Safety concerns are being raised after a wind farm worker was fatally crushed by a fallen fan blade on a Victorian construction site on Monday.

The 36-year-old local man was working at Golden Plains Wind Farm in Rokewood, west of Melbourne, when he was crushed by the rotor blade shortly after 8am, Victoria Police said.

“First responders attempted to revive the man, but he was declared deceased at the scene,” police said.

The Golden Plains Wind Farm consists of two farms, East and West, owned by TagEnergy (85 per cent) and Ingka Group. The accident appears to have occurred at the East site.

Vestas spokesman Danny Nielson it was a tough day for the community.

“[The death occurred] following an on-site accident when a turbine blade stored on the ground was being prepared for installation. Vestas is devastated for the worker, his family and the entire team building the wind farm and we will be doing everything he can to support them during this terrible time as they grieve the loss of a loved one and a team member,” he said.

“With workplace safety as our No.1 priority, the site has been closed and we are now working closely with the authorities, including the police and WorkSafe Victoria to investigate what happened.”

Aerial images from the site show what appears to be a crumpled ladder on the ground next to a large blade. There are two more blades next to it, propped up by what looks like scaffolding.

The rotor blades used in the project are more than 80 metres long, according to the organisation’s website.

Following the death, Australian Workers Union state secretary Ronnie Hayden said his union and two others – the CFMEU and Electrical Trades Union – had raised safety concerns with Vestas in recent weeks.

“This devastating loss could have been prevented,” Hayden said.

“Just two weeks ago, union delegates from three different unions met with Vestas management to raise serious safety concerns, telling them it was only dumb luck that nobody had been killed on site yet.”

The union accused Vestas of transferring safety obligations onto subcontractors who lacked the necessary training.

“This is not just another statistic, this is a worker who went to work and never came home,” Hayden said.

“We need more than just investigations and reports, we need immediate action on site safety and stronger enforcement of regulations.”

Nielsen refused to comment in detail on the allegations.

“I can say that Vestas meet with unions every single week and it discusses a broad range of matters. To my knowledge, this particular incident had not been discussed at any meeting. I will leave it there,” he said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan expressed her sympathies and noted the state had strong workplace safety regulations.

“Any accident in any workplace is indeed a deep concern and a tragedy,” Allan said.

Once completed, the project will be the biggest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, producing more than 4000 gigawatt hours of energy each year, about 9 per cent of Victoria’s energy demand.

The project’s first turbines were connected to the grid in October in a launch by state Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio.

The wind farm has planning approval for up to 228 turbines, the current design comprising 215 turbines across 16,739 hectares.

The incident came after another wind farm worker was killed in April after falling 20 metres from a monitoring tower at a site in Queensland.

WorkSafe is investigating and police will prepare a coroner’s report.

-with AAP