Feedlot furore: Boyanup farmers to challenge approval of $7 million facility

Boyanup farmers are fighting to stop one of WA’s biggest sheep feedlots being built in their backyard amid concerns the $7 million facility will cause a colossal stink, devalue neighbouring properties and pollute local waterways. Well-known feedlotter Alan Garstone’s Kingston Rest Farms is behind the development, which this month received works approval from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. Mr Garstone — who has hit back at critics — runs a much smaller feedlot on the same property at The Plains, a few kilometres south-west of Boyanup, catering to about 5000 sheep at a time. His “bigger and better” feedlot received planning approval from a Joint Development Assessment Panel last November after Capel Shire Council knocked it back in December 2021. It will comprise three large open-walled sheds with a combined holding capacity of 27,750 head and turn out about 249,750 lambs a year. But neighbouring landowners are concerned smells from the 12,600 tonnes of sheep manure generated per year in the sheds — which feature raised steel mesh floors to allow waste to collect on a hotmix hardstand pad below — will destroy the amenity of the area. Beef producer Kim Payne said the existing open-air feedlot, which is next door to his 89ha property and about a kilometre from his house, already “stinks”. “I’ll come home on a hot day and as soon as I open up the house to let that southerly wind in, you can just smell the stench of sheep,” Mr Payne said. “It goes right through the place and you’ve got to lock it up again; it’s just awful. Now he’s proposing to run thousands more sheep. You just can’t help but think it’s going to stink one hell of a lot more.” A major concern for Matthew Mitsopoulos, who runs the neighbouring Kalinda Suffolk Stud, is that the approved buffer zone surrounding the feedlot buildings extends into his and other neighbours’ properties. Mr Mitsopoulos said the buffer zone ended just “a couple of metres” from his house and noted wind speed and direction readings used to determine it were taken 14.5km away at Donnybrook Meteorological Station. “They’ve taken weather readings from a location that’s not relevant — it’s over the other side of the escarpment, where there’s a totally different weather pattern, where the winds aren’t as strong,” he said. While planning approval was granted on the condition Kingston Rest Farms submit “a post development odour impact assessment”, Mr Mitsopoulos said there was no mention of any “corrective action if anything is breached”. “There’s nothing in that application to say that they need to do anything if we are impacted by the odour,” he said. “We haven’t been considered. DWER, the Ag Department (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development), the Shire — none of them have come and spoken to us or explained anything to us.” Both Mr Mitsopoulos and Mr Payne were also concerned about the risk of Johne’s disease being spread to neighbouring properties from potentially infected sheep. “A tributary of the Gynudup Brook runs out of Mr Garstone’s property across the Lowrie Road Reserve into my property,” Mr Payne said. “JD can be transferred to cattle via water, and being downstream, I am concerned.” According to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the most common means of JD spread between properties is movement of livestock, while faeces and contaminated run-off or waterways can also spread the disease. JD is endemic in WA’s sheep flock but was only detected in the State’s cattle herd in 2021. In August that year, JD was confirmed to have been present on a property in the State’s south for “several years”, with DPIRD admitting it had likely spread to hundreds of farms. For cattle producers Robert and Jenny Gibbings — who own the neighbouring block on the corner of Cains Road and Gavins Road, where they had planned to retire and build a home — the feedlot is a disaster. The couple, who live on a different property nearby, are worried about the number of heavy vehicles that will be using Gavins road to access the feedlot. “Our plans to build a home have completely been dashed,” Mrs Gibbings said. “We’ve got to rethink and revaluate what we’ve got to do now, because we don’t want to have trucks driving up the boundary, and the whole property will be affected by noise and smell. “I know we’re a small fry, but we’ve lived in this area for 30 years and that was our dream. “Our property — and the other neighbours — is devalued because it’s going to have a sheep feedlot parked on top of it.” It is not just neighbours who are concerned. Michael Tichbon, who is opposing the development on behalf of the Capel Land Conservation District Committee, said no large intensive feedlots had ever been permitted in the Shire of Capel because it was “simply too wet”. He said the Kingston Rest feedlot — which is sited in a high water table, low-lying waterlogged area — would contaminate the waterways of the Capel River catchment, which studies had shown was already “heavily overloaded with nutrients” and “in urgent need of recovery”. “I’m concerned about the quantity and method of manure disposal, as this would be an ongoing key component of the environmental risk — including nutrient runoff,” Mr Tichbon said. “Water flows from The Plains into Gynudup Brook, then ultimately is gathered up by the Elgin Main Drain, which also discharges into Tren Creek. Any nutrient run-off from The Plains area therefore contributes to all of these three tributaries, which then feed into the Capel River, then directly out into the Geographe Bay and impacts on the critically important seagrass. “Placing an intensive sheep feedlot in the catchment, no matter how careful the owners are, will only exacerbate the nutrient levels”. According to approved planning documents, the feedlot will include three clay-lined dams at the foot of each shed for storage of rainwater and surface water run-off. “Solids will be allowed to settle out, and clean water used for stock watering purposes,” the application states. “During the winter months, surplus clean water will be allowed to overflow to the nearby brook.” The application goes on to state that the indoor nature of the sheds would “minimise the risk of stormwater mixing or coming into direct contact with manure”. “All rainwater will be harvested and used within the feedlot for stock watering purposes,” it states. “During the cooler months urine will be absorbed within the manure beneath the feedlot facility and will evaporate during the warmer months. As such, the applicant does not expect there to be a wastewater stream generated from the feed shed operations.” Mr Tichbon was also concerned the plans approved by JDAP and DWER were heavily amended from those originally put before the Capel council. He said public consultation was not carried out on the amended plans, as it had been with the original proposal. “By not advertising the changes and the denial of any further submissions on the amended application, we have been denied due process,” Mr Tichbon said. “An entirely different project was approved to what was put forward in the first place. “I receive all DWER clearing permits and works approval applications and to my knowledge, amended licences are regularly advertised again for public comment, but not for this proposal. There’s been a lot of stuff go on behind our backs.” According to DWER’s works approval decision report, the proposal “does not pose an unacceptable risk of impacts to on and off-site receptors.” Mr Tichbon said an appeal was being prepared.