In my opinion, Logan City Council are fully aware of the dangers of having residential estates built within close proximity of a abattoir, but it seems they do not take it seriously.
On Monday 7th of May 2008, I met with two Logan City Council officers being Mr Barry Omundson, Executive Manager Special Projects, Logan City Council and Ms Therese Cole Executive Officer Special Projects Strategy & Outcomes Logan City Council, onsite at my land, on the corner of Logan River Road and Teys Road Holmview, to discuss my options of how to develop the 30 hectares of land stretching down Teys Road.
At first, I wished to develop the Land into an Industrial Park with Commercial Offices. But according to these two managers of special projects the area was Emerging Communities and the Logan City Council have earmarked the area as residential development. With that advise, I agreed and proceeded to design a residential development.
Now at the time, the area was just coming over to Logan City Council from the Gold Coast City Council, so I was advised not to lodge until the transfer was complete.
The following week I made an appointment to meet a Teys Bros Beenleigh management officer, to introduce myself, and show him what I had planned and discuss any issues Teys Bros Beenleigh may have.
From the moment I walked into his office all he could do was berate me at length, stating how all developers were scum and liars. He explained, that when the Alberi Park development was submitted for development, the developers promised a 100 meter buffer zone and only delivered a 10 meter buffer zone.
I took great lengths to assure the Teys Bros Beenleigh management officer, that if a 100 meter buffer zone was what he wanted, a 100 meter buffer zone I would give, and that he had my word on that.
I walked out of his office thinking that I was lucky to be alive, as it reminded me of a the old “American West Cattle Rancher” and any moment he was going to pull out his six-shooter and make me dance!
After this initial meeting I hand delivered a full set of draft plans back to Teys Bros Beenleigh and later emailed the Teys Bros Beenleigh management officer, the final set of plans to comment on before final submission, no comments were forthcoming.
Before submitting, I emailed Teys Bros Beenleigh management officer on several occasions for various things, giving them ample opportunity to discuss any concerns, but they never did.
Over the next few months up until DA approval was received, I attended many meeting with Logan City Council working on all aspects of the DA and addressing the issues put forward by Teys Bros Beenleigh.
On Thursday, 12 November 2009 at 9:00 AM, I met with , Todd Rohl, Manager of Planning to finalise draft conditions and air quality concerns at Logan City Council offices in Wembley Road with two of my Town Planners from WDC and my Noise, Odour and Dust consultant from Max Winders and Associates.
Because of all the work done previously this meeting went very well with the Logan City Council manager of Planning was mainly talking about the second part of the Development Plan being stage 2 & 3.
As for the 1st part of the Development approval being stage 1 he was comfortable and advised that a Draft Approval was being produced without any issues and the buffer zone would be as lodged 100 meters along the Teys Road boundary.
As for stage 2 & 3 he wanted me to withdraw the mention of Industrial in our chart of table in the Green Valley Development Plan called Precinct 2, I was happy to do so but my Town Planner advised that we could not do that without re-advertising and that any amendments could be addresses in condition of approval.
On the 23rd December 2009 at 4.30pm we received our DA approval.
It did not take long for my Town Planner to note a single clause that looked out-of-place and made no sense, a single clause repeated several times has made the approval null and void.
Clause 3 Limitations of this Approval 3.1 is sprinkled throughout the Development Approval rendering the approval null and void and actually giving me a refusal.
Immediately, my Town Planner was on the phone trying to call Mr Todd Rohl, Manager of Planning, to question this 500m buffer zone, unable to contact him he sent a email containing a letter to suspend the Applicants Appeal period until we could get some answers.
The following day being Thursday 24 December 2009, he was able to talk to Mr Tod Rohl, Manager of Planning, who also seemed bemused and confused about the 500m buffer zone, concluding that it must be a typo.
It was agreed by my Town Planner and Tod Rohl, Manager of Town planning, that, after the holidays we would get together and fix the condition.
By the 7th of January, after receiving this email and report, it was clear that something was wrong and that it was time I sought legal advice’s.
In my opinion, none of this makes sense,
- why would Logan City Council charge me hundreds of thousands of dollars in application fees and assessment fees just to give me an approval that is null and void by one single clause.
