It was a particularly smelly situation that roused the mayor Stuart Freudenstein on a Monday night only to find himself taking a torchlit tour of the Victoria Street tip.

But there he was, intent on pacifying a local resident whose night of char-grilled pleasure had been cut short by a mysterious stink. Inside the house, the resident’s daughter ran around spraying perfume and sniffing garbage bins in a bid to isolate the offender.

But the offender, they discovered, was outside and over the road. Two dead bovines, dumped at the tip, had not been covered as required.

Council’s planning, environment and strategic services director Craig Filmer admitted there had been a misunderstanding around the disposal of the animals.

The cattle had been aboard the b-double that crashed at Bendick Murrell on January 22. While 20 had been put down and thrown to the tip’s offal pit that day, two other beasts were put down the following day.

It was these two that ended up laying uncovered at the tip, rotting in the hot sun. Westerly winds conspired with the heat to douse one resident’s attempts to barbeque with the smell of cow carcass.

Mr Filmer said the moment the oversight was realized, the cows were buried along with the contents of half a dozen bags of lime.

“It was just a case of when these animals came in, it was the tip operator’s day off and the message didn’t get through to the substitute worker that the animals had to be covered,” Mr Filmer said.

But the situation didn’t end with Tuesday’s burial of the beasts, as another of the tip’s rubbish piles was left uncovered and a dead dog was left laying on a boundary fence, as it had for weeks. Both oversights were exacerbated by the extreme weather. 

Mr Filmer said despite the fact 95 per cent of waste was transported to Jugiong Transfer Station, council had retained the licence to landfill and , during the Christmas break, a small amount of rubbish excess that usually went to Jugiong was placed in a custom-made trench but was unfortunately left uncovered.

“It was just a case of the workers not keeping up with their daily maintenance,” Mr Filmer said.

He said that efforts had been made to ensure that windblown litter does not escape the facility with a taller and tighter mesh fence installed on the western boundary some months ago.

“And we regularly send the men and the site contractors out on emu bobs to pick any rubbish that has escaped,” he said.

“But the upshot is that if there is a problem they should call council – all our numbers are on the website and our cards are down at the council chambers – so let us know,” he said.

The mayor Stuart Freudenstein knew nothing of the dead dog – but, by the time The Witness arrived at the tip to take a photo on Wednesday, it had been moved.

The rubbish woes didn’t end there for Mr Filmer, who got more than he bargained for at the Murringo and Monteagle Transfer stations.

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