Livestock and farm animals

Council's Local Law Department is responsible for ensuring requirements are met by owners under both the Impounding of Livestock Act 1994 and relevant sections of the General Local Law 2020.

All livestock must be kept in a way that is adequate and appropriate for the type and numbers of animals being housed, maintained in a sanitary and inoffensive condition, protects adjoining properties unreasonable animal noise dust and odour and prevents escape of the animal from the property to which they belong.

Any person wishing to keep livestock on a property under 8 ha (19.66 acres) may require a Local Law – Keeping Excess Animals Application Form which is required to be renewed annually. Please check with Council if you are unsure if you require a permit.

Wandering stock can cause a nuisance to neighbours, particularly where livestock wander into breeding or young herds. Even more importantly, producers or owners of stock need to ensure stock does not wander onto roads where they can create a serious road safety issue.

It is also fact that wandering livestock have been known to cause fatal vehicle accidents. Severe on the spot penalties apply to owners of livestock that wander on roads or trespass on private land.

To report wandering livestock on any road, throughout the Municipality, please contact us. Council will attend livestock wandering on any of its roads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is important to note Council will only attend to wandering livestock on a Council managed road.

Roads that are managed by VicRoads are not under the management of Council and will not be attended to by Council Ranger. To report stock wandering on a VicRoads managed road, please call 131 170. A list of VicRoads managed roads is below:

Calder Freeway
Castlemaine-Maldon Road
Creswick-Newstead Road
Daylesford-Newstead Road
Maldon-Bendigo Road
Maldon Bridgewater Road
Maldon-Newstead Road
Midland Highway
Old Calder Highway
Pyrenees Highway