- why would they asses over 300 individual homes, color-scape, landscape, roads, open spaces in fact every area of a residential estate and then charge me for the pleasure, say YES, only to stop me from building it.
- Why would Logan City Council give me an approval with the 500m buffer zone in December and then after the fact, engage a further review of the reports to justify the 500m buffer zone but not give my consultants the opportunity to review the report.
- why would the Logan City Council even send out such a development Approval.
- this approval reads as a full approval but is negated, made null and void with one clause that looks out-of-place, an after thought, an attempt to stop the development by someone.
- how is it that the Manager of Town Planning, whom we had been dealing with, obviously had no knowledge of the 500m buffer zone and considered it an error or typo.
- and why was the 500 meter buffer zone taken from 3 different points, that completely enclosed my land 100%
On Tuesday January 2, at 11.30am a meeting with Tod Rohl, Manager of Planning was made to find out what was going on. On that day when my team and I arrived we were greeted by a previously unknown council officer, who gave us Tod Rohl apologies that he could not attend the meeting. My team and I were led into a room where a whole team of council officers were waiting to justify the 500m buffer zone.
I sat and listened, but could not understand why the man who had handled the DA was not there, I could not understand why Tod Rohl was not there, I could not understand how the Logan City Council had treated me so.
After we left, I decided to appeal and go to Lands Court, and asked my Town Planner for a Time line of everything we had done with the Logan City Council.
It is my opinion and my belief that my Development Application has been the victim of collusion between a member of the Logan City Council and Teys Bros Beenleigh. It is my opinion that someone from Teys Bros Beenleigh and someone from Logan City Council has conspired and acted in a corrupt manner to sabotage my Development Application.
Why do I believe this?
1. Logan City Council have no influence or jurisdiction regarding the Abattoir as the Abattoirs come under the jurisdiction of DERM and DERM (EPA) were consulted on the Development Application as a Third Party Department and DERM gave us the GREEN Light and making no requirement for a Buffer Zone.
2. Under Teys Bros Beenleigh licence to operate a Abattoir, issued by the Queensland State Government department of DERM, Teys Bros Beenleigh are not to effect or cause any nuisance of any sort at worst past 10 meters of their boundaries.
3. When Teys Bros Beenleigh sold their land to developers right next to the factory, they had no fear then.
Now by all accounts anyone looking at my case did not understand how Teys Bros Beenleigh and Logan City Council could defend the case but when court proceeding began in the Planning and Environment court Teys Bros Beenleigh and Logan City Council added to their claims the disease called Q Fever and concentrated on this angle. Teys Bros Beenleigh and Logan City Council, justified the 500 meter buffer zone based on past experience introduced Q fever, and by doing this, they have revealed a number of issues regarding the Teys Australia Beenleigh operation as a whole and that a 500 meter buffer zone was way to small and up to 400,000 people are at risk of Q fever because Teys Australia Beenleigh operate their cattle Yards in an old fashion and dangerous manner because they have not kept up to date with modern practices.
This course of action, in my opinion, has condemned Teys Australia GUILTY of having no regard to the surrounding area and public.
- A previous report for a Q fever Court case between Teys Bros Beenleigh and a person claiming to have gotten Q fever over 500 meters to 1 kilometer away claimed that Q fever could travel up to 18 kilometers.
- In this court case Teys Bros Beenleigh settled out of court but no before an Occupational Health and Work Consultant lodged this report in court summarizing a number of issues including Teys Bros Beenleigh lack of care to the public.
For two years I continued to try and reason with the Logan City Council and Teys Bros Beenleigh through “Without Prejudice” meetings in the Planning & Environment Court process as well as making offers that I believed would settle the matter.
In February 2011, I spoke to Shane Murraihy from Logan City Council explaining my offer.
This offer was refused without any negotiation.
After more months of reports and meetings, I decided it was time to stop with all the meetings and take the case to trial in front of a jury.
But before this one of my associates who knew people in the Logan City Council started asking questions regarding the property and case, to people he knew in Logan City Council.
In early December 2012, my friend, was told by his contacts in Logan City Council, that for them to help, the Logan City Council would require me to withdraw my court action, and if I did they would come to a resolution.
I would not accept this course of action, as if I did withdraw, I would be at the Logan city Councils mercy and they could do with me as they pleased.
