The site of the former boiling down works, about 1.5 km to the east of Burketown, comprises the remnant machinery of the works and a ship’s tank, scattered across a site on a silted-up meander of the Albert River. The ship’s tank may be a remnant of William Landsborough’s exploration of the region in search of Burke and Wills in 1861. An earlier boiling down works had stood operated just south of Burketown from 1866 to the early 1870s, producing cured beef and tallow. A new operation was established on this site, east of Burketown, by the Carpentaria Meat Export Company in 1892 and extended in 1893. The works was abandoned around 1904.

The grazing potential of the Gulf of Carpentaria region was identified by John Lort Stokes during his 1841 exploration in the Beagle. At the time, the area was occupied by the Mingginda People. Stokes referred to the country between the Albert and Flinders Rivers as the ‘Plains of Promise’. William Landsborough, leader of an expedition to find lost explorers Robert Burke and William Wills, also found the area promising for pastoralism. On his arrival at the ‘Plains of Promise’ in August 1861 in the brig-turned-hulk Firefly, Landsborough noted sufficient saline herbage he considered suitable for sheep. Landsborough’s party established a depot on the banks of the Albert River, where surplus provisions were buried in a ship’s tank near a marked tree (Site of Landsborough’s Blazed Tree, Albert River Depot) in case the party needed to return to the depot. Returning to Melbourne in 1862, Landsborough promoted the region through the publication of his journals and a series of lectures.

The new pastoral district of Burke was opened for settlement on the 1st of January 1864. The fledgling town of Burke (later Burketown) was established beside a port on the Albert River as squatters, wool agents and storekeepers made for the Gulf. Pastoralists took up substantial landholdings and stocked their runs with sheep, converting to cattle when sheep proved susceptible to disease. However, the isolation of the ‘Plains of Promise’ restricted graziers’ opportunities to market their cattle. Without refrigerated transport, cattle could only be sold to other graziers or driven to southern markets. Failing these options, cattle could be boiled down for tallow.

In the 19th century tallow was a product with a wide range of applications, including use in cooking, soap and candle making, and machinery lubrication. Queensland’s boiling down industry began in 1843 when Mackenzie and Co’s works opened in Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. Similar establishments were opened at Ipswich (1848), Maryborough (1850), Townsville and Toowoomba (both 1866). As cattle holdings spread into the Kennedy and Gulf districts in the 1860s, a number of small-scale boiling down works were established on pastoral properties in the region. Many of these works were private operations which provided remote landholders with access to otherwise unattainable cattle disposal facilities.

Graziers did not favour boiling down their stock, as the process wasted valuable meat and reduced profits, but the process was necessary in times of economic hardship, when graziers struggled to maintain their land and livestock. In 1866, with the colony in the midst of a depression, partners Morehead & Young established a public boiling down operation on the Albert River near the Burketown settlement. Boilers, vats and other equipment were shipped from Sydney to a site south of Burketown. The works, managed by the Edkins brothers, produced tallow, beef, and sheep products between 1867 and the early 1870s. Flood, disease, and a lack of demand appear to have contributed to its closure around 1872. Disease in particular had a dramatic impact: Europeans deserted Burketown after a mystery illness swept the fledgling township in the mid-1860s, and it is believed that this disease contributed to the demise of the Mingginda people. They were succeeded by the Ganggalida people.

Cattle numbers rose in Queensland during the 1870s and 1880s. By 1885 Queensland was the principal cattle producing colony in Australia, but export opportunities remained limited. Experimentation with freezing meat for export occurred over the next decade, but the first freezing works in Queensland, the Ross River Meatworks in Townsville, did not open until 1892. In the interim, a glut of stock, a drought in 1884 - 1886 and another economic depression in the 1890s left graziers with an oversupply of cattle and few outlets for their disposal. The final straw came in 1892 and 1893 when New South Wales introduced, and Victoria increased, taxes on stock crossing the border.

As a result, the early 1890s saw a number of enterprises formed to establish boiling down operations near grazing country in northwest Queensland. One such company was the Carpentaria Meat Export Company (CMEC), registered in June 1891 with the intention of setting up a new meatworks facility at Burketown. The town had begun to repopulate in the 1880s. As a location for a cattle processing plant Burketown had a number of advantages, including its proximity to both the ‘Plains of Promise’ grazing country and coastal shipping via the Albert River. Rather than taking up the site of Burketown’s first boiling down works, the CMEC leased 22 acres (8.9ha) near the former Albert River Depot, approximately two kilometres downstream of the town.

