Former Brumbies player Lachie McCaffrey has squared off against some tough and nasty opponents over the years but this one is the biggest and potentially the toughest he's ever faced.
It's the size of 750 football fields, and it's being built right on his doorstep.
Out among the picturesque rolling hills of Wallaroo, north-west of Canberra, he is among dozens of residents "filthy" about the NSW government fast-tracking a 100-megawatt solar farm which they say will destroy the tranquility, amenity and land values of their small acre properties.
The 182,000-panel solar array, each of the panels installed on steel piles, is proposed for a private property on Southwell Road, together with 36 container-sized liquid-cooled battery energy storage systems and its own substation.
And proponents of the state significant development will need to batten down in readiness as they face off against locals ready to "go to war" when the first public hearing of the proposal is held on July 18 at the Murrumbateman Country Hall.
"Everyone around here is just filthy about this whole thing," Mr McCaffrey said.
"It's bonkers. Everything we want to protect out here - the beautiful views, the space, the peacefulness, the environment - is under threat.
"One landholder is making a lot of money from this and everyone else will suffer from it.
"This is a fight we can't lose because everything we've worked for over the years, all the reasons why we came out here to Wallaroo, is now threatened."
The site will be traversed by three Transgrid-owned and operated transmission lines, one feeding into Canberra.
Supporting documentation to the proposal outlined significant heavy traffic movements during the lengthy construction phase with 24 B-double heavy trucks using the local access roads on a daily basis. Such is the size of the site, it will require 16km of internal access roads.
Construction will take between 12-18 months.
The Yass Valley Council said the project was inconsistent with its strategy for the area because it did not provide a sufficient buffer zone along the Yass Valley/ACT border and "would not preserve the rural and landscape character of the area".
There was also concern about contamination from battery damage. The NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has so far received 97 written submissions, around two-thirds of them from residents within 20km of the site.
Mr Caffrey believes the site was deliberately chosen because while it faced the ACT border - with the panels in plain view of Ginninderry residents and surrounding west Belconnen - Canberra residents were essentially "cut out" of the consultation process.
"This is not just an issue for us, but also for all those people on the ACT side of the border who will be looking directly across at this massive installation," he said.
