00:01Nah, they've got to stay. In my mind, they've got to stay.
00:05This is the voice of Darcy Hoyer, a stock producer who is worried that if the sale yards were to go, what it would mean to the community.
00:13Well, where do you send them once you leave here? Do you send them to Coombe? Do you send them to Wagga?
00:18Because there's nowhere else to send them apart from Bega.
00:21Farmers and stakeholders are worried their livelihood will be lost.
00:25It comes after Bega Valley Shire councillors endorsed the rezoning of 279 hectares of land to build 2,200 residential properties.
00:41For auctioneer Jason Gannon, that would mean the loss of his business.
00:46You know, we sort of yard 100 to 200 cows every Tuesday, and then we have a monthly store sale, which is once a month, and we yard anywhere from sort of 800 to 1,600 cattle.
01:00And, you know, South Coast Livestock, we have anywhere from 50 to 70 clients sell cattle at each of those sales, and I'd imagine it'd be the same for Pell and Rickson, so you'd have 100 to 140 people selling cattle through a year.
01:13For Jen Wells, a beef cattle farmer, she feels like there was some oversight during initial planning from Council and the State Government.
01:22And I've found recently that when the initial planning process that's commenced with the Bega Valley Shire Council through the State Government,
01:35that the Aboriginal, the fire plan, and EPA on nature and flora, bird life, had all been, sort of, boxes had been ticked by security and conflict of use.
01:51Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of an oversight that the sale yards weren't included in that biosecurity plan.
02:00As the Bega Stockyards serviced the South Coast, moving the sale yards would mean a harder job for both the stock carriers and the stock being transported.
02:10G'day, I'm Colin Sheen from Numbugger, I'm a local producer and carrier, and supporting the Bega Stockyards.
02:21Oh, it's a bit of a lifeblood for our local, market our local cattle, yeah, can't send them all away, but we're going to try and look after the yards and support the best we can.
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