Dirty Money Fails to Clean Up Community
Community volunteers in Bomaderry must hand back a hard-fought NSW government grant of $30,000 for safety improvements at their local dog park after Shoalhaven Council delayed approving the minor building work.
Meanwhile, Shoalhaven Starches (Manildra), the region’s largest private employer, quietly cut a $154,756 deal with Shoalhaven Council and the State as a penalty for the company's illegal railroad extension.
This story is about ordinary people getting royally screwed - by oblivious bureaucrats, big business, self-promoting politicians and an absent local media.
It is also a cautionary tale for the many well-meaning community advocates who give their time and energy in good faith, only to be stranded by a system built to fail the weak and empower the strong.
Kylie Knight explains how Bomaderry Community Inc. volunteers got shafted.
It all began as a modest, community-led initiative.
Bomaderry Community Inc. volunteers successfully applied back in 2023 to the Department of Communities and Justice for a $30,000 grant to enhance our 'Bomo Dog Bowl' off-leash dog park with shade and some signage about dog behaviour.
We celebrated receiving the funds in October 2024 and began the time-consuming job of arranging supplies, tradespeople and building works on the Shoalhaven Council land.
But, just as installation was about to begin, Shoalhaven Council’s new Community-Led Projects policy was launched.
Council actually adopted the new Community-Led Projects policy and guidelines back in December 2024, ostensibly to streamline the process for community volunteers to use local skill and motivation to improve their town's facilities.
It also needed to ensure Council was covered for and protected against liabilities.
“Construction and building works are high-risk by nature, so capturing information around resourcing, funding and scope from the very start will allow Council staff to advise applicants of the likelihood of a successful outcome and partner with them during the delivery phase,” Mayor Patricia White's statement read.
By July 2025 the online portal for the Community-Led Projects went live.
Council officers told Bomaderry Community volunteers that our simple, low-value works order would now have to follow a new process on the new platform.
We luckily halted a non-refundable deposit for construction, but months of delays followed and the State funding department last week refused our request for an extension on the deadline to use the grant.
So now, that money is gone.
That same week, a teenage girl in Singleton was tragically killed by her friend's dog, highlighting the importance of responsible dog ownership.
For context, Council's initial budget to finish the Berry dog park was $700,000. Yes, you read that right, $700,000.
So far, the Bomo Dog Bowl has cost less than $100,000 and now we've lost $30,000, for which volunteers worked hard to help make our park safer for both people and dogs.
But here's where it gets interesting.
While Bomaderry Community Inc. was forced to hand our modest funding back because of bureaucratic bumbling, just down the road, a billion-dollar corporation with a history of dangerous incidents and non-compliance paid its way out of illegal activity.
All while no-one was watching.
It's easier to seek forgiveness than permission.
In December 2024 Manildra (the parent company of Shoalhaven Starches) was caught building a 1.28 km rail extension without approval.
The work was significant and included an 850m train loop, 180m maintenance spur and a roof baghouse .
Instead of facing prosecution, the company signed an Enforceable Undertaking in June 2025, paying $154,756 in “contributions” to projects chosen by Council.
Then Manildra got on with business as usual.
According to NSW Planning:
“On 4 June 2025, NSW Planning accepted an Enforceable Undertaking from Shoalhaven Starches Pty Ltd … The modification was subsequently approved on 5 June 2025.”
So, one day Manildra was fined for illegal works and the very next day that construction was approved.
Moneyed-up folks love to joke that it's easier to seek forgiveness than permission, but it's not so simple for non-profits and community volunteers.
Perhaps Manildra and its government handlers need some safety signage to help with their Act Now, Ask Later habits. Well-trained and socialised dogs at the park have better behaviour.
Safety standards at the Shoalhaven Starches plant were brought under public scrutiny earlier this year when the ABC obtained information from SafeWork NSW, under Freedom of Information, detailing 55 dangerous incidents from 2020 to 2024, and 31 serious injuries in the same period.
ABC Illawarra's Romy Gilbert reported in February that Workplace Health and Safety Minister Sophie Cotsis said SafeWork NSW "had increased monitoring of the company's operations, including a strategy to secure sustained improvement in the work health and safety compliance, performance and culture at the Manildra Group."
"We'll throw the book at anyone doing the wrong thing. No company is above the law," Ms Cotsis said.
