With the recent announcement from three of Ballarat’s leading livestock agents that they will not be part of the move to the RLX facility slated for construction at Miners Rest, the Ballarat City Council must now stand up and act positively over this long running saleyards relocation sore.
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It is easy to calculate (and is in fact indisputable) that the total value of livestock sold in Ballarat each year is around $190 million. This is a lot of money which must not be put at risk.
The saleyards site in Latrobe street was gifted to the community by Queen Victoria in 1868 as a site specifically reserved for a saleyards. The infrastructure which exists today has been built up since then by a succession of saleyards management committees made up of councillors and other rural community volunteers, funded almost totally from the saleyard charges levied upon the animals sold.
The system worked fine (and quite profitably) until shortly after council amalgamation when “the new order” decided (in its wisdom) to abandon the management committee concept, and took over the operation and management of the facility itself, relegating the former members to a token “advisory” role. The saleyards immediately went into steep decline and began developing a bad reputation for service and suitability.
The one shining light in this entire fiasco is the undeniable fact that, once given operating control of the existing facility, RLX clearly improved the service and performance to something approaching the levels originally seen under the old committee structure. The truth is that RLX actually proved the viability of the existing operation and it is owed a vote of thanks for that.
The facility now appears to be running at an annual surplus of income over running costs approaching $1 million.This vindicates the claim that the council decision to take the control of the facility away from the former community committee structure was a most serious error of judgement, and was the issue which ultimately ended up being the root cause of all the problems.
Unfortunately, by its clear inability to take the entirety of the agent group along with it, RLX has clearly forfeited any right to be the new owner operator of a saleyards facility in Ballarat and the entire issue is now at a critical crossroads.
The situation was bad enough because of the controversy over the proposed new site. However because of the clearly apparent irrevocable breakdown of the current process and the totally unworkable situation which has now developed, it is critical for council to act decisively and quickly.
Council should immediately cancel its arrangements with RLX. Council should stand up, retake control of the situation, place the existing facility under the management of a community based (farmer/agent) committee arrangement as before, and let things settle down.
Once back in control council should regroup to develop a long term workable solution which, first, protects the viability of unified livestock sales in Ballarat and, second, provides for the creation of a new (at a fresh site) or a significantly updated facility (at the existing site) based upon a proper assessment of all of the issues.
This nonsense must stop. The stock and station agencies are in turmoil, the farmers are in turmoil, clearly council is in turmoil and the community deserves certainty. Wise heads must prevail.