Battle over Harden piggery heats up

Matt Ryan runs the 940-hectare operation of “Bonoak” and “Willow Glen”, at Harden, and thought he had found the promised land when his family moved from the Monaro to the famed golden wheat and grazing lands around Harden.

He married Bron and they started a life raising their two daughters, Mr Ryan working his cattle and crops and Mrs Ryan teaching music in a room off the homestead. It was an ideal life. Mr Ryan and his family were the national face for young farmers when a blueprint for agriculture was launched by the National Farmers Federation and Westpac in 2011. Five years later, he feels his future is under direct jeopardy from his neighbour.

In eyesight of “Bonoak” is a demountable shed, the first visible sign of a $12 million intensive piggery planned on neighbouring “Eulie”.

It’s been a stressful time. The Ryans get on well with Tim and Barb Beveridge, who own “Eulie”, and now jointly run by the couple’s son Michael and his wife Edwina, who own Blantyre Farms, a major piggery her family, the Walkers, started at Young. 

“I talked to Michael and he said he was planning a piggery. I said ‘okay’. I thought he was talking about 1000 pigs. I had no idea it was going to be 25,000 pigs,” Mr Ryan said.

Like many of the “Eulie” neighbours they were invited to inspect the Beveridges’ existing Young piggery. They were impressed, but as time grew they became staggered at what was proposed at “Eulie”. The flatter land at Young seemed appropriate for what the Beveridges were doing, but the Ryans couldn’t understand why the Beveridges wanted to pursue a piggery on the sloping land, just 4.2 kilometres from the southern edge of the Harden township – and next to them. Mr Ryan has became increasingly worried about potential run-off issues and pollution of the water table.

The Ryans say they already “gag” from the smell when the south-west wind blows if the Beveridges are fertilising their paddocks. He worries for what may exist in planned irrigated effluent and what his Angus cattle may drink from dams down the gully, and if residues will get into his herd.

“You can’t tell me what they say they are are going to be spreading on the paddocks is fertilising, that is dumping,’’ he says. 

A majority of landholders surrounding “Eulie” fear for the pollution of the water table from the application of effluent. The Beveridges say the covered effluent dams from the planned piggery will capture all the material from the piggery, which comprises two large separated barns.

The Beveridges claim a majority of “Eulie” is on clay soils that will not leak material into the water table or creeks. The Cunningham Valley Action Group contend the soil is mostly sandy loam, and leaching into the water table is inevitable. They cite former NSW Department of Primary Industries agronomist Paul Parker as a source, who did soil testing on “Sunshine”, next to “Eulie”, and now owned by the Beveridges. Mr Parker also expressed concern at salinity issues and phosphorus levels if the planned spreading of animal waste went ahead (“Saline ‘risk’ in piggery plan”, The Land, December 1, p16).

Next to the Ryans, on Eulie Road, the de Mestre family run the 800ha “Carnbrae” and feel just as bewildered by the project. The Beveridges plan to use the road that passes within 11 metres of the de Mestre’s homestead as the access route for the piggery. The Beveridges have offered to tar a strip near the house. But this has not arrested the de Mestre’s concern. They have a disabled son who sometimes wanders across the road. They fear the eight 30-tonne trucks expected to use the road daily, plus employee cars, will make their lives hell and force them to keep their son indoors. The de Mestre’s daughter, Crit, has returned from study in Melbourne, deciding her future lay on “Carnbrae”, but now she finds a piggery clouds her future.

There’s plenty of de Mestre history to aspire to. An early forefather was the famous horse trainer Etienne de Mestre, who won the first Melbourne Cup with Archer. A picture of Archer sits on the homestead wall.  

The de Mestres were surprised a year ago when the Beveridges made an offer to buy them out. It set alarm bells ringing for Michael de Mestre, who said he would fight the piggery proposal to the hilt. 

Neighbours on the other side of “Eulie”, including the Johnsons and Alcorns point to the steep slopes near the piggery and the danger of run-off into Cunningham Creek. They fear pollution of the water table they use to sustain stock and loss of water. They estimate “Eulie” has about 26km of water frontage through gullies and creeks. They feel they are being used as a buffer zone for the piggery. “Eulie” neighbour John Taylor, a former Wallaby winger who runs “Bumgum”, says ‘’when I was delivered, unannounced, the intentions of Blantyre Farms by Edwina and Michael on my back lawn, I was shocked. This was not a consultation. This was more like an ultimatum. Our retirement, the time we have been so looking forward to, was at stake and threatened.’’

 Hilltops council will make a decision on the development early next year. Both sides may go to court.