By Luke Voogt
Lara residents have won their campaign against a controversial intensive goat farm after the company behind it signed its withdrawal.
Geelong’s council on Wednesday announced Nuchev had filed consent orders with Victorian Administrative and Civil Tribunal (VCAT) to cancel the site’s planning permit.
“I’m pretty damn happy,” Lara campaigner Bronwen Baker said on Wednesday.
“At the moment I feel a bit shell-shocked because we were gearing up for Friday at VCAT.”
The campaigners were set to battle Nuchev at a preliminary hearing on Friday where the company will now confirm the proposal’s cancellation instead.
Ms Baker and 55 others objected when Geelong’s State Government appointed administrators approved a permit for the 4500-goat farm in 2016.
She led the No Nuchev Campaign following a VCAT decision in January to overturn a permit for a similar 14,000-goat farm in Moorabool.
The campaign gathered more than 4500 signatures against the “goat factory” and objected primarily to the risk of Q fever – a goat-born disease that can progress to pneumonia in humans and kill.
“People with vulnerable children are messaging me and thanking me because they thought they were going to have to sell their homes,” Ms Baker said.
“It’s a win for the people rather than big money and corporations. I would like to think it’s because we just made it too damn hard for them to come here.”
On 27 March council voted six to four to appeal the planning permit at VCAT on the campaigners’ behalf.
Windermere ward councillor and Lara resident Kylie Grzybek raised the alternative motion to appeal.
“I had to help them,” she said on Wednesday.
“We’ve been able to give them a voice (which) should have been done in the first place.”
Council and Nuchev’s public consultation in 2015 fell well short of “community expectations” and failed to notify high-density residential areas, Cr Grzybek said.
The notification targeted only industrial sites and farms in an “obtuse” area surrounding the site, she said.
“They specifically chose some areas not to touch.”
Lara resident and neighbour to the site Rob Leonard took on Nuchev’s and council’s lawyers as a sole objector at a VCAT hearing in February 2017, the Indy revealed in May.
The opposing side grilled an unprepared and “alone” Mr Leonard who eventually signed his withdrawal.
“(The people of Lara) missed out on their opportunity to object… and that’s why I took it up on their behalf,” Cr Grzybek said.
Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay in March called on parliament to investigate “alleged threatening and intimidating actions by Nuchev legal counsel” towards Mr Leonard.
Council estimated in March its decision to appeal would cost $60,000 in legal bills.
“Our legal fees will be substantially lower now,” Cr Grzybek said.
State Government and Geelong’s council had negotiated with Nuchev since early 2018 towards a “positive solution”, a company spokesperson said.
State Government supported Nuchev’s investment in the economy and employment, Lara MP John Eren said.
“I believe we have reached the best outcome for all involved.”
Windermere ward councillor Anthony Aitkin said this outcome would likely involve an alternative goat farm site “towards Bendigo or Ballarat”.
