A fresh court date has been set to resolve the stoush over shipping cattle through the Great Ocean Road port of Apollo Bay.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
The matter will now head to the Victorian Supreme Court next month, after the Colac Otway Shire council banned Bass Strait Freight (BSF) from shipping King Island cattle through Apollo Bay earlier this year.
That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in February.
Since then, BSF was also stopped from shipping hay and fodder to King Island, for the charity Need For Feed.
But BSF managing director David Harris said the company would head back to court as it was unsure as to why council banned the company's ships the Matthew Flinders III and Matthew Flinders IV from entering Apollo Bay.
"We are having to take them (council) to the Supreme Court of Victoria on July 23 to get a court order to for the necessary 'discovery documents' to be provided to find out whether banning the vessels indefinitely using Section 232 of the Victorian Marine Safety Act was lawful," Mr Harris said.
He said it appeared council did not want to provide the company with information as to "what went on behind the scenes, at the time they issued the ban on the grounds they did not have enough information or time to assess the risks".
The council had engaged an Adelaide based engineering firm and ran a risk assessment process "across a broad range of government agencies" on the proposal but had not included the company.
"They have not told us why the ships continue to be banned but have made public statements that the turning basin is too small, there is not enough water depth in the harbour and that this is only a local port and not suitable for commercial operations," he said.
But he said the company had operated at Bridport, Tas, for 30 years in a turning basin and berths less than half the size of those at Apollo Bay.
"The government spent $1.2 million dredging at Apollo Bay in 2022 to bring the depth down to less than three metres - this is two metres more than the water we have available at Bridport and at Cape Barron Island," he said.
Mr Harris said the banning of the vessels was akin to getting a fine, or penalty, from government but the authorities not being prepared to say why.
"The same principles applied when the federal government were found to have unlawfully shut down the live export of cattle into Indonesia at a time 99 per cent of the cattle exporters, importers and processors were acting within all federal and Indonesian government regulations," he said.
But Colac Otway chief executive Anne Howard said the court proceedings had been delayed by BSF, which sought a deferral of proceedings, advising there was "no great urgency in resolving this matter".
She said BSF's claim that it was not aware of why it had been denied entry was "completely misleading".
"Since BSF advised in January 2024 that it intended to commence immediate shipment of cattle from King Island through the port of Apollo Bay, BSF has been fully aware of the information it needed to provide and the matters the port manager needed to consider," Ms Howard said.
"BSF did not provide the information within the time requested and this resulted in the Port Manager issuing a Direction on January 17 that prevents the BSF vessels from entering the port.
"BSF is aware that the Direction was the result of concerns for the port infrastructure, and potential risks to other port users and the environment."
In the court case, earlier this year, the judge found BSF had failed to resolve key issues that posed "risks to port infrastructure, other port users and the environment if the plaintiffs are allowed to proceed to use the port as they propose".
Ms Howard said the engineers draft findings and report were provided to BSF and the assertion that the research was based on incorrect information from council was "unfounded".