By Corey Everitt
With Pakenham saleyard gone, a bold alternative is being proposed in Longwarry promising to return cattle sales to West Gippsland.
A consortium of stock agents – formed several years ago and called Longwarry Saleyards Pty Ltd – has finalised planning permits and is now moving into raising capital for a mammoth proposal for a saleyard located in Longwarry.
Longwarry Saleyards was formed in 2019 when Victorian Livestock Exchange seemed to be on the verge of closing Pakenham as they moved to merge it with the Warragul saleyards which VLE closed that year.
The consortium purchased a holding in Longwarry at the time with the intention of securing a saleyard close to home.
With that reality having come true last Thursday 27 June when the Pakenham saleyard closed for good, chairman of Longwarry Saleyards, Greg Price thinks the time is right for the bold move.
“It’s never been more important,” he said.
“We’ve got all our approvals done and we will be beginning a capital raising process in spring this year.”
The proposal is a state-of-the-art facility, originally said to be built for 120,000 head per-year.
The consortium is looking to secure $30 million in investment, substantially up from an estimated $13 million when it was first put to Baw Baw Shire Council as costs in the building industry have dramatically increased in recent years.
A large price tag, but Price thinks their pitch is stronger than ever and was shown first-hand at Pakenham’s busy last day.
“You could see how many cattle were there on the day – all the pens were full – and how many producers for the industry were still in the area,” he said.
“It was a great shame it closed.”
Price is critical of the VLE departure from Pakenham, they sold the saleyard for $25 million after declaring rising land tax had made the site financially unsustainable.
Pakenham was the last saleyard within metropolitan Melbourne, the closest for local farmers is now VLE’s Leongatha site, followed by either Gippsland Regional Livestock Exchange in Sale or Yea Saleyards to the north.
Longwarry has reached a new step in the bid to secure investment, it will still ‘take time’. However, Price believes local farmers ‘will see’ the service back in West Gippsland.
“It wasn’t sold for lack of business or support, but they are a private company,” he said.
“The reality is, if you had to build it today, it would be worth far more than $25 million, but it would be worth even more to the industry.
“You can see how vital the saleyard was for the West Gippsland and wider Gippsland area.”
