Council & Business
2 June, 2026
Councillors push for improved broiler farm policies amid planning disagreement
Central Goldfields Shire councillors have continued opposing more broiler farms on the Moolort Plains, once again refusing a planning application.
Central Goldfields Shire councillors have continued opposing more industrial-sized chicken farms on the Moolort Plains despite internal opposition.
Councillors unanimously opposed a broiler farm application, despite a motion to recommend it, due to their increasing quantity and impact.
The application for 3280 Pyrenees Highway Carisbrook was for a broiler farm accommodating up to 400,000 birds and a caretaker’s house with associated buildings run by Pavilion Farms.
If approved, the two year old application would have been the fifth broiler farm run by Pavilion Farms in the area and sixth in the region.
Councillor Grace La Vella went against the council officer’s recommendation for approval and moved to refuse it.
Her reasoning, in part, was the cumulative impact of broiler farms in the region.
“Individually, each application may appear compliant when assessed in isolation. However, communities are increasingly raising concerns about what happens when multiple developments are approved over time within the same landscape and road network,” she said.
The planning application received 56 objections and two neutral submissions whose concerns included amenity, like odour and noise, plus impact on the landscape character and environment.
“Our current planning framework does not adequately address how many intensive animal industry developments are appropriate within a concentrated rural landscape before broader strategic impacts begin to emerge,” she said.
The motion seeks to address this gap by exploring planning policies that will guide future decisions.
Councillors requested a report outlining the:
Cumulative impact of intensive animal industries within the shire;
Planning mechanisms available to council to manage broiler farm development’s scale and distribution;
Opportunities to prepare a Strategic Rural Land Use Study and associated planning scheme amendments;
Potential interim planning controls or local policy responses available to council.
The CEO was requested to investigate the preparation of a Rural Land Use Strategy or Intensive Agriculture Strategy identifying:
Preferred locations for future broiler farm development;
Appropriate separation distances, infrastructure requirements and environmental safe-guards;
Mechanisms for cumulative impact assessment.
A report was requested to be brought back to council within six months outlining recommendations and strategic planning options, funding implications, potential for planning scheme amendment pathways, opportunities for stronger planning policy and interim policy responses, and monthly progress updates as it’s being prepared.
“This motion asks for evidence-based strategic planning so that council can make informed decisions into the future, rather than continuing to assess these developments on a purely case-by-case basis without an overarching framework,” Cr La Vella said.
“I believe that is a reasonable and responsible approach.”
However, Central Goldfields Shire Council CEO Peter Harriott disagreed calling it an “inappropriate motion”.
“There’s a technical issue with the motion and it’s the same technical issue that we spoke about last time and probably the time before,” he said.
The Maryborough District Advertiser understands councillors were instructed, following their refusal of the Pyrenees Highway application in February, that their decision was invalid.
Councillors were told that any refusal of the planning application must be based in the planning scheme and be submitted to the CEO two weeks before the council meeting.
The reason given was to allow the motion to be reviewed for technical and legal correctness.
Central Goldfields Shire Council has previously opposed, and lost, a similar application from the same company due to how the planning scheme is applied at VCAT.
Councillor Gerard Murphy said he presumed, if this application went to VCAT, council would lose.
Community members have previously criticised the relevant planning laws as favouring industry.
“Even if 10 percent of the Central Goldfields Shire wrote objections to it, it could still get through VCAT with the existing planning law,” one objector said.
“All the good common sense in the world can’t stop these permits.”
Councillor Geoff Bartlett said “no means no” and that council had been “taken advantage of by this big end of town”.
“Our planning scheme doesn’t accurately have provisions in there reflecting what is important democratically to the people of Moolort,” he said.
The Pyrenees Highway application was previously deferred in December last year, before an invalid refusal in February, then deferred again in April before returning to last week’s May council meeting.
Cr La Vella said the motion wasn’t about banning broiler farms locally but instead finding balance.
“It asks council to undertake the strategic work necessary to better manage the scale, distribution and long-term compatability of these developments,” she said.