Thousands of sheep and cattle stuck aboard a ship for weeks will tomorrow dock in Western Australia.
The Bahijah departed Fremantle on January 5 with more than 14,000 sheep and 2000 cattle destined for Jordan in the Middle East.
The animals are believed to be worth more than $2 million.
Fifteen days into the trip, the export company Bassem Dabbah decided to divert the ship away from the Red Sea due to security reasons.
The crew were told to head towards South Africa but the Federal Department of Agriculture intervened and called for its return to Australia.
After 24 days at sea, the boat is now off the Western Australian coast, near Hilarys, and is waiting to dock.
Premier Roger Cook said while the animals are believed to be in good health, they will still be subject to strict biosecurity measures.
Authorities are scrambling to organise quarantine for the expected arrival of the livestock in Fremantle tomorrow morning.
“We have facilities which we use in the normal course of events for these sort of activities but obviously it’s a fairly large number in this case,” Cook said.
After docking, the animals will undergo a health check.
The RSPCA said it feared the stressful trip could have caused the livestock to develop diseases like pink eye or pneumonia.
Mark Sutton from the Live Export Council said the situation would have caused significant costs to both the exporters and importers.
