GROWERS in the CBH Group Geraldton zone can look forward to a more seamless harvest with a new receival site opening on the outskirts of the city.
The Narngulu site has added 180,000 tonnes of additional permanent grain storage to the zone and removed the need for temporary storage at the existing Moonyoonooka site.
The new site was finished last August but was not used as part of the 2019 harvest, with the weighbridge at Narngulu being the only element which has been utilised so far when carry over grain was moved.
CBH Geraldton zone manager Duncan Gray said in the past, the co-operative had been leasing land across the road from Moonyoonooka and had 250,000t of temporary storage there which was all on dirt.
"That was a fairly large lease cost and in all of our big harvest years, such as 3.3 million tonne in 2017 and 3.6mt in 2012, we used all of that temporary storage and we were very reliant on harvest shipping," Mr Gray said.
"For us to survive into the future we needed a site which took over from that leased land and in a big year it will be full, in fact between the two (Moonyoonooka and Narngulu), we could still be short."
To start with, CBH Group bought 90 hectares of land at the new site which had 180,000t of emergency storage on it, since that the co-op has purchased a further block of 90ha, plus 53ha at the back.
"We bought the back 53ha because it links up the Mingenew Walkaway Road to Arthur Road, plus it has a house on it for accommodation for our staff if need be," Mr Gray said.
"So in total we've got 230ha which in the grand scheme of things is huge, a site like Moonyoonooka down the road has 300,000t on 20ha, which means we have massive scope for further expansion here.
"When you build stuff, farmers will come to use it, it may take them longer but there are more segregations and bigger trucking capacity."
Narngulu now has four permanent bulkheads which each hold 45,000t and are run by drive-over grids, rather than belts and conveyors.
It also has two weighbridges, two sample spears and a sample room big enough to put at least 10 staff in if need be.
CBH area 1 manager Cory Foot said Narngulu has been designed for the future, not for today.
"When we built Moonyoonooka a big truck was a double, now we're getting quads in there and it's getting very tight, but at Narngulu you can bring 10 quads in and it's not going to block the site," Mr Foot said.
"Looking ahead you're trying to phase Moonyoonooka out because it's got the TAFE and airport around it, whereas here at Narngulu it's open and ready to go for further expansion.
"We own all the way to the road, so you could have another entry on the other side of Walkaway Road, plus there is a State government project to build a bypass around Geraldton which would go straight past Narngulu."
Segregations for the site have not yet been confirmed, but with the bulk of grower estimates having been received by CBH, the co-operative is working through them before finalising services.
August is the planning month for segregations which will also depend on the outcome of the season and growers can expect to know more by the end of the month.
The last new CBH receival site was built in 2016 at Mirambeena in the Albany zone, making Narngulu only one of two new sites built within the past decade.
"It's a toy that we haven't been able to use and it's just been sitting here for 12 months, so we're excited for harvest to come," Mr Foot said.
