JUST how far, and how fast, Australia has come in meat processing has been documented by Stephen Martyn in his book, World on a Plate.
The book was a seven-year labour of love for Mr Martyn, who has a deep history in the sector. He is currently the national director, processing, of the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC).
FarmOnline is publishing extracts from the book.
An abattoir's link with General MacArthur
In 1992 Fred McDonald attended the auction of the abattoir in Bachelor in the Northern Territory. This had been an European Union-approved meatworks originally developed to access the 2500-tonne buffalo quota in the EU. The majority shareholder was a German company but minority shareholders included Tatiara Meat Company out of Border Town.
Following the purchase, Fred invited his Japanese colleagues to view the new site. Bachelor had originally been an Australian air force base used by the Americans and British during WWII and later became the site for the abattoir.
As the Japanese advanced through South East Asia in 1942, US General Douglas MacArthur was forced to escape from the Philippines in May of that year with his family in a plane from Mindanao en route to Darwin.
As it was approaching Darwin the pilot was notified that ships were under attack in Darwin harbour by Japanese aircraft operating out of East Timor, so they diverted the plane to Bachelor, 80 miles east.
As history records it, the MacArthur family rested at Bachelor and had a meal, all out of cans. They eventually departed Bachelor for Adelaide in a DC 3 aircraft just prior to Japanese fighter planes attacking the airfield and strafing the buildings later used to build the abattoir.
In this incident, and one or two others during WWII, seven Japanese fighter planes were shot down over the airport. A plaque in remembrance still exists today.
When Fred’s Japanese colleagues visited the abattoir they were astounded at its wartime history. They had no knowledge of the Japanese air attack on Darwin and other military sites in northern Australia - the Japanese education system to this point excluded that part of WWII.
Tancred Bros sporting story
At one stage in the 1980s, Tancred Brothers owned meatworks in Bourke, Mt Isa, Tenterfield, Beaudesert, Cape River, Harden, Shepparton, Innisfail and Katherine, and nearly 30 grazing properties – the largest landowner in Queensland after the State government.
Tancred was a start-up member of Australian Meat Holdings and a pioneer of the US beef market, but there's another side to its fabulous story.
Records show that Thomas Tancred was the successful lessee of Bay 8 at the Glebe Island abattoir in Sydney in 1886. Thomas had six sons, five of which (George, Harry, Owen, James and Arnold) formed Tancred Brothers in 1922.
Thomas’s children were naturally gifted athletes - three brothers played rugby union at the highest levels (then the NSW Waratahs) and one of the brothers Arnold managed the Wallabies tour of the UK in 1947-1948.
Older brother Harry played for New Zealand for a number of years before WWI, and on return to Australia after the war played for the NSW Waratahs against his old teammates.
They also did very well with racehorses, with Harry’s horse High Caste winning the Epsom Stakes in 1940 and Arnold’s horse Putoko winning the Brisbane Cup in 1952. Indeed, a later marketing plan that involved labelling a canned mutton product 'High Caste', with a picture of the horse on the front, backfired when many consumers here and in the UK thought it was horsemeat.
The Tancred name is still commemorated in the HE Tancred Stakes over 2400 metres at the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
Thoroughbreds including Kingstown Town, Octagonal, Might and Power and Makybe Diva have won the race over the years.
Harry Tancred became chairman of the Sydney Turf Club in 1953 and was at the same time a processor member of the Australian Meat Board (AMB). His brother Arnold succeeded him on the AMB.
An edited extract from World on a Plate: A History of Meat Processing in Australia which is available for purchase online.
