Sorry for the untidiness of the site at the moment I am currently undertaking a major reshaping of it.
I have always had a strong interest in historical aspects of pastoral operations in the NT. Due to our own cattle business’s, I also have an interest in the operation of abattoirs as they have been a part of our own business dealings.
When I began to write blogs in mid 2012, I wanted to write an article on the impact of Live export on the operation of the Katherine abattoir that at the time had already been closed for over 10 years but was literally gutted of equipment. During 2012 a new beef processing facility was being established at Livingstone. We were experiencing a severe downturn in market values of land and cattle due to the Live export ban of 2011 and long term financial, environment and emotional impacts compounded by drought and oversupply of stock throughout other parts of Australia.
Initially my research concentrated on the NT, I had not realised that we had so many abattoirs operating over our short beef industry history. Therefore I felt that the presentation of this information was very relevant and may interest others.
In trying to research Katherine I found so much information on other sites I started to put all the information into this blog. http://www.australianabattoirs.com.
It is intended that all information is sourced with the ability for most to be able to read further by using the footnote references listing the articles origin and date of publication.
http://www.australianabattoirs.com is predominantly focused on cattle and sheep processing facilities, if I have found information regarding other abattoirs such as goats, pigs or other livestock they may be listed.
I have researched within my capabilities newspaper articles, books and historic records. When able I have contacted people directly involved with operations of these sites. I can not verify the accuracy or authenticity of much of this information but have tried to supply the source if the reader would like to further investigate the information.
I do not offer any gaurantees to the materials accuracy of fact.
I do not claim the information on this site is comprehensive or complete.
There is much more information available that I simply have not found or been able to access.
I am not qualified in any way in the operations of abattoirs and have no experience in their workings. I am simply interested in their operation, impact, importance and significance to the Australian livestock industries.
If you have information that is documented and would like to add it or other relevant information to this site, or if you feel that I have documented something wrong please place a query on the relevant page.
It is my intention to continue to add information as I am able to find it in the future.
This site is completely my own input with no financial support, input or assistance from any other source than my own.
Jo Bloomfield
Hello Jo,
I have mentioned your blog in the Abattoirs Daily Gazette, the (new!) world review of abattoirs. Congratulations !
Frederic.
Hi Frederic. My apologies I haven’t thanked you for this.For some reason I missed the comment notification in my feed. Jo
You are welcome, jo ! Fred.
Quite an interesting web site, unfortunately not entirely accurate, however that said, the main
stories are close to the actual reality. Owners of meat works are notorious for their close mouths so indeed it must have been difficult to extract the information.
I have spent some 35 years in the Australian meat industry and am familiar with quite a number of the meat works mentioned.
Hi Jack.
I have relied mainly on news paper articles and what research I have been able to find in reports, studies and books. It will be a work in progress which I hope to add to over the next few years in which I hope to visit museums. I would greatly appreciate if you would be willing to point out where the inaccuracies are and make a note of them if I can find supporting articles. Some, particularly the union v’s processor can be very bias depending on which paper I find the articles in thats why I try to quote the sources so people can make up their own mind.
Greatly appreciate the feedback. Jo