Oura Riverine Protection members (from left) Doug White, Tom Kelsall, Deb Blackwell, John Blackwell, Helen Tullock and Skye Bellamy outside Wagga Wagga City Council’s offices to oppose the development of an Oura-based abattoir. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
The development application (DA) for a controversial abattoir planned for Oura has now been sent out for public exhibition for a fifth time.
The 8.2-hectare abattoir, which was first applied for by Okeview Pastoral in 2023, is slated to be at 2056 Oura Rd and is expected to process up to 60 heads of cattle, 50 sheep and 20 pigs a week, with up to 1903 tonnes of live weight a year.
The abattoir DA has attracted consistent opposition from locals and members of Oura Riverine Protection (ORP), who have raised concerns about the development’s proximity to the Murrumbidgee River.
The opposition led to the application being brought before Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) at its meeting on 10 March, 2025. The decision on the abattoir was deferred until a later date due to what the council described as ”procedural issues”.
Since the 10 March meeting, the application has been placed on public exhibition a further three times.
ORP members have called out WWCC for its handling of the application and its numerous exhibition periods, which have seen several landholders make submissions on five separate occasions.
“This could be a world record for most exhibition periods,” ORP member Deb Blackwell said.
“Council has failed to notify and exhibit this development application yet again. Council may dismiss this as purely procedural, but we believe they should be able to get the fundamentals right as part of a diligent and robust assessment.
“This proposed abattoir is a Designated Development, the most polluting type of application in NSW. The applicant [Okeview Pastoral] and council have a responsibility to ensure it is correct due to the significant polluting risks and the impact it poses.”
An artist’s rendering of the proposed livestock-processing facility. Image: Icono Building Design.
A WWCC spokesperson said the latest exhibition period was the result of issues with electronic links allowing access to supporting documents of the application during the previous exhibition period.
“There are no material changes to the application,” the spokesperson said.
“When it was most recently on exhibition, the electronic link to the lengthy supporting documents failed.
“A submission was made that this issue, together with some other issues such as different footers on documents, could confuse members of the public and compromise the exhibition process.
”The easiest way to address this concern is to place the materials on exhibition again and provide a further opportunity for public submissions.”
WWCC general manager Peter Thompson stressed the importance of a fully operational exhibition period to allow every community member who wished to make a submission to do so.
“This is a significant development application, and we are making sure that the community have every opportunity to provide their input,” he said.
“It has been on public exhibition many times over the year, and we hope that this provides a level of comfort that anyone who would like to submit has had an opportunity to review the material and make that submission.”
Locals fear that the abattoir’s proximity to the river and lagoons could lead to contamination downstream. Photo: Supplied.
Oura landholder and ORP member Tom Kelsall said that, despite WWCC launching the newest exhibition period, it had failed to notify landowners and stakeholders about the new period.
“Clearly, they aren’t doing their job properly,” he said.
“I’ve had my phone ringing from people asking me, confused about what’s going on. People have told me they just made submissions for the fourth period, but now they’re getting letters from the council saying there’s a re-notification.
“There was no cover letter explaining what this new period is, and now people don’t know what’s going on. We have no idea if submissions from the previous period will count towards this new one, and it’s causing a lot of confusion.”
Mr Kelsall reinforced the ORP’s position, saying it was not opposed to the development being built but instead its proposed location, and that people should be able to fairly and clearly submit their concerns.
“At no point have we said that the abattoir should not go ahead,” he said.
“What we and many others are saying is that the proposed location is not suitable and will have a great impact on the surrounding environment, which includes the Murrumbidgee River.
“It’s 800 metres from the wetlands and 1500 metres from the river itself.
“We should be able to fairly and clearly voice these concerns.”
Okeview Pastoral CCO Adam Brayshaw responded to the news of the new submission period, stating he was unaware and frustrated by WWCC’s website having technical issues, but that the delays had allowed Okeview to consult the community about the project.
“While unfortunate and extremely frustrating, the silver lining in having to endure several delays due to council’s administrative errors is that it has enabled us to communicate further with community members and increase their understanding of our proposed development,” he said.
“This has been reflected in the number of supporting letters sent to council, which have increased throughout each and every public exhibition period. In the latest exhibition period, council received in excess of 100 supporting submissions, which was more than three times the number of objections received.
“The community has made its views very clear, and the overwhelming majority recognise the significance of our proposed development and the positivity that will come to the region from it.
“Importantly, these delays have also enabled community members to gain clarity on the self-interest that appears to be motivating some of the individuals who have been most outspoken in their opposition to our development.”
Due to the number of objections to the development, the DA is expected to be presented to WWCC councillors again in 2026, should the DA’s exhibition period come to completion on 12 December with no further faults.
