Singleton farmer Max Wake fights to build new dairy on floodplain

Max Wake and his son Gavin were busy last week organising repairs to the centre pivots used to irrigate their property located on the Hunter River floodplain at Whittingham, NSW.

Standing on land where the Wake family hope to build a new multi-million dollar dairy and cow feed pad facility, last month's mud has swiftly been replaced by dust - the cycle of life on the land.

Despite the current dryness of the site selected for the family's proposed dairy infrastructure, Max Wake said had received a verbal rejection from Singleton Council's planning department that the development application (DA), submitted by Pittman Building Services, could not proceed as it is located on a floodplain.

Floodplain developments are currently front of mind for many councils following record flooding this year.

Singleton Council spokesperson said the council was in receipt of a DA for an upgrade of an existing dairy shed at Whittingham.

"The proposal is located in a high hazard floodway as identified in council's flood mapping. Council is currently assessing the application. No determination has been made," the spokesperson said.

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Mr Wake, who has been dairying on the property for 47 years, said the selected site was not impacted during the most recent flood in July.

"In fact in the second highest flood on this property since 1955, in June 2007, the water was only lapping at the bottom wire of this fence," he said pointing to the fence on the nearby paddock.

"We are prepared to build the site up a metre with fill, that will cost several hundred thousand dollars, to ensure the building is out of flood.

"I know at this stage it is just a verbal rejection but I hope council would be prepared to take a site visit and discuss the proposal with us."

Mr Wake said two years ago council approved a hayshed adjacent to the dairy infrastructure site.

This shed was not impacted by the two floods this year and Mr Wake said why take a different approach now when it was fine to build on this section of the floodplain in 2020.

Gavin Wake said the family wanted to spend in the vicinity of $4 million to improve the farm's efficiency and productivity, create a better work environment for workers and improve cow comfort.

"This farm supports four families, is the major supplier to the Hunter Belle brand of milk, cheese and other dairy products and we want to continue to grow the business in a changing environment," he said.

"Our existing dairy is well and truly past its used-by date with the new dairy capable of handling 250 cows/hour where we are currently only milking 80 cows/hour in the existing dairy.

"We have to build this infrastructure to survive."

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The Wake family's existing herringbone dairy is now the oldest one still operating in the Hunter.

Keeping with the family tradition of adopting emerging technologies, they wish to now build a new facility, which Max Wake said would lift the herd's milk production from 23 litres/cow/day to 30litres/cow/day.

"That's a huge difference in terms of productivity," he said.

Gavin said the feed pad, where the milking herd would be housed, would allow the business to use water far more efficiently as they would opt to grow corn rather than rely on pastures to feed the milking herd.

"With the two centre pivots it just makes economic and environmental sense to grow corn silage and feed that to the cows. We have to make the most of that water and this management system is proven to do that," he said.

At the heart of their operation is their nationally acclaimed Benleigh Brown Swiss stud.

"This has been dairying country for nearly 100 years and now we just need the infrastructure to continue that tradition," Max Wake said.

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