{"id":807105,"date":"2026-07-17T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807105\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:56:14","slug":"lack-of-apprentices-and-economic-pressures-force-butcher-shops-to-close-in-outback-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807105\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of apprentices and economic pressures force butcher shops to close in outback Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

But outback butcher shops are shutting up shop due to economic pressures and a lack of apprentices.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty devastating to everybody,” said Tarj Wiles, who managed Julia Creek’s only butcher shop for 14 years.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been for sale for quite some time now.”\"Female<\/p>\n

Tarj Wiles says the decision to close the Julia Creek butcher shop was tough, but it was time to move on. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)<\/p>\n

Ms Wiles locked the shop’s door for the final time earlier this month.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She said there had been minimal interest in purchasing the shop.<\/p>\n

“It’s so hard to get a butcher [and apprentices coming into the trades] these days.”\"Julia<\/p>\n

Julia Creek’s only butcher shop remains for sale, after closing earlier this month. (ABC News: Kavina Kumar)<\/p>\n

Without a butcher shop, the town’s 550 residents, 260 kilometres east of Mount Isa, can source basic meat cuts from the local supermarket.<\/p>\n

Ms Wiles said if the Julia Creek abattoir was rebuilt, butcher-quality meat could return at an affordable price.<\/p>\n

“We got some meat trucked in from Townsville, some sourced from Richmond,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It would help the business a great deal if there was [a slaughterhouse].”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Guffy Dash is closing up Aramac’s only butcher shop next month. (ABC News: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

“The town itself is struggling a little bit; the butcher shop is struggling, with no tourists out here this year<\/a>, that we rely on,” Guffy Dash said.<\/p>\n

“There’s three businesses down the main street that have closed their doors.”<\/p>\n

\"Female<\/p>\n

A lack of tourists has put an economic dent into the town of Aramac, in Western Queensland. (ABC News: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

She said the butcher trade was “dying”, and she had struggled to find someone willing to follow in her footsteps.<\/p>\n

“There doesn’t seem to be a younger generation of people coming up behind us who want to learn the trade anymore.”<\/p>\n

Some success<\/p>\n

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

\"Man<\/p>\n

Keegan Nelson and Lorrae Johnston opened Moselle Meats in 2018. (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)<\/p>\n

“There’s probably less kids than ever before at our high school out here,” Mr Nelson said.<\/p>\n

“[So] it’s very hard to find an apprentice, once they leave and they go to the coast or to boarding school,” he said.<\/p>\n

But a success story is 20-year-old Thomas Lockwood, who took the leap from Central Queensland to work as Mr Nelson’s apprentice.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Thomas Lockwood (left) says he has seen the struggle to attract workers in the butchery industry. (Supplied: Thomas Lockwood)<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to do butchering. I’ve lived on a few properties and had a bit of experience.”<\/p>\n

\"Butcher<\/p>\n

Since opening in 2018, Moselle Meats has won multiple awards at the Northern Outback Business Awards.\u00a0 (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But said he had witnessed the struggle to attract more young workers like himself.<\/p>\n

“[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.<\/p>\n

“But for the foreseeable future, I’ll still be here.”<\/p>\n

Australia-wide issue<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“I think the biggest thing they’ve got to look at is how much they’re actually paying the apprentice,” Mr Piper said.<\/p>\n

“If an apprentice is earning the award wage, he can’t survive, not in today’s economic climate.”<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Doug Piper says a declining interest in the butchery trade is a national issue. (Supplied: Doug Piper)<\/p>\n

With the rise of major retailers in smaller towns, Mr Piper said country butchers should take stock of their uniqueness.<\/p>\n

“[Supermarket meat is] a little bit cheaper than what the butchers are \u2026 they’ve got that ability to be open longer and they will affect the sales of the butcher shops,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But [butchers should] work to their strengths, work to their service component, because you can’t get that in the supermarket.”<\/p>\n

\"Meat<\/p>\n

The decline of the country butcher shop could see more outback residents turning to supermarkets. (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)<\/p>\n

Though it is a service that is diminishing for regional and rural consumers.<\/p>\n

“For every five that are shut, we might get one, maybe two, open up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want [country butcher shops] to survive and thrive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Queensland’s cattle country, beef is big business. From grazing to abattoirs and the quintessential butchery, the industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,380774,87388,204306,237674,380775,174506,380773,30590,32643],"class_list":["post-807105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-butcher-apprentice","tag-butcher-shop","tag-butchers","tag-butchery","tag-country-butcher-shop","tag-north-west-queensland","tag-outback-butchers","tag-outback-queensland","tag-western-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}