‘Alarm’ over piggery upgrade

A piggery near Kemerton could soon be one of the State’s biggest producers if a proposal by a Pinjarra-based pork company is approved.

The proposal calls for the demolition of the Australind Piggery which is licensed to house 1200 pigs intensively, but has a capacity to hold up to 10,000 pigs.

It will be replaced by a piggery that can house up to 28,000 animals, representing about eight per cent of the State’s pig market.

In the proposal GD Pork Holdings would demolish the present piggery and build a modern enclosed shed and covered effluent and settlement ponds.

GD Pork Holdings’ proposal to increase the piggery’s capacity to about 23 times its present production will go to Harvey Shire Council later this month.

Public comment on the proposal closed on Tuesday with the Harvey council receiving a “significant number of submissions”.

Shire president Tania Jackson said the proposal for the extension of the piggery on Rosamel Road in Parkfield had been through an extended public comment period.

“There was feedback that people didn’t realise the size, so we extended the period for two more weeks, ” she said.

“The feedback we’ve had is that people are a little alarmed.”

She said the proposal would go before the council at the earliest opportunity.

“I’d expect it to be at the next committee meeting in two weeks, ” she said.

PG Pork Holding’s director Torben Soerensen said the piggery would have less of an impact in terms of noise and smell than the existing farm.

He believed that any opposition to the proposal came from people who did not understand how the proposed piggery differed to the current set up at Australind Piggery.

“At the moment it is very old, very out-dated and not very efficient or very good for the environment, ” he said.

“The interest from the neighbours has been partly because they have never been to a modern piggery. It will be fully enclosed and ventilated.

“It’s hard to understand looking at the number of pigs, but there’ll be less noise, less smell and no impact on the environment.”

Mr Soerensen said GD Pork Holdings bought the property in last August and also operated piggeries in Pinjarra and Kojonup.