Do chicken farms need to go through the DA process??
The article in the Leader on 26/10/19 regarding DAs for ProTen chicken farms stated '...some earthworks have already begun on the dams, despite the DAs yet to get the green light ... TRC said it was permitted to undertake some preliminary earthworks as part of construction projects before a DA is approved.'
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So what is considered 'preliminary earthworks'? Maybe some soil testing, surveying, etc? Evidently not, I drove past the Murrami ProTen site at Somerton on 28/09/9 and there is a very large new dam built beside the Oxley Highway, seemingly a lot more than just preliminary earthworks!
The DA appears to be DA2020-0119 which on the 28th was "Application Lodged and Accepted' although it is now "Under Evaluation by Assessing Officer". Does the Assessing Officer have to inspect the soil at the bottom of the dam to approve the DA?
Didn't the original DA for this site include having no stored water on site due to the risk of Avian Flu, hence no rainwater tanks for the significant amount of roof rainfall catchment?
I hope the DA does look at the environmental impact this dam will have, pumping 75 megalitres of groundwater into a dam where there will be a significant amount of evaporation. Not to mention the effect this will have on any neighbouring farms using the same groundwater.
Shame the irrigators can't do this to provide feed for all the four legged animals in the Peel Valley.
Natasha Wing,
Oxley Vale
House build
As a mature family we moved from Brisbane to live in Tenterfield three years ago and don't regret it for one moment. Over our married life of 50 years, both in the UK and Australia, we have lived in at least 12 homes, four of which were newly built, with the usual litany of warranty items to be dealt with over the months after occupation.
In contrast, when we moved to Tenterfield, we had a house built to our specification and at a competitive price by local builder Tom Murphy and his team.
We cannot let any more time go by without saying what a superb house it has proven to be with just one, yes one, warranty item to rectify, a small leak from a bath drain. Compared to our previous new homes, this is a remarkable achievement in anyone's book and is a testament to supporting local business.
This testimonial has in no way been requested by Tom Murphy, but seeing houses being built here by out-of-town builders one has to wonder: "Why?"
As a town we are suffering so surely we owe it to local business to buy local - it really does pay off.
Howard Wilson,
Tenterfield
Drought is upon us big time
Drought is upon us big time. People who can't afford to buy feed for their livestock, or whose ability to grow anything, are suffering. Many people in these situations don't know how to access grants, and can't afford to pay lawyers to do it for them.
Our leaders, those in government who make the decisions that affect every aspect of our lives, can never really get it right. In fact they don't get it full stop.
Look at the recent stuff up where people who are doing OK are being allocated a million bucks each while those in increasingly dire straits are not even on the governments radar.
At a local government level the situation is farcical. I have just a handful of cattle left on my acres and I've all but lost them. My property is bordered by a river which is now just a series of muddy puddles. Because boundary fences don't go out beyond the waterline my few cattle can go round the fences and onto the riverbank, which they've done, and they've wandered downstream and I can't find them.
In the good old days, you could contact your local council to get your downstream/upstream neighbours names in order to ask them if they'd seen your cattle going by their place, but not in these days of legalistic hoopla.
I rang the TRC about the situation with my lost livestock to see if I could get some contact details for my neighbours beyond my immediate next door neighbours, and was told that due to privacy legislation they couldn't furnish me with any details whatsoever as to who my neighbours are. I then tried a couple of land and stock related authorities and the same rules applied.
The bigger issue in all of this is the question of what could happen in a bigger, really serious emergency when contact with neighbours nearby is critical.
Once again our laws favour the minuscule percentage among us who are conmen, thieves and ratbags, who'd have little difficulty in finding out who you are, where you live and what you've got.
As usual the real and valued people in our communities are left to struggle in the battle to deal effectively with almost any governmental or semi-governmental authority about almost anything.
It's a shame.
David Foster, Tamworth
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