The Gladstone Meatworks

The opening of the Lakes Creek Meatworks in Rockhampton in 1871 established a market for cattle in the immediate Central Queensland area. The passing by parliament of the Meat and Dairying Encouragement Act was an incentive to those who saw the possibilities of development in the pastoral industry. By the 1890’s the livestock industry in Maryborough investigated the possibility of a meatworks being built in their vicinity but concluded that the river was too shallow for larger ships to navigate. This caused the Wide Bay and Burnett Districts to heartily co-operate with the establishment of a meatworks at Gladstone, led by William Foster McCord of Coonambula (Burnett). (McCord entered parliament in 1896 but died two years later)

Soon enterprising men, who were already in favour of a Gladstone meatworks, like William Barker Shaw of Rawbelle (Monto), James Bell of Stowe (Calliope), William Parker Bayne of Riverston (Calliope) and William Wilson Watt, a Gladstone butcher, were quick to capitalise on this undertaking. These men were incorporated as directors and with effective canvassing of the Central Queensland squatters, many of the district cattlemen and local businessmen were amongst the first 300 shareholders to back the venture.