Temora Way Pallamana (Murray Bridge) facility

In June 2020, TFI received development approval to build a stock production and meat processing facility at 191 Temora Way, Pallamana, about 10 km north of Murray Bridge. This facility is intended to replace the operations lost in the 2018 fire at TFI’s Northern Heights facility. TFI was granted authorisation (EPA Licence #51656) to conduct meat processing and fuel burning at the new processing facility in November 2022, and meat processing operations commenced in May 2023.

As part of assessing the licence application, the EPA considered which controls were required to manage the potential off-site impacts of the new facility. The EPA has included licence conditions to ensure adequate management of odour, wastewater (including irrigation) and noise to minimise the risk of impact to the environment and local community.

Pallamana Stage 1 and Licence

TFI’s Pallamana facility will be built in a staged approach, based on capacity and demand. All stages of the development must be completed within 10 years of development approval (June 2030).

Stage 1 construction was completed in May 2023 and has now been successfully commissioned.

The following activities are licensed by the EPA:

• meat processing facilities (with an initial capacity of up to 600 head per day)
• fuel burning (for the boiler systems).
  
  

Subsequent stages of the development will include expansion of the beef facilities and additional small stock processing capacity for sheep and lambs. A new rendering plant and composting facility will be constructed in a future stage of development, however the exact timeframe for this is still to be determined.

The EPA will notify the community of subsequent development stages through TFI’s application to include additional activities on the licence and will provide an opportunity to give feedback when this application is received.

Once complete, the Pallamana facility is expected to have a total processing capacity of 1,200 head of beef and 15,000 head of small stock per day.

Environmental Management

The evaluation distances for effective air quality and noise management guideline indicates that the facility should be located at least 1 km away from dwellings. The TFI facility (excluding existing lagoons) is approximately 1.5 km from the nearest non-TFI dwelling. As part of the development application, odour modelling was commissioned and reviewed in accordance with the EPA’s ‘Ambient Air Quality Assessment’ and the Environment Protection (Air Quality) Policy 2016.

TFI has an EPA-approved commissioning plan for the wastewater treatment system. This will ensure that wastewater processes are managed appropriately and in accordance with the design of the facility as new parts of the system are built and commissioned.

The site is regulated by the EPA to ensure compliance with strict protocols related to odour, wastewater management and noise, and the EPA conducts regular compliance inspections and boundary assessments of the facility.