A devastating workplace accident on a South Australian poultry farm has left a worker with a life-altering injury and triggered criminal health and safety charges against the property’s retired former owner, in a case that has reignited debates over workplace safety accountability across regional Australian agricultural operations.
The incident unfolded on April 22, 2024, at Hillier Poultry, a farm located near the regional town of Gawler, roughly an hour north of Adelaide. According to official allegations filed by Safe Work SA, the state’s workplace safety regulator, the injured worker was carrying out routine cleaning of the outlet at the base of a stationary feed mixer when the machinery unexpectedly powered on. The worker’s left forearm became caught in the equipment’s internal auger, leading to an immediate traumatic partial amputation before emergency responders could extract him.
Safe Work SA has brought charges against both the Hillier Poultry business and its 78-year-old former owner Ashley Duffield, who sold the operation and retired shortly before the incident. The regulator alleges that Duffield failed in his legal duty to maintain safe operating conditions for on-site workers. Specifically, the charges claim he neglected to implement safe machinery protocols, did not conduct adequate hazard identification and risk assessments for the feed mixer, and failed to provide sufficient safety training, information and on-site supervision to prevent such an accident.
Duffield is charged with a Category 2 offense under Section 32 of South Australia’s Work Health and Safety Act 2012, which carries significant legal penalties for breaches of duty that expose workers to serious risk of harm. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance at the South Australian Employment Court on May 21 to answer the charges.
In an interview with NewsWire, Duffield has forcefully rejected the allegations, saying he will vigorously contest every charge in court. The retired farmer, who says he never had a single workplace safety incident across decades of operating the business, argues the accident was the result of workers failing to follow the clear safety protocols he had already put in place. He explained that his mandatory training required all workers to disconnect the feed mixer from its power source before any cleaning or maintenance work, a rule that was not followed on the day of the incident. According to Duffield’s account of the accident, one worker was inside cleaning the machine while a second colleague, unaware his co-worker was in the equipment, accidentally switched the power back on.
“It do not think it is fair to be charging me as I do not consider myself to be involved in causing the accident,” Duffield said in the interview, adding that he had always prioritized worker welfare and that the incident had already caused severe, lasting disruption to the business before his retirement.
The case comes as Australian agricultural industry groups continue to grapple with high rates of workplace injury in the sector, with regulators repeatedly calling for stricter proactive safety measures on small and medium-sized regional farms to prevent preventable traumatic accidents.