The CMEC engaged ironmongers Burns and Twigg to design and supply equipment for their new Burketown boiling down works. Twigg & Co, later Burns and Twigg, had operated a foundry in Rockhampton from around 1877, and supplied machinery to Lakes Creek, Alligator Creek in Townsville, and the Barcaldine boiling down works. In February 1892 Burns and Twigg shipped 25 tons of machinery to Burketown, comprising ‘a pair of thirty-horse power Cornish boilers’. While installation work was undertaken, Queensland Governor Sir Henry Wylie Norman was shown over the site in April 1892, a highlight of his northern Queensland tour.

With the boilers in place by May 1892, the Burketown boiling down works received 40 bullocks for its inaugural process. The stock reportedly came from Lawn Hill, a station run by former Burketown boiling down works manager ER Edkins. Burketown’s first process coincided with the opening of two other Gulf boiling down works, ‘Dalgonally’ in Normanton and the Torrens Creek works. Despite this competition, Burketown’s works had a successful first season. Cattle numbers were still rising in North Queensland, peaking at 1.3 million in 1894 but with cattle prices still low there was a market for numerous boiling works.

Machinery upgrades were installed at Burketown before the processing season began afresh in March 1893. By April 1893 the works had its own train and wharf facilities. Though the works were closed briefly following an outbreak of tick fever, the works was processing over 100 bullocks per day by 1895, including stock from New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and South Australia. In June 1894 Burketown was the third largest producer of both tallow and hides and skins in Queensland, out-produced only by Townsville and Rockhampton.

In 1898, the CMEC was replaced by the Burketown Meat Export Company. The works was leased to the Endeavour Meat Export and Agency Company, which commenced operations on the 7th of June 1898. Three days later, a steaming vat of tallow sparked a fire, and the boiling down works burnt down. Within a day, Burketown residents had raised £400 for rebuilding, and meatworks employees offered a month’s labour for rations only. The company also sought assistance from the Queensland Government under the Meat and Dairy Produce Encouragement Act (1893) to rebuild. Engineer WH Swales, a partner in the Burketown Meat Export Company, was engaged to install new machinery, while the construction work was contracted to William Brown of Townsville.

Rebuilding was completed for the 1899 meatworking season, and the North Queensland Register described the redesigned Burketown boiling down works in detail in February 1899. A new ‘imposing, substantial building’ housed the works. Equipment which had survived the fire, including the boilers, digesters and refiners, had been repaired and refitted, while new machines including an extract plant, mincing or shredding machine and a filter press and pump were added to the works. A 12 horsepower horizontal engine made by British company Tangye powered the mincing machine, dynamo and bone lift. The works also featured slaughtering pens and drying space for the hides, an engine and repair room next to the boilers, electric plant (powered by a small one horsepower engine), a manure grinding mill and a coopers’ shed where tallow barrels could be made.

By the turn of the 20th century, the boiling down works was Burketown’s major employer. The town’s population boomed from 164 to 300 during the six month meatworking season, with meatworkers, firewood getters and drovers flocking to the works. The works also provided a market for a local salt industry, as salt was used to tan hides and preserve meat. However, the Endeavour Meat Export and Agency Company succumbed to financial difficulties and wound up in March 1901.

The Burketown works was taken over by the Queensland Meat Export and Agency Company (QMEA), which was expanding its operations into the Gulf. Considerable improvements, including canning and preserving facilities, allowed for the treatment of 10, 000 cattle in 1901 and 1902. QMEA’s November 1901 export report indicated that Burketown was the second largest supplier to the London market, exporting 1, 588 cases of canned meat and 212 casks of tallow compared to Townsville’s 7, 275 cases of canned meat and 707 casks of tallow. Dalgonally, also operated by QMEA and formerly the larger of the Gulf meatworks, exported 801 cases of canned meat and 82 casks of tallow.

Despite this apparent success, there were hints of the Burketown works’ uncertain future. Cattle numbers in North Queensland dropped to a record low in the wake of a significant drought, and large numbers of graziers walked off their runs rather than restocking. In November 1903, a QMEA director suggested that the meatworks would only operate in 1904 ‘if cattle became plentiful’, and noted that unlike freezing works, Burketown’s limited operations did not use every part of the processed animals. Operations at Burketown were discontinued around 1904. A 1912 enquiry into the meat industry blamed transport difficulties, high wages, and lack of stock for the closure. Despite its eight year hiatus, the inquiry confirmed that the Burketown machinery was still in ‘good order’, though the meatworks buildings were reportedly being ‘eaten away by termites’.

