Butchers shutting up shop in the outback

In Queensland's cattle country, beef is big business. From grazing to abattoirs and the quintessential butchery, the industry is the fabric of the west.

But outback butcher shops are shutting up shop due to economic pressures and a lack of apprentices.

"It's pretty devastating to everybody," said Tarj Wiles, who managed Julia Creek's only butcher shop for 14 years.

"We've been for sale for quite some time now."

Ms Wiles locked the shop's door for the final time earlier this month.

Her parents purchased the North West Queensland business 16 years ago, but after her father's recent death, Ms Wiles said it was time to move on.

She said there had been minimal interest in purchasing the shop.

"It's so hard to get a butcher [and apprentices coming into the trades] these days."

Without a butcher shop, the town's 550 residents, 260 kilometres east of Mount Isa, can source basic meat cuts from the local supermarket.

Ms Wiles said if the Julia Creek abattoir was rebuilt, butcher-quality meat could return at an affordable price.

"We got some meat trucked in from Townsville, some sourced from Richmond," she said.

"It would help the business a great deal if there was [a slaughterhouse]."

It is a similar story 560km south on the Landsborough Highway, where the manager of the Aramac butchery plans to board up the shop windows in August after two and a half years.

"The town itself is struggling a little bit; the butcher shop is struggling, with no tourists out here this year, that we rely on," Guffy Dash said.

"There's three businesses down the main street that have closed their doors."

She said the butcher trade was "dying", and she had struggled to find someone willing to follow in her footsteps.

"There doesn't seem to be a younger generation of people coming up behind us who want to learn the trade anymore."

Some success

About 400km east of Mount Isa, Keegan Nelson has had about five apprentices at his Richmond butcher shop over the past eight years.

"There's probably less kids than ever before at our high school out here," Mr Nelson said.

"[So] it's very hard to find an apprentice, once they leave and they go to the coast or to boarding school," he said.

But a success story is 20-year-old Thomas Lockwood, who took the leap from Central Queensland to work as Mr Nelson's apprentice.

"I was looking to drop out of school [and] trying to find a trade and couldn't find one down in Emerald where I was, and my grandma let me know that the butcher shop here had an apprenticeship open," he said.

"I wanted to do butchering. I've lived on a few properties and had a bit of experience."

Mr Lockwood said his confidence in the industry had grown as he worked his way up in the business and he planned on sticking around.

But said he had witnessed the struggle to attract more young workers like himself.

"[Mr Nelson] is always looking to put more on, but it's just hard; there's not many people looking for jobs out here,"

he said.

"But for the foreseeable future, I'll still be here."

Australia-wide issue

Retail manager and corporate butcher for Meat and Livestock Australia Doug Piper said the lack of interest in the trade was not a problem unique to outback Queensland.

"I think the biggest thing they've got to look at is how much they're actually paying the apprentice," Mr Piper said.

"If an apprentice is earning the award wage, he can't survive, not in today's economic climate."

With the rise of major retailers in smaller towns, Mr Piper said country butchers should take stock of their uniqueness.

"[Supermarket meat is] a little bit cheaper than what the butchers are … they've got that ability to be open longer and they will affect the sales of the butcher shops," he said.

"But [butchers should] work to their strengths, work to their service component, because you can't get that in the supermarket."

Though it is a service that is diminishing for regional and rural consumers.

"For every five that are shut, we might get one, maybe two, open up,"

he said.

"We want [country butcher shops] to survive and thrive."

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