Palumpa is an aboriginal community SW of Darwin, operating a pastoral property the abattoir is of vital economic importance to the property as it supplies meat to the local community.

Other Names

• Wadeye abattoir
• Port Keats abattoir

Current Operation

• Currently in operation

Location

• Palumpa is an aboriginal owned pastoral station 230 km south west of of Darwin, located near a town called Wadeye in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Community living area originally known as Palumpa is now called Nganmarriyanga.

Owner

Operation

• Processes 20 head of cattle a week¹

History

1980’s

• Palumpa Pastoral Property was originally established as an offshoot of Port Keats Mission (pg 316)³
• Property Established as a private company (Pg 333)³
  • directors largely represent the traditional owners of the area⁴
  • For long periods the station was the only provider to the services of the developing community⁴
• Property is situated on some of the best Pastoral land in the Port Keats / Daly River area. (Pg 316)³
  • Covers a wide variety of country.(Pg 399)³
  • Average grazing capacity 1 beast to 50 hectares.(Pg 399)³
  • Takes 5-7 years to produce a 500kg animals (Pg 399)³
  • Run relatively small herd compared to the district commercial grazing average (Pg 399)³
  • Land is low grazing capacity and wet season limits production (pg 399)³
• Major reason for success was the estalishment of domestic abattoir to provide meat to surrounding communities.(Pg 316)³
• Palumpa Properties main support was the community of Port Keats.(Pg 316)³
• Initial capital investment of abattoir operations was provided by the NT government(Pg 343)³

1990

• Until 1990 Palumpa had been able to access loan and grant funding from Aboriginal Development Corporation (ADC) and Aboriginal Torees Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (pg 316)³

1993

• Palumpa property title at this time is Aboriginal freehold.³
  • Land area Size 1,150 sq km.(Pg 329)³
  • receiving ATSIC or other enterprise support at this time (pg 329)³
  • Operated under CDEP program (Pg 329)³
  • 3 community services were available (Pg 329)³
  • Had a non-local manager (Pg 329)³
  • Employed 4 people (Pg 329)³
• Herd Size of Palumpa property 3,700 head (Pg 329)³
  • Carrying Capacity 10,000 head (Pg 329)³

2000

• Palumpa Pastoral property is of sufficent size to support the abattoir processes (Pg 316)³
• Employ 5 people on the property and 7 in the butcher shop (Pg 316)³

2007

• Facility is cited in a report to be in operation at this time (Pg 14)²
• Demand for MSA (Meat standards Australia) is not an issue for indigenous communities, therefore these small abattoirs don’t compete with product from southern Australia.(Pg 14)²

2008

• July. At this point in time there are two other abattoirs operated on communities that are Aboriginal owned⁵
  • Oenpelli NT
  • Kalkarindji
• September. Indigenous Land Corporation have acquired 221 properties across Australia since 1995⁶
  • Manage 70,000 head of cattle on various Aboriginal held stations⁶

Sources

1. Managing Indigenous Pastoral Land. Module 9. 14/025
2. ‘A pre-feasibility study of supply and demand issues for multi-species abattoir in Northern Australia’ G Niethe. 2009.
3. ‘Black pastoralism – Contemporary Aboriginal land use’ S Phillpot 2000
4. NT Place Names register. Accessed 26.01.2015
5. ‘Rare bush abattoir’ ABC Rural 07.07.2008
6. ‘Cattlemen muster pride’ The Australian 22.09.2008

Tagged: Aboriginal owned abattoir, Australian Abattoirs, Australian meat processing, domestic abattoir, NT abattoirs, Palumpa abattoir, Port Keats Abattoir, Wadeye abattoir