By Jeremy Sollars
A CHICKEN hatchery with the capacity to process close to a million chicks a week will start construction near Allora in January.
Brisbane-based chicken meat giant Darwalla will build a 5000 square metre factory on its site off Bradfields Road – on the Dalrymple Creek flood plain – and expects it to be operational by October 2017.
The plan was first put to the Southern Downs Regional Council in mid-2011 and was approved in August of that year, but became mired in argument over operating conditions and was also put on hold while Darwalla reviewed its commercial viability.
Allora residents raised a raft of environmental concerns, including questions over the handling of an expected 7.8 million litres of wastewater annually at full production.
Darwalla will use the plant to incubate and hatch chicks which will be then shifted to a range of its other feeding locations where they will be grown out prior to processing.
Darwalla has other operations at Mount Cotton in Brisbane, Laidley, Victoria Hill, Killarney, Hendon and Mt Molar.
The Warwick region has been identified by the Queensland Government as a key location for the booming chicken farming sector, due to proximity to both grain feed sources and metropolitan processing facilities.
Queensland produces nearly 20 per cent of Australia’s chicken meat and the industry contributes more than $350 billion a year to the state’s economy.
Other chicken farming operations in the region include broiler or feeding plants operated by the Carr Farming Trust at Elbow Valley and by the Fessey family at Pratten.
Darwalla chief executive officer David Bray confirmed to the Free Times that work on the hatchery would commence at the start of next year.
In a statement released to staff last month Mr Bray said the hatchery would be “a quiet, clean and green operation designed to integrate into its natural surrounds”.
“The new Allora hatchery will comprise of a 5000 square metre building, 600 metres away from an entry off Bradfields Road and will process up to 800,000 live chicks per week in the final phase.
“Heat energy produced by the chickens will be harnessed to create heating and cooling.
“The Allora operations will be conducted almost entirely undercover in a purpose-built, self-contained facility specifically designed to minimise radiated noise and odour.”
The hatchery will be constructed by Badge Construction Group with Mr Bray saying Darwalla’s preference was to use local contractors “when and where we can”.
He said the hatchery would require around 10 to 12 full-time positions when operational.
Southern Downs Regional Council’s Acting Director of Planning, Environment and Community Services Tim O’Brien said Darwalla requested that the council review some of its conditions of approval after the application was approved on 24 August 2011.
“As a result some changes were made to the conditions and a negotiated decision notice was issued on 31 October 2011,” he said.
“The approval had a relevant period of four years from the date the approval took effect, and a request to extend the relevant period (for two years) was granted on 23 November 2015.”
Darwalla supplies chicken meat to a range of outlets across south-east Queensland and into New South Wales, including Coles, KFC, Red Rooster, Nando’s and IGA.
