Western Victorian farm charged after 2022 death

A farm company near Ararat will face court after a local farmer was killed attempting to unload a bulk seed bag almost two years ago.

A western Victorian farm company will face court after it was charged following the death of a local farmer two years ago.

Price Agricultural Pty Ltd, located at Crowlands, about 20km northeast of Ararat, has been charged by WorkSafe Victoria with a single count of failing to ensure that a workplace under its management and control was safe and without risks to health.

WorkSafe Victoria has alleged Price Agricultural failed to eliminate or reduce the risk of serious injury or death to persons positioned underneath suspended bulka bags at the workplace.

In May 2022, 54-year-old local farmer Damien Browne was killed at a Buangor-Ben Nevis Rd property.

At the time he was a customer of Price Agricultural Pty Ltd, and was using the company’s telehandler to unload seed oats from a bulka bag into a grouper bin on his truck when the bag fell from the telehandler’s tynes and fatally crushed him, WorkSafe Victoria said.

Company documents show Crowlands-based Hayden and Josephine Price are the shareholders and directors of Price Agricultural Pty Ltd.

The matter is listed for a filing hearing in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, May 14.