Phat Wag owners Jocelyn, Selwyn Maller move Goomeri shop plan to Murgon

A couple planning to open a Wagyu beef butchery in the western reaches of the Gympie region have announced a major change of plan.

Plans to open a Wagyu beef butchery at Goomeri have taken a twist with the owners revealing a significant part of their project will now be built further west instead.

Almost a year after Phat Wag owners Selwyn and Jocelyn Maller announced their plans to open a shop at Moore St in Goomeri, the couple has announced a major part of the project will now be based in Murgon.

This included a cold room and processing room originally intended to be added to the Moore St business.

The Gympie Times has been told this would have created about 20 jobs.

Mr Maller said the Moore St shop was still in the pipeline but only as a retail store.

“The plan is to do the processing in Murgon … with retail in Goomeri,” he said.

Phat Wag owners Jocelyn and Selwyn Maller have revealed plans to open a butchers in Goomeri complete with cold room and processing area have been changed, with the Goomeri shop to now be a retail outlet and the main processing now to be done at Murgon.

A Facebook post in June 2022 cited the “same old stand still with rules and regulation” at the Goomeri shop “so we‘ve decided to opt for a second location”.

Mr Maller said on Monday the process had unfortunately dragged on due to “slowness” from Gympie Regional Council and “a lack of action”.

“I can’t believe how slow all this moves,” he said.

A Gympie council spokesman said the Mallers’ application was processed in a timely manner.

“(The) council is aware of this matter and understand the frustration which can occur in these situations,” he said.

“Currently, council is experiencing an inordinate amount of applications.

“All legislative time requirements were met with this specific matter.

“It also required third party approval (from the Department of Transport and Main Roads).

“Council would like to reinforce that wait times on DAs maybe longer than applicants anticipate as we work through the large amount we have.”

The Mallers lodged their application in August 2021.

In December they were given approval, with two dozen conditions attached.

The Phat Wag will be a retail butchery at Goomeri, with a planned cold room and processing area to be built at Murgon instead.

Mr Maller said the Moore St shop would now only be refurbished instead of expanded.

There was no exact time frame for when this would happen though.

Another hurdle was getting tradesmen in to do the work, given the impact of the 2022 floods and the domino effect they had on the industry.

Mr Maller said progress had been put on hold while they negotiated the purchase of the Murgon site.

“We’re going as quick as we can,” he said.