Cattle battle leaves grazier still feeling jerky-d around
A GRAZIER has had a setback involving a legal battle over 23 cattle.
Wyandra cattle producer Andrew Edwards took his claim over unbranded cattle to the state’s highest court.
In October, Queensland Court of Appeal heard the animals were moved from a station near Charleville to Roma.
An agent took them during a January 2016 muster at Elverston, next to Mr Edwards’s property.
Other parties including police observed the muster.
But Mr Edwards was only told two or three days before the muster, and was not there.
Disputes with three other farmers emerged over the animals’ ownership and for nearly eight months, police kept the cattle.
Then a magistrate could not be satisfied who owned the animals, and ordered they be sold.
Roma District Court later dismissed an appeal against that magistrate’s decision.
Mr Edwards told the appeal court that farmers who claimed proceeds from selling the cattle should go to charity had no right to do so.
He said the Roma magistrate erred in not allowing cross-examination to establish who actually owned the cattle.
In a judgment published this week, the appeal court dismissed Mr Edward’s case and ordered him to pay costs.
It said the district court “clearly informed” Mr Edwards of “extremely limited prospects of success for an appeal”.
The appeal court said Mr Edwards did not identify specific errors in the district court judge’s reasoning, with one possible exception.
That “possible exception” involved Mr Edwards’s contention the value of the cattle was above the $25,000 limit for minor civil disputes.
On Tuesday, Mr Edwards said his appeal was in the public interest and he still had concerns about how the cattle were moved and sold.
Mr Edwards said he was considering his legal options.
He said he had already written to the police commissioner with concerns about officers involved in the muster.
“I can go to the High Court but I need to seek special leave. I just wonder whether it’s a waste of time, the court system.”
“I just don’t know how to get around them at the minute.”
–NewsRegional