Sitting in the midst of vast, flat farming land, this small town's journey to renewable energy powerhouse began when a woman driving a Tesla got a flat tyre.
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The road trip to Adelaide temporarily aborted - and stuck with her kids in Hay in south-western NSW while she waited three days for a replacement - Kate Hook went into the visitors' centre to borrow pushbikes.
Ms Hook just happened to be an expert in community engagement for renewables advocacy group RE-Alliance.
The subsequent car park conversation with Hay Shire Council's economic development officer changed the region's fortunes.
With the help of RE-Alliance, Hay took its future into its own hands.
"We've never had money like this before; we've never had big development like this before," the council officer Alison McLean said.
"We're a completely agrarian economy; we are at the whim of markets. We're at the whim of the climate."
Ms McLean said the community was now overwhelmed with proposed renewable energy projects and was nutting out a 10-year transition roadmap focusing on resilience.
As well as a transmission line running through the southern end of the shire, they've been approached with plans for batteries, wind and solar farms.
"There's quite a considerable oversupply of interest," Ms McLean said.
Flat earth, big sky
On the banks of the Murrumbidgee River about halfway between Sydney and Adelaide, Hay is one of the flattest places on Earth.
Its sheep and wool industry, combined with crops like rice, corn, wheat and, more recently, cotton - as well as horticulture such as lettuce, rockmelon, broccoli, grapes and garlic - have traditionally supported the 2800 people who live in the shire.
All that changed in late 2022 when the NSW government declared the South West Renewable Energy Zone, one of five across the state.
By 2030 the zone is expected to receive up to $2.8 billion in private investment.
'I was very, very nervous'
Hay is vying for a big slice of that pie.
"It would completely diversify our economy, it would allow us to attract capital to the region, it would drought-proof people's primary production businesses," Ms McLean said.
"Just a huge opportunity."
While other communities have struggled to get locals on side with renewables development, Hay took a different approach.
"I had started to hear about what was happening in Walcha and Coolah and Dunedoo and how divided those communities were, how divided families were," Ms McLean said.
"I was very, very nervous that that would happen [to] the community here - that it would divide this community."
She was also worried the anti-renewables movement would target Hay, generally a "very polite" and "respectful" community.
"In a community of this size, it really only takes four or five loud voices to change the direction of a narrative," she said.
We're not 'a bunch of hicks'
Ms McLean wanted to build community capacity and empower the people of Hay to be involved in the decisions about their future.
She wanted discussion, not division as Australia moves away from coal-fired power to renewable energy and debate rages over the Coalition's proposed nuclear plan.
"You are absolutely allowed to not believe in climate change. You can absolutely disagree with the energy transition. You can absolutely not want wind farms here," she said.
"But you cannot deny the rest of the community the opportunity that this would bring."
Not just footy shirts and bus shelters
Hay set the terms of engagement with developers and its message was: this happens "with" the community, not "to" it.
"Don't treat us like a bunch of hicks," she said, "because we're much better organised than that and we're much smarter than that."
They didn't want the companies to simply sponsor footy shirts and bus shelters - they wanted generational change.
Ms McLean said the community used the framework set up by the Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo), the government authority overseeing the renewable energy zones, to extract what the shire needed.
"They had to prove that they had social licence - that was one of the key criteria - and that was the difference," she said.
You cannot deny the rest of the community the opportunity that this would bring.
- Alison McLean, Hay Shire Council economic development officer
A dozen community "thought leaders" from across Hay were brought in to help steer the discussion and keep the community united.
And then people were asked what they wanted.
They wanted cheaper energy bills, access to wholesale solar and battery technology for energy self-sufficiency, and mechanisms to drought- and flood-proof their businesses.
They also wanted an airstrip, more childcare and better housing.
Is Hay a blueprint for community-led development?
A federal review of community consultation over renewable energy projects released in February 2024 found 92 per cent of people were not happy with the level of developer engagement.
A poll in May found concerns about the effect on wildlife, foreign ownership, and a lack of compensation for affected residents also plagued renewables plans.
The NSW government is in the process of reviewing guidelines for community consultation in these circumstances.
These would "better support faster and more consistent decision-making", a spokesperson for the state planning and infrastructure department said.
"The guidelines will be finalised later this year and will provide communities with greater transparency and clarity on where and how renewable energy developments occur."
RE-Alliance national director Andrew Bray said developers needed to respect the fact they were building in people's backyards and work with them.
