January 31, 2022
Fees at the Coolabunia Saleyards are rising by 40 per cent to help bring the facility into line with other regional saleyards.
An initial increase of 20 per cent will be applied from Tuesday (February 1) and a second 20 per cent rise will be introduced in the South Burnett Regional Council’s 2022-23 Budget.
The decision to raise fees was suggested by the Coolabunia Saleyards Working Group, a committee made up of Councillors and Council officers tasked with planning a future for the Council-owned facility.
At last Wednesday’s General Meeting, the group reported that after studying competing saleyards at Murgon, Biggenden, Dalby and Gympie they found the current fee structure was less than half what other facilities now charged.
The report noted while it was difficult to directly compare saleyards because each had different business models, Coolabunia’s fees had not risen for a very long time and it was necessary to raise charges to generate money that could be ploughed back into upgrades and improvements.
The report said that over the past five years the saleyards had lost an average $86,683 per year.
A key aim of the increase would be to eliminate most – or all – of these annual losses.
The report also listed several improvements the working group would like to make to the facility if its fortunes can be revived.
These included:
- Renewing the water lines from the top holding tanks to the selling pens which would be installed below the existing ground level walkways, eliminating a large number of water breaks and reducing associated maintenance costs.
- Installing Thompson Longhorn semi-circular poly troughs in the selling pens. The group noted these poly troughs were more expensive than concrete troughs but said users reported they were better for yards and easier to maintain. Further, if the pens were upgraded to steel rails in future the troughs could be re-used.
- Installing steel gate panels on the existing drafting pens to create the ability to move stock through yards; the gates could also be reused in future if timber yards are replaced with steel rails.
- Upgrading mobile coverage of the saleyards, including using Telstra boosters to cover the main activity areas. The upgrade would improve mobile phone coverage for online sales and auctions, provide the potential to conduct EFTPOS transactions and permit credit card facilities to be installed in the washdown bay.
Cr Gavin Jones told the meeting he had been arguing about the need to raise the saleyard’s fees for several years and was very pleased to see the Working Group’s report recommending the same thing.
“I’m extremely happy and very supportive (of these recommendations),” he said, noting that even with the fee increases the Coolabunia Saleyards would still be between 10 and 20 per cent cheaper than Murgon.
Councillors voted unanimously to accept the report and introduce the first fee rise on February 1.
- Download: Comparison of the old and new fees (405kb PDF)
Gee!! Our council doesn’t support chicken farmers in our area – I checked out the new fees schedule out of curiosity and found that it is HALF AGAIN as much to sell a chicken than a calf. Why is that? Please explain.
I looked further at the fees and found even more intrigue: the removal and disposal of dead animals is $276.01, and while the weighing fee is $2.30 if over 20 are weighed, for less than 20 it appears to be $46.51 (I kid you not – this is listed in the new fees schedule)
Gee, I’m glad that I’m not farming chooks and using the Coolabunia Saleyards – it sure would cause a financial belly-up situation. Golly, just imagine a pen of chickens fizzling out because of the heat and needing to be disposed of … mind boggling, eh?
But seriously: it is good and time that the fees are brought into line with other yards. The question is why did it take so long?