A rescission motion has been submitted within 24 hours of one of the most contentious meetings of Hay Shire Council last Thursday when a Development Application (DA) for an unmanned fuel station was approved.

Mayor, Carol Oataway exercised her right to cast an additional vote when the decision was tied at three all, and thereby approved the application.

This caused the well-packed gallery to erupt in disgust, disappointment and disbelieve.

Some South Hay residents yelled profanities, aimed at the councillors and to the mayor in particular.

The emotional outbreak escalated outside the Council Chambers where the General Manager was threatened.

The DA by bulk diesel supplier, IOR was refused by Council at its June meeting this year, following strong opposition from neighbouring residents, but came back with amendments to improve the aesthetics and safety of the site on Moama Street.

Earlier in the meeting Council heard from South Hay resident and business owner, Tony Domaille who said his main concern was safety.

“There have been so many near misses from trucks on this road, it’s unbelievable,” Mr Domaille said.

“The turn-off into this thing (unmanned fuel station) has to be four lanes big and needs to be of concrete.

“Trucks don’t just pull into a road; they twist and they turn to get on an access road. There will be 30 trucks minimum turning in there each day.

“IOR brings nothing to Hay’s economy. We owe them nothing and I ask Council to vote against the application.”

A further speaker, Julie Lawrence, reminded Council that an approval was in direct breach of its own fundamental values.

“At the commencement of a councillor’s term on council, they have to read a creed and acknowledge that they will uphold council values,” Ms Lawrence said in her address.

“These values are Vision where people are resilient, healthy, safe, living together with a strong sense of community in a vibrant and prosperous economy.

“The second value is the Mission statement where a progressive rural council is committed to caring for the welfare of its community, protecting and enhancing the environment, building a climate that encourage opportunity for all, managing the council’s resources in an open and accountable manner consistent with the principles of value for money and equity.

“Thirdly are the corporate values where it states the council will deliver integrity, openness, responsiveness and quality of service. It will consult with community and be guided by their wishes.

“So I appeal to all involved in this decision-making to remember the creed they took and not to breach Council values.

“After two previous refusals to this proposal, the substantial corporate pitch by IOR of this latest review is overwhelming with pages and pages of information all painting a picture of harmony – with all the noise, dust, traffic safety, lightning, environmental, devaluation of property, health and contamination of waterways issues all being answered with misconceptions and brush-offs.”

The third speaker, Sharon Hicks, said a standard heavy vehicle in Australia was 4.3m high, with a double deck animal transport vehicle being 4.5m high.

“So the fences are half the height of a truck,” she said.

“Also, no fence surrounding the site is going to reduce or stop the noise from the constant braking and gear shifting of heavy trucks when they are preparing to enter University Road or the ramping up and accelerating when leaving University Road entering Moama Street.

“Yes, there is constant traffic hum on Moama Street currently but it’s a regular even hum, not constant changing noises from braking and accelerating.

“There are two car parking spaces – what measures are being put in place to stop a third or fourth truck from entering the premises?

“Are they going to have signs stating ‘sorry, we can’t service you, we are full’?

“If so, these signs need to be 500m away from the site on Moama street or otherwise the likelihood of a traffic jam, with nowhere to manoeuvre on University road, is quite probable. What happens when a refuelling truck is on premises, does this mean that only one further truck can enter the premises, how are potential customers going to be notified of this?

“The overall maximum length of a B-Triple is 36.5m. The distance from the middle of the Sturt Highway (only a dual lane highway) to the proposed entrance is 54m. Each full trailer is 14.63m long and 2.5m wide.

“University Road is only 6m wide. I may not be a physics expert, but it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to work out that manoeuvring such a large piece of equipment such as a B-Triple to enter the proposed entrance is not going to be an easy task within the above measurements.”

Key amendments to the layout of the proposed site on Moama Street include a new 2.4m high acoustic fence internal to site screening the refuelling areas, 2m high screening fences to the highway frontage and increasing the landscaping and quantity of mature tree screening to the highway frontage.

There is also additional supporting material from a lighting consultant to deploy a dimming strategy during potential curfew, and 3D renders.

Councillors who voted in favour of the development, Crs Perry, Chapman and Oataway, said they did so for fear of litigation should IOR take Hay Shire Council to the Land and Environment Court if the application was refused.

Those who voted against the application were Cr Will Miller who reminded councillors the development does not fit Council’s mission statement, Cr Lionel Garner who said the development did not benefit the town whatsoever and Cr Paul Porter.

“We have a duty of care to our community, some have lived here for generations,” Cr Porter said.

Cr Tapper declared a pecuniary interest as an adjoining landholder and did not take part in discussions, and Cr Quinn was absent on leave.

General Manager, David Webb has confirmed the rescission motion will be considered at the December meeting.

See letters to the editor in the issue.
This article appeared in The Riverine Grazier, 3 December 2025.