The town of Aberdeen in New South Wales has a problem. There's a terrible smell around.


PENNY ANDERSON: It's not the scenery, it's the smell that has everyone talking. The Walfertan Tannery has for years promised residents it'll clean up the smell and the site.

MALE: People still obviously want to live in Aberdeen and, frankly, Aberdeen is a very nice site for a town, if it didn't smell.

PENNY ANDERSON: Last year the company was forced to clean out these effluent ponds after complaints from locals.

The Department of Environment and Conservation fined Walfertan $1,500 for offensive odours. But less than a year later, the smell is back, and it's as bad as ever.

TOM O'CONNELL, ABERDEEN ACTION GROUP: People here around the town say it just hangs in your mouth, you taste it for days after, that's about it, and you can never get used to it.

GRAHAME CLARKE, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION: The main concerns at the moment are addressing the odour issues. That is clearly the issue which is giving the community the most concerns. We have also got concerns about just general effluent management on the site.

PENNY ANDERSON: The State Government has recently placed new conditions on the company's licence. Walfertan says it's prepared to spend more than a million dollars to meet the new regulations.

MATTHEW McINNES: Odour control is not an easy thing, it's not a buy-off-the-shelf piece of equipment. It needs to be designed and custom-made for us.

PENNY ANDERSON: Both the council and residents have complained that the Government has been dragging its feet on this issue, but the Government now insists it means business.

GRAHAME CLARKE: In terms of its odour control technology, I mean it's a long way to go yet.

MATTHEW McINNES: The company has some work to do to reach the standards that Australia are going to apply. I don't know where Australian standards necessarily fall relative to world standards.

GRAHAME CLARKE: Walfertan have made a commitment to undertake the work. We can only take that on face value and can only enforce it through the licence conditions if necessary.

PENNY ANDERSON: The company argues it is making a real effort to fix the problems.
Tom O'Connell believes the only solution left is to move the tannery.

TOM O'CONNELL: It retards the town, devalues the town and the result is we're not growing like our neighbour towns, Muswellbrook or Scone, at all where there's a big demand for development, and we're not getting it.

PENNY ANDERSON: Mayor Barry Rose says if promises can't be kept, then closing the tannery is a real possibility.

BARRY ROSE: Aberdeen, I think, has gone through a situation where it lost 400-odd jobs when the meat works closed. The world didn't end. And if the worst-case scenario evolved where the tannery was to close in two or three years time and 40 jobs were lost, then that would be a tragedy for the people who lost their jobs, but it may well come to that. I hope it doesn't, frankly, but it may well come to that.