Dicky Bill Australia — a respected family-run producer of baby leaf salads and an important employer in Maffra — has ceased operations and entered voluntary administration after what its directors describe as a sudden and devastating decision by landlord Warakirri Asset Management.
The business, which employs 182 staff across its Maffra (Victoria) and Drinan (Queensland) farms, has supplied fresh, triple-washed salad mixes for more than 25 years. Founded in 1996 by Richard William “Dicky Bill” and Kaye Barnard, it has been operated in recent years by their son Ryan McLeod and his wife Tahirih.
McLeod said the Maffra workforce — many long-serving and tightly connected to the local community — now face immediate unemployment after Warakirri terminated leases on both farms last Wednesday. The decision, he said, came without warning and only hours after Warakirri had requested more time to consider a restructure proposal backed by the business’s secured lender, Judo Bank.
The company had been working for months on a plan designed to preserve jobs, protect employee entitlements, repay creditors and return the Maffra operation to long-term sustainability.
McLeod said the debt owed to Warakirri — approximately $330,000 in rent arrears — was “modest” and that a negotiated solution had seemed close.
“This is our family business. For months we worked side by side with professional advisers to put forward a plan that everyone could live with. We genuinely believed we were close to a solution that protected our people and our community,” McLeod said.
“Warakirri told us they needed more time — less than an hour later they sent termination notices. By dawn the next day our team were being turned away at the gates.”
He said Warakirri has taken possession of crops valued at about $2 million — produce that would otherwise have funded employee entitlements and creditor payments — and expressed concern about its deterioration.
“Many of our people have mortgages, young families and deep ties to the community. They deserve better than to be told, without warning, they no longer had a job,” McLeod said.
With the farms locked and staff removed, the directors say they were left with no choice but to appoint a voluntary administrator. They thanked employees, suppliers and supporters in Maffra and beyond.
