Keeping of Poultry
The Health Service receives many calls regarding the keeping of poultry and other animals and has developed a brochure, available for download, to address these issues.
Keeping of Animals and Birds (pdf)
The Shire of Mundaring Health Local Laws 2003 provide some guidance on how to keep poultry in such a way does not cause a nuisance or unduly disturb neighbours.
On land that is not zoned general rural, there are some basic condition with regards to the keeping of poultry, these include:
Keeping of Roosters and Peafowl
Due to the noise issues surrounding the keeping of roosters and peafowl, these are carefully controlled so as to minimise any disturbance.
On land that is zoned residential, it is only possible to keep a rooster or a peafowl if the resident makes application to the Shire of Mundaring and complies with any conditions that the Shire of Mundaring sees appropriate as part of the approval. Should ongoing complaints be received concerning the rooster the resident may be asked to remove it from the property and the approval cancelled.
Applications to keep a rooster can be found in Related Links located right.
Guidelines for the Keeping of Roosters on Residential Zoned Land
The Shire of Mundaring has amended the Health Local Laws 2003 in order to provide the ability to allow the keeping of roosters or peafowl’s on residential zoned land. This is subject to the approval of, and under conditions stipulated by the Principal Environmental Health Officer.
An application to ‘Keep Roosters or Peafowl’s on Residential Zoned Land’ must be completed and submitted to Council’s Health Service and approval granted prior to the keeping of roosters or peafowl’s.
As the principal source of annoyance or noise nuisance associated with keeping of roosters is due to the early morning crowing it is essential that the issue be addressed prior to lodging an application.
In order to consider an application for the keeping of roosters or peafowl’s the applicant must be able to satisfy the following requirements;
1. A maximum of two roosters can be kept.
2. Roosters must be kept in a housing that has been designed to reduce noise emissions.
3. Roosters must be housed in a small box or similar (itself within the housing described above) overnight to eliminate any light intrusion and restrict neck movements in order to prevent early morning crowing.
4. The enclosure must be positioned suitably on the property so as to maximize noise attenuation.
5. Any noise generated from the keeping of roosters must comply with the requirements of the Environmental Protection (Noise) Regulations 1997 (the Regulations). An approval can be revoked at any time if noise generated by roosters does not comply with the requirements of the Regulations.
6. Alternative methods of noise attenuation of any roosters will be considered, however it is the applicant’s responsibility to demonstrate the effectiveness of any such measures.
It is the responsibility of the applicant to demonstrate how the above requirements will be achieved. Once the application is submitted a site assessment of the property and enclosure will be conducted prior to an approval being granted.
Please be advised that if you’re making application as a result of a complaint associated with the keeping of roosters you will need to lodge the application and have satisfied the requirements listed above within 2 weeks from the date that Council’s Health Service requests that you either remove the rooster/s or make application to keep the rooster/s. Failure to make application within this time period will result in Council’s Health Service directing you to remove the rooster/s from your property.
Should you require any assistance or further information regarding the keeping of roosters on residential zoned land, please do not hesitate to contact Council’s Health Service by telephoning 9290 6666.