Macadamia grower Saratoga Holdings Pty Ltd sentenced in Bundaberg court

The world’s largest macadamia grower has been sentenced over a series of safety breaches which left workers with serious injuries.

Phil Zadro, the owner of Hinkler Park Plantations, which has plantations in Bundaberg, Childers, Moore Park, Mt Bauple, Emerald, New South Wales and Africa.

Farm workers, including backpackers on a working holiday in Australia in 2018, received horrific injuries to their arms while operating heavy machinery on a plantation owned by the world’s largest macadamia grower.

Saratoga Holdings Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court to three breaches of its health and safety duties and failing to ensure the regulator was notified of a notifiable incident.

The company, owned by Phil Zadro, is considered to be the biggest of its kind, with plantations in Bundaberg, Childers, Moore Park, Mt Bauple, Emerald, New South Wales and South Africa.

A reserved sentencing was handed down on Wednesday by Magistrate Trinity McGarvie who described the facts as “troubling and serious”.

The court heard the significant large-scale farming business employed a large workforce of often unskilled, young workers.

“And sometimes, as was the case in this offending, backpackers from overseas on a working holiday adventure engaging in physical labour that is not their normal employment at home and which they might be viewed as novices,” Ms McGarvie said.

News 9.5.14 Aus. Macadamia nut trees at Hinkler Park Plantations, worlds largest Macadamia nut produce owned by Saratoga Holdings. Pic John Wilson. Aus use only fee applies other mastheads.

The most serious incident occurred at Gordon’s Farm, Alloway on 27th August 2018, when Ivan Rollings was operating a tractor with large metal blades on the skirter when the tractor collided with an ATV being operated by British backpacker Liam Downer, now 28.

Horrifically, Mr Downer’s left forearm was amputated during the collision, and he also sustained scarring to his leg trying to salvage his arm.

Mr Downer was 25 at the time and had worked as a dental technician in the UK after completing his apprenticeship in the field.

“For him the consequences of this were severe,” Ms McGarvie said.

“He believes he will never be able to return to his field of expertise and has had to relearn basic day-to-day tasks such as opening jars and dressing.

“He describes struggling occasionally with motivation, sleeplessness and worry.

“I accept that what he describes as the consequences of his injury on him are an accurate reflection of the trauma that he suffered.”

Workplace Health and Safety investigated the incident and concluded that Saratoga Holdings failed to adequately manage the risks arising from the use of the skirter and to communicate that risk to workers and as a result, exposed the individual to risk of serious death or injury.

Magistrate McGarvie told the court Saratoga also failed to instruct its employees to adequately maintain an exclusion zone around the tractor when it was performing the skirting operation.

“Mr Downer was not fully aware of where the tractor was operating when he crashed the ATV into the tractor,” she said.

“It failed to supervise and train employees to ensure all of the work was carried out safely.”

Saratoga Holdings CEO Peter Zadro leaves the Bundaberg Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to failing to comply with health and safety duty on December 3, 2021.

The next complaint was between July 22, 2018 and August 27, 2018 Saratoga further breached section 32 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act when it failed to to ensure the health and safety of its workers, and that it exposed an individual to a risk of death or serious injury.

Employees were using a tractor with a woodchipper attached to mulch branches that had earlier been removed from the macadamia trees and enabled the clippings to be spread back under them.

Earl Randall, who was driving the tractor forward between trees, asked workers to pick up the branches and feed them into the chipper as it was pushed slowly towards them, rather than staying stationary.

If there were too many logs being processed at one time, workers had to run around the side of the tractor and tell the supervisor to stop the tractor until they cleared the area.

“Doing this risked the safety of workers falling into the chipper or under it when they were reaching forward to insert branches while it was moving,” Ms McGarvie said.

The third breach occurred on August 3 2018, when Saratoga Holdings further exposed an individual to risk of serious death or injury.

Earl Yandall was again working on the woodchipper when he was engaged in changing blades on the internal mechanism of the woodchipper with Yacob Dams, another British backpacker on a working holiday in Australia.

Despite the fact that they were working with a significant piece of industrial machinery with heavy metal blades, Mr Dams was not wearing gloves.

He watched Mr Randall change three blades and was then instructed to spin the drum so the next blade could be changed.

Mr Dams reached out to slow the spinning rotation of the disc in the chipper with his bare hand when he got the finger of his left hand caught between the blades and metal casing.

He suffered lacerations to his left and middle index finger, including cuts to his tendons.

The court heard Mr Dams was previously a Manager at a McDonalds in the UK and was 25 at the time of the incident.

“He was amazed he was asked to assist with the task of changing the blades as he had no experience of farm work,” Ms McGarvie said.

“Mr Dams says that while his finger scars healed, he still could not, as of August 2019, form a fist with his left hand and still suffers sharp pains every now and again.”

The final complaint was that the defendant hadn’t notified the regulator of Mr Dams’ injury, although it was a serious incident and as a result, notifiable.

News 9.5.14 Aus. Macadamia nut trees at Hinkler Park Plantations, worlds largest Macadamia nut produce owned by Saratoga Holdings. Pic John Wilson. Aus use only fee applies other mastheads.

Ms McGarvie told the court workers were not adequately trained and supervised in relation to the risks of the plant.

“Workers were not properly inducted or trained in woodchipping tasks, they were simply shown an induction video featuring the woodchipper which was not how it operates in practice,” she said.

“Mr Dams was given no training instruction or supervision in the changing of blades in the woodchipper and Mr Downer did not receive any formal training in relation to the ATV. He did not even watch the defendant’s instruction DVD on using an ATV or complete a quad bike questionnaire.

“The elements of the training program should include an assessment of the employees competency and review at least once a year. This was not complied with.

“The defendant has entered early pleas of guilty and has taken considerable steps since these offences came to light to correct its workplace practices.

“I accept that the defendant now takes its obligations to secure employee safety seriously, however, it should already have been aware of its primary duty under the Workplace Health and Safety Act.

“It should have been aware that that duty was a serious one.”

Saratoga Holdings was fined $410,000 for all four offences.

Magistrate McGarvie added Saratoga Holdings had a prior conviction for strikingly similar offending where the court exercised its discretion to not record a conviction at the time.

As a result of most recent breaches, a conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Macadamia grower Saratoga Holdings Pty Ltd sentenced in Bundaberg court