Kimberley Meat Company's dumping of abattoir waste amounts to warning from WA government

Western Australia's state government says it will issue a letter of warning to a meat company responsible for dumping abattoir waste on a remote pastoral station in the state's far north.

The government has handed down the results of its investigation into the dumping of abattoir waste on Yeeda Station, in the state's Kimberley region. 

The investigation was prompted by ABC reporting, which uncovered the bones of cattle dumped less than 5 kilometres from the Great Northern Highway, in breach of the Kimberley Meat Company's own environmental guidelines.

In a statement to the ABC, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) said it decided to close the matter by issuing a letter of warning.

"DWER determines compliance and enforcement actions commensurate to risks to public health and the environment," the statement read.

The Kimberley Meat Company, which operates the Colourstone Abattoir between Broome and Derby, is owned by Yeeda Pastoral Company, the company behind Yeeda and Mount Jowlaenga cattle stations.

ABC investigation prompts government action

In November 2023, ABC drone footage showed piles of Kimberley Meat Company carcass waste dumped in piles on Yeeda Station, in breach of the company's environmental approvals.

In their successful 2016 application for Department of Environmental Regulation approval, Yeeda Pastoral Company wrote, "the plant is designed to process all products [of the slaughtered animal], which are then packed into 20 or 40-foot containers and loaded onto trucks for delivery off-site."

The piles of waste include the skulls, hooves and skeletons of cattle processed through the company's Colourstone Abattoir, and are accessible by livestock in an improperly fenced holding paddock.

"Cattle have access to those piles [of animal waste]," an industry member said, speaking on condition of anonymity, at the time.

In the months following the coverage of Yeeda Pastoral Company, it and subsidiary the Kimberley Meat Company entered voluntary administration.

Administrators KordaMentha have taken over management of Yeeda Pastoral Company while attempting to sell the assets, including the cattle stations and meatworks.

KordaMentha declined to comment on the story.

Environmental group calls for harsher penalties

Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said the outcome sent the wrong message.

"Whereas down south, we're sure that there would have been a fine in this kind of situation."

He said he was worried about the standard the investigation sets.

"It sets a very poor example where people who might be taking shortcuts or doing the wrong thing aren't worried about it at all, because all they'll get is a letter of warning in the post," he said.

'Nearly a million dollars' in state funding for meatworks

Mr Pritchard pointed to a transcript from a WA parliamentary sitting earlier this year, in which it was revealed $786,563 of state funding went to the Kimberley Meat Company following the widespread flood event that impacted the region in 2022.

"What we've seen is nearly a million dollars of government investment, and there was more put into the roadworks going into the abattoir, into this company, and that's been a very poor investment," he said.

"There can be a bit of a conflict of interest when you're pumping money into something you get embarrassed if it fails. So therefore are you going to regulate it as tightly as it should be regulated?"

The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation declined to respond to Mr Pritchard's comments.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the WA state government said:

"The decision to investigate was made by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation independent of funding decisions made by any other state government department.

"It is wrong to say there has been any conflict of interest in this decision."