QMEA retained the Burketown property until 1914. Rumours circulated that the buildings would be restored or removed, but the new proprietors appear to have had little interaction with the site. The buildings were removed in the late 1910s or early 1920s, possibly for reuse at another meatworks. A range of machinery was left on site, including the Burns and Twigg Cornish boilers, a Colonial Boiler and a set of vertical boilers, three engines, and other miscellany. No reference was made to the ship’s tank, though it was likely on the site at the time. Ships’ tanks were used all over Australia to store food and water. They were particularly useful in remote areas which lacked a guaranteed water supply. The tank on the site may have been left from Landsborough’s expedition: the Firefly sank in the river near the meatworks site, and an attempt to salvage two of her tanks was made some time in the 19th century. The tank has no other identification, such as a maker’s mark; these marks were usually on the tank lid, which has not survived.

From June 1917 the Burketown lease (Special Lease 472) was divided in two and leased to local residents, although they seem to have undertaken little activity on the site. Both tenants forfeited their leases and left Burketown by the early 1920s. The land was resurveyed as Portion 78 and gazetted as a Pound Reserve in July 1926. The old meatworks equipment, machinery, bricks, and other remnants remained on site, attracting sightseers who came to visit the nearby Landsborough tree.

In 2015 the Federal Court recognised the non-exclusive native title of the Gangalidda people over the site. The site remains in the trusteeship of the Burke Shire Council.

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

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The Kurtijar People are the Traditional Owners of the land, rivers, and saltwater country in the south-east Gulf of Carpentaria between the Norman River and the Staaten River, and extending about 100 km inland, in Queensland Australia.

The neighbouring Traditional Owner group to the west are the Gkuthaarn and Kukatj People. To the north is the Kowanyama Community which is home to several Traditional Owners groups from that region. To the south is the country of the Tagalaka and Ewamian People. Traditionally, Kurtijar interaction with their neighbours included trading networks and kinship ties through marriage. These links continue to the present day and have expanded to include governance of the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, collaboration between Ranger groups, participation in the pastoral industry, sporting competitions and other cultural, social and economic activities.

Kurtijar People also took care of and sustainably used resources of the extensive woodlands, grasslands, escarpments and sandstone ranges of the Gulf plains, as well as the saltpans, mangrove forests and marine environments. It is this combination of terrestrial, freshwater and saltwater resources that provided such sustainable livelihoods for our people over countless generations. The rich natural resources of Kurtijar Country have also attracted other people to settle and establish pastoral, fishing, mining, and tourism enterprises in the Gulf region over the last 150 years. While
the Kurtijar Aboriginal Corporation state they accept that they must share their country with these new industries, they also expect people in these industries to acknowledge their need to maintain culture and livelihoods from the country now share. This Land and Saltwater Country Plan lays the foundation for how these mutually respectful partnerships can develop and flourish.

In July 2022 the Kurtijar People had a win when the Federal Court recognised the Kurtijar people's non-exclusive native title rights over more than 1.2 million hectares of land stretching from the east of Normanton up to Yagoonya in the north-west, encompassing the Miranda Downs pastoral station.

The Kurtijar Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) was established in 1994 and is the owner of Morr Morr Pastoral Company which operates Delta Downs Station. KAC is a not for profit corporation endorsed by the Australian Charitable Not for Profit Commission and serves the needs of the Kurtijar community.

Source: Kurtijar Aboriginal Corporation, ABC.

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For centuries the Gkuthaarn and Kurtijar have lived in the Normanton area. They hunted across the wetlands, trapped fish in the shallows, held ceremonies, and resolved disputes in time honoured ways.

That changed in the mid 19th Century when European explorers wrote favourably of the Gulf region's pastoral opportunities. Normanton was soon established as a port town with coastal shipping skirting the wetlands on their trip up the river to the old wharf near the bridge.

A meatworks operated near Goose Lagoon from the 1890s to the early twentieth century. Although mainly slaughtering cattle for tallow it possibly contributed to the wetland's name as sheep grazing was attempted early on.

