we do talk to, we have become so close with, because there's a shared sense of purpose," he said.
"It's your farm, you've done your research, you're happy to host it.
"I am doing this so my kids can stay on the land if they choose to.
"Why should someone tell you what you can and can't do on your own property, as long as you're not affecting other people directly."
Bathurst GP Joss Rickard-Bell said more people were experiencing a 'wearing down' of resilience, and uncertainty about a changing climate, possible renewable projects, and conflict in the community - all negatively impacting mental health.
"To have some conflict over possible renewable projects and other things wearing down that relationship really takes its toll on resilience," she said.
"When things do go bad, people don't have those same resources to draw on, and then mental health deteriorates.
"That has a domino effect on physical health as well ... People don't realise that chronic stress and mental health not being addressed increases people's risk of things like heart attacks."
Grieving what has been lost, and anger at what is to come
Ted Fenwicke's experiences are all too common for landholders on both sides of the renewables debate.
Near Dunedoo, changing support structures around Camilla Armstrong's family as the Merotherie Energy Hub and workers accommodation began in earnest have left a greater sense of grief, she said, mourning a future she and her family had planned for.
"This is our home, it's our heart, soul, and it's just never going to be the same again," she said.
"This is not what my father thought that he would be handing over to his children like we're going to be. We certainly haven't signed up for anything."
Mrs Armstrong described a sense of grief in her community, trying to grieve for an imagined future that she said would not be possible with the injection of some 2500 workers for the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone projects, and the damage done to the landscape.
"They're not just our neighbours, they're our family ... there's three generations of get-togethers, but now, as much as I hate to admit it, there is a little bit of awkwardness with some people, because some people have signed up to things because they need to consider their financial future," she said.
"I have grown up with them my entire life. But I do feel differently about them."
Residents near the projects have been provided access to the Property Acquisition Support Line to access mental health support around the clock, with options for landholders to access extra support through their existing mental health care plan with a provider of their choosing.
An EnergyCo spokesperson said the wellbeing of landholders remained paramount, with community engagement informing mental health support and the project.
"EnergyCo has introduced additional mental health support services, and tailored them to the needs of landholders in regional areas," they said.
A spokesperson for ACEREZ, the consortium managing projects near Mrs Armstrong, said the mental health of all landholders was a key consideration.
"ACEREZ has assigned each landholder a property advisor to develop ongoing relationships, devise agreed property access plans that consider each landowner's unique circumstances, and maintain regular, ongoing contact to ensure they are informed of the construction process," they said.
The spokesperson also highlighted the 24-hour community information hotlines, which includes a government-supported mental health program available to those living in the REZ.
'Listen to them': co-design crucial for a renewable future
But Mrs Armstrong said it simply wasn't good enough.
"Even if the services were at our doorstep, it's just not the done thing. If you really want to offer some mental support to the farmers and the regional communities facing this, listen to them. Listen to them," she said.
"Don't tell them to go and speak to some psychologists, because I'm telling you now, most of them are probably not going to come at that anyway, but listen to them. Actually implement some suggestions that they're making to lessen the burden, to lessen the sacrifice that we are being forced to make."
Chief executive of the Australian Psychological Society, Zena Burgess, said organisations needed not only to listen during consultations and community meetings - they needed to be seen to listen, and to act on the feedback from rural communities.
"They need to start early having those conversations and being really quite open about what's important, and honest and respectful about that communication involving the communities," she said.
"Allowing people to have some impact in the co-design of what comes so they don't feel like it's being done to them."