Beyond the Edge: Australia's First National Peri-urban Conference La Trobe University Oct 2013

1. FRANKENSTEIN’S CHICKEN: UNDERSTANDING
LOCAL OPPOSITION TO BROILER FARMS
Beyond the Edge: Australia’s First Peri-Urban Conference, La Trobe 2013
Dr Elizabeth Taylor
McKenzie Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
University of Melbourne

3. Chicken consumption in Australia
595,700,000
chickens p.a.

4. Chicken production types

5. Broiler system

6. Peri-urban conflict
“The question is how to reconcile the
starker reality of, say, broiler chicken
production, with the cosy images of a
‘rural idyll’” (Gilg 1996 quoted in
Henderson 2005 p110)

7. Early conflict and regulation: backyard chook banished
Early regulations
Larger operations, 1930s-1960s
• Nuisance and public health
• Larger operations on urban
laws: late 19th century
• By-laws: 1915 and 1921 Local
Government Acts
• Deterring urban back yard and
small-scale operators
fringe
• Issues with odour, health,
vermin, urban conflict

8. Planning appeals 1969-1997
Issues: Odour, noise, flies, vermin, traffic, residential amenity, tourist areas,
buffer zones

9. Modern broiler farm regulation
• Zoning: prohibited in urban,
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
discretionary in farming and
green wedge
52.13: must comply with Broiler
Farm Code of Conduct
Minimum separation distances
based on farm size
‘Classes’ based on size and
separation
Avoiding or managing amenity
and environmental impacts
Conditions for odour, noise,
dust, run-off, composting, etc.
Pre-emptive exclusion of
‘sensitive uses’
Allowing industry growth

10. Planning appeals 1998-2013
Issues: Odour, pollution, noise, visual amenity, rural-residential areas,
concentration, ‘sterilisation’, classification

11. Size of farms over time

12. Technical solutions
• “Thus while many of the concerns raised by the objectors suggests a
need to look at the adequacy of the Broiler Code requirements, that is
not our role. Our role is to determine whether this code has been
complied with, as is required and as we have explained above”.
(Catani 2012).
• “Residents…nonetheless, on hearing Dr Cowan’s
evidence…remained concerned about the impacts of the proposal. In
this regard Mr D’Oliveyra advised that the residents do not have the
expertise or the resources to verify evidence of the technical nature
that was presented by the two experts at the hearing”. (Beeac 2009).
• “[Proponents claim that] existing and proposed boundary buffers will
be more than adequate to minimise any odour emissions. Superior
technology is already implemented for the existing
sheds…Inspections by Shire Officers have proven that any odours in
area have not originated from the broiler farm – although the farm is
routinely blamed”. (Nar Nar Goon 2007)

13. Role of spatial regulation
Creepiness
Amenity
problem
Increased
size &
technology
Regulatory
response

14. ‘Stop monster chicken factory’
• Odour dust etc. can be
•
•
•
•
managed technically
Less so image control:
factory farming not
comfortably marketed
Conflicts with rural-residential
expectations
Land use conflicts also
channel uncomfortable
emotions
Mix of Not In My Back Yard
(NIMBY) and Not On Planet
Earth (NOPE)

15. Responses to broiler farms
NIMBY
Grief / horror
NOPE

16. Frankenstein’s broiler chicken
• “It's not just a few chickens, it’s
close to two million a year!”
(Pakenham Gazette, 2011)
• “Accursed creator! Why did you
form a monster so hideous that
even you turned from me in
disgust?” (Frankenstein)
• “The ruthless efficiency, the
relegation to a place out of sight, the
sordid and undramatic lining up for
mass slaughter; these are things we
recognize only too well – when we
think of them. And we prefer not to
think of them for long”. (Visser 1986
p145).

17. Key references
• Gaynor, (2012) “Fowls and the
Contested Productive Spaces of
Suburbia”, in Atkins, P. (2012).
Animal Cities, Farnham : Ashgate
Publishing Ltd, 2012.
• Henderson, S. R. (2005). "Managing
land‐use conflict around urban
centres: Australian poultry farmer
attitudes towards relocation." Applied
Geography 25(2): 97‐119.
• Huxley, M., (1984), “In Search of
‘The Good Life’: Being a Political
Economy of Certain Local
Government By‐Laws within the
Metropolitan Area of Melbourne,
Victoria”, Urban Policy and
Research: 3(1).
Contact
• taylor.e@unimelb.edu.au