Residents are concerned about a $5 million poultry farm proposed near Goornong.

Specialised Breeders Australia has applied to build the 6.5-hectare ‘Karee Farm’ on Grahams Road, Avonmore. Several farming families are opposed to the six production sheds which would house up to 100,000 egg-laying chickens at a time. 

Maree Sexton recently started running a B&B on her merino sheep farm. She said she had been blown away by its success. 

“I’m easing out of teaching into semi-retirement,” Ms Sexton said. “It was a supplement for my future income, to help put food on the table, and it’s always been a dream of mine to run a rural retreat.

“This will change the atmosphere in the area and I’m concerned about the safety of my guests out riding and walking with the increased traffic.” 

Ms Sexton said if the proposal went ahead she believed the developer should be required to upgrade the access roads, saying increased traffic would raise dust and cause potholes. 

Her neighbour Christine Carty said she was concerned about environmental impacts on the nearby Bendigo Creek, the potential for disease outbreaks on family-owned poultry and “the smell of 10,000 chickens pooping”.

“But our main concern right now is that there has been no community consultation,” Ms Carty said. “This is a farming area – my family have been in the district for 150 years – we are supposed to be a community.

“So it would’ve been nice to have some sort of community consultation.”