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History: Mudgee Abattoir

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1970

26 January 1970
Success story for the Mudgee Abattoir

The critics have been floored and the future of the Mudgee Abattoir looks bright following a 30 per cent increase in cattle kill in 1969, over the previous year.
“No-one ever thought the Abattoir would reach this stage,” Ald. C. Croan told Thursday night’s meeting of the Abattoir County Council, during discussion of the production manager’s report.
At the beginning of the meeting, the re-elected Chairman (Cr. Wal Evans), who was re-elected unopposed, told the meeting:
“We had fun and games in the first few years.
“Some people said the abattoir was going to be a “white elephant.”
The facts and figures of the abattoir’s progress, left holders of this opinion “red-faced.”
The abattoir has flourished so well since its opening about five years ago that it is now “bursting at the seams,” in Cr. Evans words.
Future developments at the abattoirs have been planned, and the council will use $275,000 for extensive extensions.
In 1968, 10,018 cattle were killed at the abattoirs.
But in 1969, 14,953 were killed, an increase of 49 percent.
Cr. Evans told the meeting.
“The two boning rooms have been the key to the abattoir’s success.
“We could even handle another boning room.
“Certain other abattoirs have not included boning rooms, and have found themselves in financial difficulties.”
In 1968, 323,208 sheep were killed, and in 1969 the figures rose to 363,618 killed, representing an increase of 12.5 percent.
The pig kill increase was 3.2 percent, with 5,868 in 1968 and 6,060 in 1969.
Total “sheep kill units” for 1968 were 384,662 and in 1969 rose to 458,927, an overall 19 percent increase.
The total of all animals killed at the Abattoirs are calculated in “sheep kill units.”
This unit measure is mainly used for slaughtering tallies and gives the operators a common denomination and overall comparison of the kill.
A sheep is equal to one, while the cattle are equal to 5 sheep killed, and pigs equal to 1¾ sheep.
Boning production in 1969 represented 47 per cent of the total kill production last year, with Charles David Pty. Ltd. killing 151,385 sheep in 1969, compared with 125,013 in 1968.
A. W. Anderson Meat Packing Co. began boning in June, 1969, and killed 22,500 sheep and 9,154 cattle for export for the year.
Meat packed for export for all of 1969 was 1,975 tons of boneless mutton and 655 tons of boneless beef compared to 1,036 tons of boneless mutton and 12 tons of boneless beef in 1968.
For 1969, 1,021 tons of tallow, 1,434 tons of meat-meal were produced compared to 530 tons of tallow and 1,021 tons of meatmeal in 19681 .

2003

12 December 2003
Abattoir sale is on hold
The Mudgee Regional Abattoir liquidators say they are waiting at the finish line with six buyers vying to be the winning tenderer, but cannot cross the line and finish the sale of the facility.

Prentice Parbery Barilla officials say they have six buyers waiting - four of them complying with the tender - but the sale of the Abattoir cannot go forward because of legal problems.

"We are waiting to be given the power to deal with them," partner Andrew Smith said yesterday.

"We are just sitting here waiting."

Mr Smith denied reports that Dubbo's Fletcher International Exports was named the highest complying bidder, and that the Abattoir is actually sold.

"A property isn't sold until you have exchanged contracts," he said, adding that all tenderers have been issued with contracts.

"And we can't move on that until given the power to do so," Mr Smith said.

"We need the power to sell," he reiterated.

That power, Mr Smith said, needs to be given to the liquidators by the stakeholders involved - NSW Government, local government and financiers.

Mr Smith said there are a number of issues that need to be addressed and that the firm was talking to the parties responsible.

"In selling it we want to know we are protected," he said.

Mr Smith said the liquidators want to know when the contracts are sold that they have the support of the stakeholders involved.

The stakeholders have been very cooperative, according to Mr Smith, who particularly cited feedback from Mudgee Shire Council. He said the liquidators need to know those stakeholders fully support the sale outcomes.

"These are the things no one is talking about and we want to know what will occur," he said.

Mr Smith said it is the unknown things that may affect the liquidators and they want to know they are protected.

"We have dragged it all to this point and we want to know where we are going," he said. "We have got to the finishing line. We just want to cross it."

Mr Smith said because the deal involves the sale of the assets of the County Council, there are many legal issues that need to be made clear by the government before the sale can go ahead2 .

2005

5 August 2005
Two years in the waiting
The Mudgee Abattoir is to re-open after almost two years of wondering if the 400 people employed directly and 340 indirectly would ever get their jobs back.

Work will begin in the abattoir within two weeks with the facility up and going within 12 months, employing 300 people.

The abattoir formerly closed on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 when workers at the $34 million per annum industry were shocked to arrive at work to be given stand down notices after Stephen Parbery of Prentice Parbery Barilla was made administrator.