The alluvial plains of the Gulf are dotted with lagoons and shallow mounds know as Gilgai. Silt is deposited during floods and, during the dry season, soil commonly cracks and flakes. During high tides, salt water flows into some of the lagoons and low-lying areas.

The Mutton Hole Wetlands are 78km2, and form a part of the Gulf Plains which cover the equivalent of half the area of Victoria or Great Britain. They are the most accessible part of this fascinating region of winding rivers, floodplains, and waterholes.

Annual rainfall averages 911mm with most falling between January and March. Falls can exceed 250mm a day. Its feast or famine; the rest of the year it is virtually dry. By comparison Brisbane and Sydney average around 1200mm, but spread throughout the year.

With high rainfall and floodwaters pouring down the Norman River the area can quickly turn into a huge sheet of water. This area is sometimes several metres underwater.

Summer temperatures fluctuate around a steamy 30+ Degree C but average dry season temperatures range from 29 Degrees C during the day to 16 Degrees C at night.

The Wetlands may seem challenging for plant life but Coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca) and Gutta Percha (Excoecaria parvifolia) dominate the woody higher ground. Along the lagoon shores numerous reeds and grasses flourish and on the salt flats you can find succulents like Tecticornia australasica. Over twenty different fish species have been recorded in the lagoons. The flathead catfish found in the 2008 wrt season was new to science. The wetlands are important nursery habitats for banana prawns and barramundi. Snakes, crocodiles, and wallabies also live in and around the lagoons and waterholes, with feral pigs and cats often found when food is abundant.

Over 120 species of birds call it home or use it seasonably as they travel across the world. The waters are home to many fishes and amphibians and on land wallabies, pigs, and dingoes roam.

Birds found in the Wetlands include:

The Apostle bird, that hand around in chattering flocks. Some say flocks of twelve are common, hence their name, but studies suggest smaller groups are normal.

Australian Bustards wander around grassy plains or in small flocks. One bush yarn recounts that old timers hunted them (which is now illegal) by wandering around them in a wide circle. The over inquisitive birds ring their own necks watching what is happening.

The Black Necked Stork is a stately stork bird also known as the Jabiru and stands about 1200mm high. They prefer a lone existence and enjoy a fish, frog, and carrion diet. They linger around the waterhole margins.

The Brolga has a red head and grey neck and bodies whereas the rare Sarus crane has aed extending down their neck. They often congregate together and dance. Sarus cranes are among the rarest cranes in the world with possibly only two thousand remaining. The Mutton Hole Wetlands is a breeding ground for both the Brolga and Sarus crane.

Double Bar Finch's flock enjoy seeding grasses. They enjoy frequent drinks and therefore keep close to the water.

The Great and Little Egrets perch in the trees around waterholes or wade through the shallows. The Great Egret stands about 800mm high while the Little Egret, with its black bill, is around 560mm.

Flocks of Magpie Geese honk noisily to one another while feeding or formation flying. A male may have two sisters as its partner. Their feet are only partially webbed, hence their scientific name: Anseranus semipalmata.

Pied Herons like the edges of waterholes and being around livestock. They enjoy an insect diet. Another name for them is the 'white headed egret', despite the fact the top of the head is a blue black.

Radjah Shelducks, also known as Burdekin ducks, are birds that have a dark band across the otherwise white upper breast. They are active feeders late in the date and dislike others invading their territory.

The Swamphen's big feet enable these distinctive birds to wander through dense reed beds. Their white undertail is often seen as it flicks its tail when altered.

The Pied Butcherbird frequents open country and is a stunning singer. Youngsters stay with their parents for around 18 months.

The Whimbrel arrives in Australia around August/September and leaves for Siberia in May, where it breeds, although some youngsters prefer to stay in Northern Australia. Whimbrels enjoy poking in muddy ground for worms and small shellfish.

Source: Carpentaria Shire, Queensland Government.

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The site of the former boiling down works, about 1.5 km to the east of Burketown, comprises the remnant machinery of the works and a ship’s tank, scattered across a site on a silted-up meander of the Albert River. The ship’s tank may be a remnant of William Landsborough’s exploration of the region in search of Burke and Wills in 1861. An earlier boiling down works had stood operated just south of Burketown from 1866 to the early 1870s, producing cured beef and tallow. A new operation was established on this site, east of Burketown, by the Carpentaria Meat Export Company in 1892 and extended in 1893. The works was abandoned around 1904.

