AFTER more than eight years of campaigning to have their saleyard facilities upgraded or rebuilt, the Shires of Katanning, Capel and Plantagenet this week finally received news of $21.5 million of funding from the State Government.
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The Shire of Katanning received the biggest slice of the funding pie with Premier Colin Barnett and Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman visiting the town's saleyards yesterday to announce $17m funding for the construction of new sheep saleyards.
The Shire of Capel was less than impressed with the $2.2m it will receive to kick-start a replacement for the Boyanup cattle saleyards and the Shire of Plantagenet will get $2.3m to clear debt from cattle saleyards at Mt Barker and provide a solid business basis for the yard's future.
The Katanning and Plantagenet shires will continue to own and operate each of their facilities, while the Shire of Capel has indicated support for provision of saleyard services at Boyanup to be funded jointly by the private sector and the State Government.
Mr Redman said the funding would help ensure WA's major saleyards featured high standards of occupational health and safety, environmental management and animal welfare.
"It will provide for contemporary facilities to ensure stock are efficiently processed for sale and presented in optimal condition," Mr Redman said.
Katanning Shire president Richard Kowald said he was very happy with the funding announcement and although it had been a lengthy process, was pleased with the outcome.
"It will take a tremendous effort from the Shire of Katanning to be able to achieve this but we already have a track record of doing our own works, so we're very confident that it will all come together and create saleyards equally as good as those at Muchea," Mr Kowald said.
"We've been through numerous different models including private ownership, government-built, shire-built and a combination of those and this has always been our preferred option."
Mr Kowald said the new facility would have a similar capacity to the current saleyards but the flow-through capabilities would obviously be better and result in a significant increase in efficiency.
He said a site had already been identified for the new saleyards, next to the town's refuse site on crown land which had previously been used by the Agriculture and Food Department (DAFWA).
Mr Kowald said it was an appropriate site for many reasons, including its proximity to Katanning.
"Having it close to town has always been very important for us, because it means the add-ons for associated industries that already exist in town will get the full benefit from having the saleyards close by," he said.
"We've taken most of our guidelines from Muchea and taken on all the good points, but we've also got the opportunity to improve on the bad points.
"We've had various consultations done including environmental and financial and we've got concept plans in place, but we need to go through a lot more processes to get there and there will be steering committees in place to monitor what we do and how the money is used.
"I think the whole process has been handled very well by the State Government and the shire."
Mr Kowald said he hoped the new saleyards would be operational in 18 months.
Capel Shire president Murray Scott's reaction was far less positive and he said he was bitterly disappointed in receiving only $2.2m to kick-start a replacement facility for the Boyanup cattle saleyards.
According to minutes from a shire meeting at the end of February, DAFWA had estimated the construction cost of a replacement facility for Boyanup was likely to be in the vicinity of $15 million for a covered facility with a capacity of about 1500 to 2000 head.
"Where has the rest of the money gone from the sale of Midland?" Mr Scott asked.
"We needed that to get these yards relocated and $2.2m won't even find a site."
Mr Scott said the shire's preferred model was to have the facility jointly funded by the State Government and the private sector but he said only $2.2m worth of funding from the State Government would not make for a very attractive investment for private enterprise.
"I wouldn't have thought that $2.2m would draw much interest from the private sector," Mr Scott said.
"We need more money than that."
Plantagenet Shire president Ken Clements said while more funding would have been nice, they were pleased to receive the $2.3m to clear their debt.
"That's the base figure we were looking at, so we're happy," Mr Clements said.
"It's a very nice little Christmas present."
