Major centres of chicken meat production have therefore developed adjacent to the major capital cities, although the industry is becoming more regionalised as those areas become increasingly urbanised.

Poultry processing plants, together with all the other component activities in areas in an integrated operation, have developed in proximity to markets and a ready source of labour. Many of the largest operations are established in, or within a 50km radius of capital cities. The obvious advantages are in distribution costs associated with transport of the end product, labour availability and services.

Hand-in-hand with the siting and location of poultry processing plants is the siting and location of chicken grow-out farms. Processing companies, be they totally integrated or independent processors, prefer the meat chicken growing farms that supply them to be located relatively close to the processing plant - preferably within about a 100km radius, or two hours travelling time, of the plant. As with any farming operation, certain factors are desirable, if not essential:

• proximity to a feed mill;
• guaranteed water supply;
• guaranteed supply of electric power (preferably three phase);
• accessibility to heavy transport, realising the need for access for both fully laden feed trucks and live poultry haulage vehicles;
• availability of a source of labour, depending on farm size; and
• availability of other services such as tradesmen, servicemen and veterinarians.

Major centres of chicken meat production have therefore developed adjacent to the major capital cities, although the industry is becoming more regionalised as those areas become increasingly urbanised. Major areas of meat chicken growing are:

• outskirts of the Sydney metropolitan area, MangroveMountain / central coast, Newcastle, Tamworth and Griffith areas of NSW;
• RedlandBay south of Brisbane, and other areas to the south, south west and north of Brisbane in Queensland;
• MorningtonPeninsula, east of Melbourne, and Geelong and Bendigo areas in Victoria;
• outskirts of Adelaide and the Two Wells area in South Australia;
• outer metropolitan areas of Perth.

Smaller foci of chicken meat production are found in the north east corner of NSW surrounding ByronBay, Mareeba in Queensland and Tasmania. There is no longer a commercial meat chicken farm in the Northern Territory.

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