My friend kept telling me to trust him and his contacts, and if I did, I would have a meeting immediately with the Logan City Council Town Planning Manager Tod Rohl, who would steer me in the right direction.
After days of considering his advice, I advised my lawyer to withdraw the action, and on the 14 December I met with Todd Rohl at 9am in Logan City Council offices and later that day at 2.30pm, I met for the first time Councilor Luke Smith at a Garden City shopping center Cafe to discus the matter further.
At both these meetings the discussions revolved around reducing the buffer zone to allow some type of development and both Tod Rohl and Councilor Luke Smith kept on reiterating that I had as part of my existing approval, rights and approval to build a Industrial Park under Logan City Council MIBA being Mixed Industry Business Area. (MIBA) .
I kept on saying that I would be happy with the 450 meter buffer along the lines of what I had offered the previous year as this was the safest option inline with the Infectious disease reports that were lodged in Court.
At the meeting with Councilor Luke Smith, I asked for some type of letter acknowledging that we were in discussions to settle the matter, and on 20 December 2011 I received this letter.
A few days after these meetings, I received another letter, this time from the Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Strategy & Outcome, Mike Pickering, this letter was designed to make me feel good and point me away from Residential and move towards industrial.
The next meeting was 3 pm, 11 January 2012, in the offices of Councilor Luke Smith, where he reiterated that my existing DA would allow me to develop under the councils MIBA format of Mixed Industry Business Area, (MIBA), without lodging a new DA, but by just making a few applications and that it could be done in a few weeks.
I voiced my concerns about this, stating the, the surrounding Residential estates would surely object and I would be back to square one. He assured me this was not the case and called in one of the Town Planning officers who went to great lengths to agree with him.
But while we waited for the Town Planning officer, Councilor Luke Smith began telling us, that this situation was a total stuff up and fully the fault of the Logan City Council because, as he put it, when this specific area was handed over from the Gold Coast City council to the Logan City Council, they were unaware of what the Gold Coast City Council has done with the area. But I reminded him, that my applications was never applied for whilst in the Gold Coast City Council and it was the Logan City Council that advised me that they wanted Residential and not Industrial.
At this point I also queried how allowing a Mixed Industry Business Area, (MIBA) development was different to a residential development when considering the Health Risks of either living or working near a danger area such as Teys Bros Beenleigh.
Given the “High Risk” I kept on asking how can the Logan City Council allow workers to work in danger knowing the risk? And the answer kept coming back that workplace and home were different.
In any case, on the 25th January I received this letter, which confirmed my opinion that no one, in Logan City Council knew what they were doing. I love that after I had spent over $150,000 in fees to the Logan City Council assessing my application, they were now offering me a $5000 dollar discount. I thought that was very generous of them!
My friend immediately sent an email to Councilor Luke Smith and called Councilor Luke Smith, (transcript of conversation) (audio of Conversation) which further enhanced my opinion that they were inept and had no understanding what they were talking about or they were purposely leading me on.
On the 30th January 2012, I received the following letter from Deputy Chief Executive Officer, with a overall tone that any development would need to be a full new application that would require advertising and be subject to further objections.
March 2016 :It’s all over
This week on Wednesday 27 April 2016,
The courts declared myself bankrupt, Teys Bros now own the land.
I would like to thank, the now Mayor of Logan City, Luke Smith, for his ability to manipulate, lie and deceive me;
The Logan City team that handled my application and Todd Rohl, for being corrupt and manipulative spinless local government employees;
Teys Bros for their lies and arrogance and use of their power for corruption.
And finally Suncorp Bank for misleading and deceiving me.
Teys Australia 
As a long time resident of Logan City I find the attached situation very surprising. Our Mayor Pam Parker portrays Logan City as a very progressive City so she should personally address this matter as a matter of urgency. As for the Q-Fever matter this is a very serious illness and I was surprised when the original housing estate was given approval.
Tried that, no one cares.
Having experienced the internal working of Logan City Council. The problem is that there is a lot of incompetence by staff and the upper management is sort of a private club who would not accept any criticism. I think anyone who is trying to make sense of the Council’s action will be wasting their time. They seem like a Council from some other country and not an Australian Council. Also I found that no one really care on a state level so this behavior is just being encouraged by the lack of interest by residents and politicians.