Big Don’s Smoked Meats: Big Boss Donovan MacDonald exhausted fighting council for passion project

The owner of the mega popular Big Don’s Smoked Meats is considering a council tilt after blasting Bayswater city officers in a frustrated social media post that went viral.

Donovan MacDonald posted on his company’s social media platforms yesterday asking the public for suggestions for a new home for his business, saying some Perth councils are “so backwards” and “don’t make you feel welcome”.

Almost 2000 people flooded the comments, including the mayors of Victoria Park and Gosnells, with other elected members from other Perth councils joining the chorus.

Mr MacDonald said his post was sparked by frustration when he recently applied to open a “passion project” whiskey distillery manufacturing space next door to the shop.

He said he had most of the approvals in place and was ready to be signed off.

“A couple weeks ago, I got a message saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got all these other issues with this unit’. Basically a portable toilet that I built was an issue,” he said.

“They were literally forklifted in. No plumbing, above ground. But that’s what triggered all this.

“The council has deemed that as building works that needed a building permit. My distillery didn’t need a building permit, but that portable toilet did?”

City of Bayswater chief executive Jeremy Edwards said the installation of the sanitary facilities for the building required a permit.

“As these sanitary facilities were installed without a building permit and are considered unauthorised building works, the City requested an occupancy permit application to rectify this matter and other unauthorised building works on the property,” he said.

The main issue is with the warehouse lacking an occupancy permit, which is usually made when a building is built, something Mr MacDonald claims council no longer have the paperwork for.

“Or there has never been an occupancy permit here. And if that’s the case, they’ve allowed this building to operate as a factory without an occupancy permit for 50 years, and probably 10 or 20 businesses.” Mr MacDonald said.

Mr Edwards said the city is assisting Mr MacDonald in obtaining the permit, which they say is the responsibility of the owner.

But Mr MacDonald isn’t satisfied.

“It feels pretty personal,” he said.

“They could just come and speak to you. Instead, it feels like they find something to ping you for.”

Frustrated with the process, Mr MacDonald is now considering running for council himself in the upcoming October elections.

“My ward has a vacancy… and I’m probably the only person who would be able to say that I live and run a business in the same ward,” he said.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I have a little more time now because I have a team that’s so on top of the business.

“It felt to me like I may as well do it – at least be a small business voice within the council itself. It seems like it should be more community minded.”

Mr MacDonald said his business began in 2017 as a pop-up service for bowling and sporting clubs, then became a food truck in 2018 and nowadays draws around 1000 visitors to the warehouse each week.

“Some from Bayswater, but heaps from the city, from Mandurah, even interstate now,” he said.

Frustrating new regulations such as the new food truck laws the city recently adopted are an example of “over-governing,” he says.

Mr MacDonald said there was another seven years left on their lease and ideally he did not want to leave Bayswater.

“I live 90 seconds away. My son goes to the local school. I’ve lived here on and off for 10 years. I want to stay here,” he said.