New station owners Jim and Jenny Cooper, of Australia, last month applied for resource consent to build two dairy sheds and contractors have started on irrigation ponds and completing other infrastructure.
It is unlikely stock will arrive on the property until next August.
Lake Hawea Community Association chairwoman Rachel Brown said, when contacted yesterday, the big issues now for Hawea Flat residents were to protect their bore water supply and confront the fear of change with a positive attitude.
She planned to invite Mr and Mrs Cooper to an association meeting so residents could learn more about the proposal.
"It has been a gradual transition, because we've had wintering-over dairy herds for a while and centre pivot irrigators for a while.
"But I guess the natural concern in Hawea Flat in particular is for the quality of the water. We want to protect our water, so we want to be assured that the effluent won't be getting into it ... never in my wildest dreams had I thought I would be living next to a dairy farm in the Upper Clutha, but I have had to counsel myself as well about positive change," she said.
It was easy to tar all dairy farmers with one brush and she was hopeful and optimistic the Coopers had a good farming practice, Ms Brown said.
Other organisations, such as the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust - of which Ms Brown is a trustee - had already approached the Coopers and were optimistic good relationships could be formed.
"It is a big thing. This area has changed a hell of a lot in 150 years, as it has been farmed. ... it is easy to think of the Hawea River and Clutha River as pristine, but we have only just stopped putting our own effluent into that," Ms Brown said.
Mr Cooper has operated transport companies in Southland and Australia and Mrs Cooper has family ties to the district and is the sister of former Queenstown Lakes district councillor Neville Harris.
Non-notified consents have already been granted for four pivot irrigators, the two irrigation ponds and other associated earthworks.
When contacted, agricultural consultant Peter Hook yesterday confirmed the conversion. In May, he said said dairying was just one of several large-scale, intensive farming options for the land, including sheep-milking.
Mr Hook said large-scale operations in the area were inevitable.
"The problem is the price of land up here is ridiculous." Otago Regional Council resource consent management director Selva Selvarajah said last night the farm would be monitored by council staff once established.