AAnalysis by Ange Lavoipierre
Manildra, one of Australia's largest political donors, previously came to grief over undeclared conflicts of interest.
In 2018 the company was fined $107,000 for failing to disclose some donations made during planning applications.
Manildra is no stranger to political lobbying. Before new ethanol laws were introduced in 2018, Manildra secured 20 meetings with government ministers and donated $160,000 to the Coalition.
Manildra's 2025 penalty money for the premature rail construction was funnelled into a few specific community projects quickly chosen by Council, without community input.
Demanding Manildra pay to improve Bomaderry makes good sense, of course. But our community was not told about Manildra's error or the Enforceable Undertaking — I recently stumbled across it on a government website.
The correspondence, buried in the NSW Planning platform, suggests a repackaging of the fines as gifts, and no needy community group would turn down such an opportunity.
Shoalhaven Landcare accepted the offer of funding in a letter on April 24, 2025:
"Shoalhaven Landcare Association does not approve of Shoalhaven Starches' contravention, however, acknowledges the positive outcome that may result from an enforceable undertaking beinq entered into between the Department and Shoalhaven Starches with Shoalhaven Landcare Association being a beneficiary"
Local media either didn't know about the Manildra fines or chose not to report it.
Without local reporting, the bonds between bureaucracy, business and politicians remain secure, as they rely on the public being ignorant about the true motives, profit and partnerships behind marketing spin.
If there had been any public communication, maybe our humble project to enhance the Bomo Dog Bowl would not have gone belly-up.
Manildra's misdemeanour winners are:
- Reid Park Upgrade in Bomaderry: $31,275
This Manildra payment boosted a park upgrade plan that had already received $32,000 in the NSW Government Local Small Communities Allocation. On April 1 this year, Gareth Ward MP and Mayor Patricia White publicly celebrated achieving this grant with a press release and a tone-deaf photo op on the swings. But the park's upgrade was actually among hundreds of projects across 93 NSW councils nominated before March 2023 to fund works for completion by July 2026. Local mothers have long called for nature and creative-play facilities, but the equipment budget was reached without talking to the people who would use it. - Tree planting along Manildra’s own boundary: $68,481.86
Our community asked for flowering trees at Bomaderry’s gateways, something festive to bring cheer and pride to a town without any 'Welcome to Bomaderry' sign. Instead, Manildra's penalty payment provided new 'screening plants' along the boundary of their own operation, to replace dead trees in landscaping that the company was previously obliged in development approvals to provide. - Shoalhaven Landcare Association: $30,000
Money for the Riverwatch Oyster Reef Project is nice, but that activity is miles from the site of the company's actual breach. - Bomaderry Creek Weed Control and Revegetation Project: $25,000
This money effectively pays Council to complete usual chemical spraying and replanting work, conveniently keeping the fine payment in-house.
Bomaderry is struggling.
Its main street is marked by broken footpaths, a decaying shopping plaza, rail land choked with weeds, and green space left uninsured.
Volunteers chip away at the neglect with what little they have but, unlike Berry, Bomaderry isn’t bestowed with luxuries.
And yet this is the transport terminus for Shoalhaven, the entry point for visitors, and home to one of the region’s biggest companies.
That scale of presence should bring investment and safety. Instead, it brings industrial bloat, political spin, and public disdain.
Bomaderry contributes like every other town in the Shoalhaven, but it gets less care, less investment, and less respect.
Bomaderry Community Inc. is a group of local people working to make small ideas reality. We’re volunteers willing to act because we are tired of waiting interminably for government to listen to us.
When volunteers do everything right, they still lose out. But when big business does the wrong thing, it just buys its way out.
We don't expect that much.
We are asking the Department of Communities and Justice to reinstate our $30,000 grant for improvements at Bomo Dog Bowl. That will take months or years, if it happens at all.
Perhaps Manildra could replace our lost funds as a genuine contribution to community wellbeing alongside the company's acknowledgement of their error?
We'd like Kiama MP, Katelin McInerney, to connect with us in Bomaderry and to prove she stands with integrity and for all the people who live in her electorate.
We are community volunteers, but we are not stupid and we don't have time to waste deciphering corporate secrets or detangling bureaucratic red tape.
When mistakes happen or systems change, we need clear and honest communication from the people holding the purse strings.
