A Sunny Queen egg farm near Pittsworth has been approved to house an extra 30,000 birds following a special council meeting earlier this month.
Alpair Pty Ltd, trading as McLean Farms, applied to change from a maximum of 590,000 birds to a maximum of 621,800 birds, which was approved by Toowoomba Regional Council.
The McLean and Hall families own Sunny Queen in equal shares.
The proposed extension comprises one new layer shed with a gross floor area of 3003m2 to house 40,000 birds, and conversion of an existing rearing shed to a layer shed, to house 9600 birds.
Land uses to the south of the site include an approved piggery and an approved composting facility, which is 1km south-west of the development site.
The composting facility is operating under separate approval and was not part of the development application.
Landholders Brenton Hall and Peter Hood, who live about 15km from the poultry farm, were against the expansion and aired their concerns at the meeting.
Mr Hall said they were submitting an objection to the building of the additional poultry shed on the grounds that Alpair had not been able to meet development conditions with existing poultry sheds in regards to waste management.
"It has regularly affected the amenity of neighbours and those further afield with odour that at times, most would describe as putrid," Mr Hall said.
"[It's] forcing us to seal up our home and having to use air conditioning or heating to escape the odour instead of being able to open windows or doors for fresh air.
"We have known what it is like to experience hotel quarantine lockdown long before those exposed to COVID have."
Mr Hood said he was not against development, but large scale agricultural operations needed to address locals' concerns.
"I'm not against development but ... you people have got to have some balls and say, 'Big fellas - there's a problem'. And there is a problem. They know there's a problem," Mr Hood said.
"I was awoken three times in a week dry-retching at one or two o'clock in the morning because of this stench.
"I hate summer now because of this. Down it comes - what I call the sea breeze."
McLean Farms business development manager Kent Antonio said the company had received objections to the facility's odour in the past and action had been taken to mitigate it.
"These challenges the gentlemen are referring to have been dealt with in the past and they have had contact with our staff members within the business," Mr Antonio said.
"I do know they have changed practices like not turning on certain days or certain times to see if that had changed anything - if there were any issues.
"We've outlined that it is a different DA (development application) and it is being dealt with under its own development approval.
"[With] our 1.8 million birds throughout our McLean Farms operation, it works out to 27,594 tonnes per year is going to that compost site, which is [a] 30,000 tonnes a year facility, so that is well within the ranges of our current approvals."
There was confusion between councillors about whether the composting facility was a state or local responsibility, which nearly led to the application being deferred.
However, planning and development services general manager Stewart Somers subsequently found an email that confirmed the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries was responsible for the composting facility's compliance.
Council then voted for the approval, with only councillor Kerry Shine opposed.
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Brandon Long
Brandon Long is a Queensland Country Life journalist based in Toowoomba.
Brandon Long is a Queensland Country Life journalist based in Toowoomba.
