All poultry farms are classed as “Intensive Livestock Agriculture” under planning legislation in NSW. This includes small scale mobile poultry operations.

While this is often a big, and uncomfortable, surprise for people looking establish a poultry farm it’s important to understand that this is a legal definition, intended to create certainty about the permissibility of proposals and the requirements for consent. It doesn’t necessarily align with the everyday use of the words.

This means that your proposed poultry enterprise generally requires approval the local council which is typically the consent authority and a development application (DA) will be needed. For most local councils, a DA will be required for poultry production including any structures, even if the structure is movable (such as a mobile shed).

While applications should be assessed on the risk posed by the planned operation many council officers will have never seen an application of your type before. It’s important to provide adequate detail and address all potential risks identified in environmental codes for poultry operations. These include odour, dust, noise, traffic and nutrient management. As a small-scale free range producer you may consider these risks don’t apply however delays may occur until all details are provided related to all issues. My advice is to list all issues, even if you consider the risk is nil or negligible, and state this with the reason why this is your assessment.

To help you and councils work through the Development Application process, I&I NSW has a 25 page booklet Preparing a development application for intensive agriculture in NSW.

The Getting Started in Free Range Poultry also provides information about planning and legislative requirements that apply.