The firm specialised in business rehabilitation and reconstruction.

An administrator was appointed on September 3 via a proclamation by the governor Marie Bashir and given the job of selling the abattoir, leasing it or sending it into liquidation.

The administrator closed the abattoir when he found it had insufficient funds to continue trading.

Although the then Mudgee Shire Council tried to rush through $100,000 in emergency funding the Monday night before closure to pay abattoir employees their week's wage, but turned down a request for $2 million to allow the abattoir to continue for another six weeks, fearful of losing ratepayer funds if the abattoir then closed.

Mr Parbery applied to the NSW Supreme Court for a receiver to be appointed on Wednesday, September 10 to allow him to maximise the business assets.

Creditors were understood to be in the vicinity of $200,000 but because the abattoir was the last county council run abattoir and not a regular business, it took the action of the Supreme Court to declare the abattoir insolvent.

$2.5 million was owed to abattoir employees in entitlements when it closed, with no funding to pay.

A battle ensued to get payment for the employees under the Federal GEERS Scheme.

State and Federal governments fought a battle that ended in deadlock, each citing the other responsible to assist the employees and the abattoir.

The State government's Local Government Minister Tony Kelly rejected any State responsibility for paying the workers and directed employees to seek whatever relief they could through the Federal GEERS scheme.

However, the State government needed to change the law to make the employees eligible for GEERS assistance, as the abattoir was a county council and not a private business.

On October 13 Tony Kelly shocked the Mudgee community when he announced the State government could not change the law to accommodate payment of GEERS as the proclamation would mean the Federal Government would have to take priority ahead of other creditors to ensure the employees receive their entitlements.

In the meantime, workers picketed the then Mudgee Shire Council and camped outside council chambers day by day until they received their payments.

Local government officials met with Tony Kelly time and time again to work out the legistics of changing the law to allow $3.5 million GEERS money to flow.

The NSW government passed legislation Wednesday October 29 to allow GEERS to be paid to the workers, but a gap of a further $1.5 million was owed.

On September 18, John Anderson announced the Federal Government would pay the abattoir employees GEERS to cover their entitlements and the money flowed into bank accounts on Friday November 14.

A total of 22 companies showed an interest in buying or leasing and reopening the Mudgee abattoir, with tenders closing on November 12, 2003.

A local consortium negotiated with the administrator/liquidator to lease the abattoir and re-open it.

The same consortium was one of the six bodies bidding to buy the abattoir when it came up for sale, but was beaten by Roger Fletcher of Dubbo Fletcher International Exports who had the highest bid on Tuesday on Friday, November 28, but the sale was held up until legal issues were cleared.

Mr Fletcher was announced as the buyer on Tuesday, December 23.

Mr Fletcher said he had a lot of work to do on the abattoir to bring it up to scratch, and it was unlikely to open before July 2004.

However the drought and other pending issues have kept the plant closed until today's announcement which has been like winning the lottery for the district3 .

21 October 2005
The old is going, going, gone
An auction sale at the Mudgee Regional Abattoir held on Wednesday and Thursday this week attracted a small but serious crowd of buyers and onlookers.

Owner of the abattoir, Roger Fletcher of Fletcher International Exports in Dubbo said everything was offered for sale off the beef and sheep floors, the maintenance equipment, spare parts, bi-products and amenities areas.

Materials from the white elephant pig abattoir at the entrance of the abattoir will also be sold off, as will materials from all the auxiliary buildings.

"There is a huge amount of stuff there and then we are taking the old building down and rebuilding it," Mr Fletcher said.

Mr Fletcher said buyers from across the district attended the auction, conducted by Steers of Sydney.

However, he said buyers were limited because the market has changed and there are few domestic abattoir plants left to be interested in buying old equipment.

Mr Fletcher said anyone in the export business would not want old equipment - only the best will do.

"There is a limited market for these things.

"I didn't expect rainbows," he said.

Mr Fletcher said a lot of the equipment being sold off from the abattoir has seen better years.

"It proves what we are doing is right," he said referring to the clearing out of all the old abattoir buildings and equipment4 .

References

1 Mudgee Guardian, Monday 26 January 1970, p. 1.
2 Abattoir sale is on hold. (2003, December 12). Mudgee Guardian (Australia). Available from NewsBank: Access Australia: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AUNB&docref=news/137555AC9E873368.
3 DIANE SIMMONDS, B. (2005, August 5). Two years in the waiting. Mudgee Guardian (Australia). Available from NewsBank: Access Global NewsBank: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/apps/news/document-view?p=AWGLNB&docref=news/1379975519F8E530.
4 DIANE SIMMONDS, B. (2005, October 21). The old is going, going, gone. Mudgee Guardian (Australia). Available from NewsBank: Access Global NewsBank: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/apps/news/document-view?p=AWGLNB&docref=news/137997525FF1FA80.


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