It was no ordinary truck, with air conditioning units on the roof, and an equipment cabinet beneath the floor – was it an outside broadcast truck?

Photo by Enbytv, via Wikimedia Commons

But turns out it wasn’t – this barely readable logo on the side being the critical clue.

I eventually worked out that the ‘7’ was actually a stylised ‘V’, so the logo read ‘HatchTraveller’ – leading me to the website of a Dutch firm that specialises in chick hatching and transportation equipment.

They describe the trailer I saw as.

This extensive, high-capacity trailer is designed to meet the needs of larger poultry companies that already have a significant transportation need, or those looking to grow their business in the future.

Measuring almost 47 feet in length, the trailer is composed of nine sections. Together, these are able to accommodate up to 183,600 day-old chicks at any one time, making this one of the largest chick transportation systems available on the market. Having this additional square footage can allow poultry companies to consolidate their transport fleet: maximising the capacity of each trailer can result in fewer journeys, helping to reduce operations costs.

This HatchTraveller model is equipped with a hybrid power system as standard, which powers the trailer independently of the truck’s main fuel supply. We note that the charging range can be extended with the use of additional batteries.

So what was this “chick transportation system” doing in the back streets of Pakenham? The big unmarked warehouse down the road was probably why – run by chicken processor Ingham Enterprises.

Google Maps

So what does Inghams do in that warehouse? According to animal liberation groups it’s a chicken hatchery.

Footnote: so why was I there?

So why was I doing in the back streets of Pakenham?

It happens to be the same street that Ventura’s Pakenham bus depot is located on.

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Photo by Mattinbgn, via Wikimedia Commons

Called ‘Happy Hens Egg World’, from the highway an adventure playground with a massive slide towered above the surrounding trees, and inside the gates the ‘Big Egg’ was perched atop a visitors centre, from which tours of the egg farm could be taken.

Our family never actually paid a visit to Happy Hens – my parents knew someone who went on the tour and were disturbed by what a battery hen farm looks like from the inside, so they didn’t let us go in.

You might think that calling a battery hen farm ‘Happy Hens’ is just inviting trouble, and it did – by the 1990s activists from Animal Liberation Victoria were breaking into the complex on a regular basis and rescuing injured birds.

With all of that unwanted attention, the owners presumably realised that inviting tourists into a battery hen farm wasn’t good for business, and so the tourist complex was closed down. The massive slide was demolished soon after, but the large ‘Happy Hens’ sign on the highway is still there today, albeit repainted.

As for the trio of big hens sit outside the locked front gates, these were erected after the park closed, sometime between 2010 and 2013. So much for keeping a low profile!

Footnote

The ‘Big Egg’ was never visible above the treeline, but you can find a photo of it on the Wilkins Tourist Maps’ Australia’s Big Things webpage.

The massive slide at Happy Hens was originally located at Seagull Paddock in Geelong, a photo of the slide can be found on the KRock Facebook page.

Animal Liberation Victoria has been targeting Happy Hens for years – here is an article from 1998 detailing the arrest of an activist on trespassing charges, and by 2007 they had completed at least 23 rescue operations there.

And a 2022 update

You can now find “Happy Hens Egg Farms” eggs in supermarkets – it’s a brand of Moorabool Valley Eggs who operates the egg farm at Meredith.

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