Slaughter Equipment

New beef processing plant set to be operating in Charleville

New beef processing plant set to be operating in Charleville

The proponents behind a proposal to convert a kangaroo abattoir into a beef processing plant in south-west Queensland say they expect to be fully operational by the middle of next year.

Charleville's game meat processing plant that was opened in 2006 was forced to close in 2009 after Russia, Australia's main market for kangaroo meat, banned the import of kangaroo.

Plant owner John Burey has since teamed up with a Chinese investor to form Grassland Cattle Australia, which plans to process cattle, horses, camels and donkeys at the Charleville plant.

"One of the main reasons we looked at doing it here is because I already had a pretty significant factory," Mr Burey said.

"The existing building is going to be expanded threefold to allow us to slaughter cattle, horses, camels and donkeys.

"By the time we are finished, including the value of the existing facility, we will have a facility that I expect will be somewhere around $35 million, a significant portion [of which] is coming from China."

Charleville well positioned to get supply of cattle

Mr Burey said the plant would initially process 250 head a day, with the majority of production being beef.

Even though the tightening supply of cattle in Queensland is seeing many of the major processors cut shifts, Mr Burey believes Charleville is well positioned to source the livestock.

"A lot of other [processing plants] are positioned along the east coast, which is great for staff but just to get to Charleville they are 1,000km [away]," he said.

"Whereas … Roma is only 200 kilometres away … I can be in Birdsville in 800 kilometres, I can be in Mt Isa in 1,000 kilometres, Sydney is 1,000 kilometres from Charleville.

"So this is a pretty prime location to source livestock.

"And [that is] one of the reasons we are interested in variance in the type of animals we process. It means that we aren't having to rely so heavily on the cattle if we can get the other animals."

Mr Burey is confident the plant will be viable despite not having a feasibility study completed.

"We haven't gone out and got consultants in to do an in-depth analysis of the situation," he said.

"But we have certainly done our own maths and worked through our own figures.

"One of the benefits of having factories in the bush is that it is much cheaper to transport meat in a truck than it is to transport live animals."