Saleyards going, going but not yet gone

Farmers have used a community meeting with council administrators to plead for the retention of Geelong’s crumbling livestock saleyards.
City Hall said the future of the 150-year-old yards dominated Wednesday night’s “community engagement meeting” at Grovedale, where about 80 residents met the three administrators and senior council officers.
“We listened to a number of people from our farming community who urged us to keep the saleyards open while recognising the engineering challenges and financial cost to make this ageing facility comply with modern safety requirements,” said administrators’ chairwoman Dr Kathy Alexander.
“We’ll now consider those views before commenting further at next Tuesday’s council meeting.”
City Hall temporarily closed the yards to sheep and cattle sales in August, citing the risk over overhead steel walkways collapsing.
Replacing decayed timber posts supporting the platforms would cost $250,000, the City said.
Next week’s council meeting could sound the saleyards death knell, with the administrators to decide whether to close the facility or commit spending up to $1 million on various repairs.
The yards have posted losses for the council over the past eight years.
A sale of the site could reap around $5 million for council coffers as the administrators grapple with reducing City Hall’s $93 million debt.
Farming industry figures and heritage proponents have called for retention of the yards, a fixture on North Geelong’s Weddell Road.
Wednesday’s community meeting was the third of five the administrators have planned for suburbs around Geelong before the end of the year.
Dr Alexander said the administrators wanted residents to be “involved in civic planning and decision making” and to “empower them to take on the role of active change agents in our community”.
“But with limited funding, it’s all about balance. There will always be winners and there will always be losers but if we make those hard decisions in consultation with our community then at the very least we will get an outcome that most can live with, and the best outcome is that many will be happy with the result.”
The next meeting will be at Norlane’s Centenary Hall from 5.30pm on 18 October.