The Southern Downs Regional Council’s decision to approve another intensive animal operation on an alluvial flood plain was very disappointing. Darwalla Co Pty Ltd will establish a 1,000,000 bird chicken hatchery, fronting Dalrymple Creek upstream and adjacent to the Allora township, despite numerous local objecting submissions.
Details of this application are available in the agenda report of the P & E Committee’s August meeting on the council’s website. A few alarming aspects include the concentrated salt from reverse osmosis will be dumped on the alluvial flood plain with the 120,000L of effluent every week. Only 5.8ha of the 12.5ha property can be used for effluent disposal and this cannot be used when the soil is too wet. A large portion of this prime agricultural land flooded in December 2010. Total effluent storage is only enough for one week. The developer expects the site to flood and be isolated so they have processes in place to destroy and dispose of 1,000,000 chickens each week. This plant cannot be near a breeder farm for bio-security reasons but approval has been given for it to be near a town!
Residents in Allora are being forced to accept the loss of their village atmosphere, potential health risks, diminished property values and a poor environmental outcome on their doorstep. Allora is not the only loser to this degrading style of industry. The whole Shire loses a part of its natural charm and environmental credentials and an even stronger signal is sent to inappropriate industries that this council is an easy mark and the population is generally accepting. Unfortunately more acceptable enterprises, tree changers and tourists are going to be more difficult to attract. This council has to be commended for its efforts to encourage the latter three groups but there is a blatant inconsistency in purpose. Consider the disappointment of persons who commit to move to this delightful region to find the City Fathers (or Mothers) have since approved a noxious industry nearby. The legislated buffers to sensitive receptors are grossly insignificant and treat residents with little consequence.
These intensive poultry operations are in a continuing process of moving from more developed regions, where they are not welcome because they have dirtied their nest, and are looking for new areas where councils have proven to be less protective of residents’ amenity and the environment. The old Warwick Shire and now the amalgamation would seem to be a soft target for these toxic industries. It has approved 36 cattle feed lots, many piggeries and intensive poultry applications.
On January 4, 2011, in an interview with ABC’s Arlie Douglas, Mayor Ron Bellingham detailed his historical experiences and knowledge of the Condamine River basin flood patterns and indicated flood plain development needed careful management and possibly legislation. On April 11, in an interview with ABC’s Belinda Sanders, he spoke of the effects of flooding on the Southern Downs and indicated the council would need to not approve future development on flood plains. Our Mayor has done a backflip as he personally seconded the council’s approval of the massive Darwalla intensive poultry facility and associated effluent on the alluvial flood plain at Allora.
My experience with intensive livestock industries proposed in environmentally unsound places was the 6000 head cattle feedlot approved by the Southern Downs Regional Council at Pratten in December 2008 with only one opposing Councillor, Cameron Gow. This involved the Condamine flood plain. A group of adjacent landholders appealed this decision in the Planning and Environment Court. It took until February 2010 to win a Court Order upholding our appeal on the basis of ‘not a proper application’. A necessary part of the court process is provision of experts who readily declared the approved proposal to be environmentally unsound. Subsequent major revisions were also proven to be equally unsound. The landholders represented themselves in the court process so their legal costs were minor, however, the Southern Downs Regional Council would have paid tens of thousands of ratepayers’ funds to defend a bad decision and support the developer in the protracted action. The file summary for this case is available on the website of the Brisbane District Court – Planning & Environment Court – File Summary – appeal number 99/09.
I have been involved in intensive and extensive livestock industries in this region for 34 years and, while I may be slightly biased towards the red meat industries, the intensive alternatives are essential. Some of the intensive industries have bad public relations and it is mainly because they are inappropriately situated or poorly regulated. They must be out of sight and located where they have negligible impact. There is ample suitable land in this Shire and other Shires. They must not interfere with water sources and they must not be on flood plains.
The approved Darwalla Hatchery is step two of a three step process. Step three is to establish contractors to feed 1,000,000 chooks every week for the southern fried chicken trade. So coming to a backyard near you, and possibly as environmentally unsuitable as the two sites mentioned, may be a chook grower enterprise. They are at an advanced stage of their proposal process.
John Greacen,
Wheatvale
