Kimberley Meat Company scraps plans for second sea shipment as Main Roads allows cattle trucks across bridge

Cattle transporters from the East Kimberley region have been given special exemption to cross the temporary low level crossing of the Fitzroy River to access the Kimberley Meat Company, with the aid of a Main Roads escort. A Main Roads spokesperson confirmed to Countryman that four road trains carrying cattle from the East Kimberley had crossed the 200m long bridge “in the past week, under special exemption and escort”. It is the first time cattle have been transported by road from the north to the KMC since flooding destroyed the Fitzroy River bridge in January. Main Roads has proactively assisted the pastoral industry to ensure best “animal welfare” outcomes. Other heavy vehicles have not been permitted to cross the low-level bridge without first having to uncouple a trailer to reduce weights. The spokesperson said Main Roads was working on the second heavy vehicle low-level bridge near the current one to allow road trains to cross without escort, which is expected to be completed at the end of May. KMC chief operations officer Erin Nolan said the company’s preference was to freight cattle by road, as opposed to by sea as it did in late March, early April, with the assistance of the State Government. Ms Nolan said the KMC had been planning another vessel shipment of cattle from northern Australia to Broome after the success of the first ever domestic live cattle shipment of about 1200 head from Darwin due to the lengthy delays in sustaining a low level crossing over the Fitzroy River. She said the switch back to trucks would be more beneficial for the company in the long run because “arranging the logistics of sea freight cattle movements is resource and capital intensive, so things don’t progress quickly”. “Our focus is on maintaining business operations, the health and safety of our staff, stock and stakeholders and supporting the industry,” Ms Nolan said. The first shipment took place because of the one-in-100-year flooding event, caused by ex-tropical cyclone Ellie in early January, which brought heavy rain that swelled the Fitzroy River to 15.8m high and destroyed the bridge. The damage prohibited transport access to Yeeda Station from the north, where the KMC abattoir is located. Main Roads has announced that supplies for the new bridge were arriving on site and works would start in June, but it was unlikely to be completed until the end of 2024 in time for the 2024-25 wet season. The new bridge is designed to be six times stronger than the old bridge, with a lane in each direction. At 270m long, it will be nearly 100m longer than the old bridge. Before Easter Main Roads closed the new temporary low-level crossing due to advice from the Bureau of Meteorology regarding expected river level rises by up to 2.5m at Fitzroy Crossing due to heavy rain in the East Kimberley. It was later reopened. While the road network was damaged the KMC sourced cattle from where they could but supplies were insufficient without the usual deliveries from the east Kimberley and Northern Territory. KMC’s first shipment was undertaken at the end of March and had unloaded by Sunday, April 2, with mainly Brahman and Shorthorn cattle from Stapleton Station near Katherine in the NT. Questions were raised in the live export community about whether the transporting of cattle interstate via ship would have to meet the same stringent protocols of live exporters, but that appears to not be the case. Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said his members operated outside the 12 nautical mile limit in international waters, and as far as he was aware the Livestock Shipping Services vessel Nine Eagle, which delivered the cattle, remained inside that zone, making it a domestic transport issue. He said if future domestic shipments were to be made — which was “a great idea, and one that had been talked about for many years” — there needed to be a level of transparency, with animal welfare and biosecurity protocols in place similar to live exporters. The State Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said the WA Government, through the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, had provided support to KMC for the shipment of cattle, but would not say how much. “KMC is the only large-scale abattoir in Northern WA, meaning it is an important strategic asset in our State’s emergency animal response planning, and as a local employer,” Ms Jarvis said. “KMC were required to comply with all regulations and receive all permits required by the Commonwealth and WA State Government for the transport of livestock by sea and the movement of animals between states.” Ms Jarvis said DPIRD have encouraged KMC to consider applying for the Kimberley freight subsidy scheme available to Kimberley businesses impacted by the floods at the start of this year to reduce freight costs. The scheme is jointly funded through the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.