The grazing potential of the Gulf of Carpentaria region was identified by John Lort Stokes during his 1841 exploration in the Beagle. At the time, the area was occupied by the Mingginda People. Stokes referred to the country between the Albert and Flinders Rivers as the ‘Plains of Promise’. William Landsborough, leader of an expedition to find lost explorers Robert Burke and William Wills, also found the area promising for pastoralism. On his arrival at the ‘Plains of Promise’ in August 1861 in the brig-turned-hulk Firefly, Landsborough noted sufficient saline herbage he considered suitable for sheep. Landsborough’s party established a depot on the banks of the Albert River, where surplus provisions were buried in a ship’s tank near a marked tree (Site of Landsborough’s Blazed Tree, Albert River Depot) in case the party needed to return to the depot. Returning to Melbourne in 1862, Landsborough promoted the region through the publication of his journals and a series of lectures.

The new pastoral district of Burke was opened for settlement on the 1st of January 1864. The fledgling town of Burke (later Burketown) was established beside a port on the Albert River as squatters, wool agents and storekeepers made for the Gulf. Pastoralists took up substantial landholdings and stocked their runs with sheep, converting to cattle when sheep proved susceptible to disease. However, the isolation of the ‘Plains of Promise’ restricted graziers’ opportunities to market their cattle. Without refrigerated transport, cattle could only be sold to other graziers or driven to southern markets. Failing these options, cattle could be boiled down for tallow.

In the 19th century tallow was a product with a wide range of applications, including use in cooking, soap and candle making, and machinery lubrication. Queensland’s boiling down industry began in 1843 when Mackenzie and Co’s works opened in Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. Similar establishments were opened at Ipswich (1848), Maryborough (1850), Townsville and Toowoomba (both 1866). As cattle holdings spread into the Kennedy and Gulf districts in the 1860s, a number of small-scale boiling down works were established on pastoral properties in the region. Many of these works were private operations which provided remote landholders with access to otherwise unattainable cattle disposal facilities.

Graziers did not favour boiling down their stock, as the process wasted valuable meat and reduced profits, but the process was necessary in times of economic hardship, when graziers struggled to maintain their land and livestock. In 1866, with the colony in the midst of a depression, partners Morehead & Young established a public boiling down operation on the Albert River near the Burketown settlement. Boilers, vats and other equipment were shipped from Sydney to a site south of Burketown. The works, managed by the Edkins brothers, produced tallow, beef, and sheep products between 1867 and the early 1870s. Flood, disease, and a lack of demand appear to have contributed to its closure around 1872. Disease in particular had a dramatic impact: Europeans deserted Burketown after a mystery illness swept the fledgling township in the mid-1860s, and it is believed that this disease contributed to the demise of the Mingginda people. They were succeeded by the Ganggalida people.

Cattle numbers rose in Queensland during the 1870s and 1880s. By 1885 Queensland was the principal cattle producing colony in Australia, but export opportunities remained limited. Experimentation with freezing meat for export occurred over the next decade, but the first freezing works in Queensland, the Ross River Meatworks in Townsville, did not open until 1892. In the interim, a glut of stock, a drought in 1884 - 1886 and another economic depression in the 1890s left graziers with an oversupply of cattle and few outlets for their disposal. The final straw came in 1892 and 1893 when New South Wales introduced, and Victoria increased, taxes on stock crossing the border.

As a result, the early 1890s saw a number of enterprises formed to establish boiling down operations near grazing country in northwest Queensland. One such company was the Carpentaria Meat Export Company (CMEC), registered in June 1891 with the intention of setting up a new meatworks facility at Burketown. The town had begun to repopulate in the 1880s. As a location for a cattle processing plant Burketown had a number of advantages, including its proximity to both the ‘Plains of Promise’ grazing country and coastal shipping via the Albert River. Rather than taking up the site of Burketown’s first boiling down works, the CMEC leased 22 acres (8.9ha) near the former Albert River Depot, approximately two kilometres downstream of the town.

The CMEC engaged ironmongers Burns and Twigg to design and supply equipment for their new Burketown boiling down works. Twigg & Co, later Burns and Twigg, had operated a foundry in Rockhampton from around 1877, and supplied machinery to Lakes Creek, Alligator Creek in Townsville, and the Barcaldine boiling down works. In February 1892 Burns and Twigg shipped 25 tons of machinery to Burketown, comprising ‘a pair of thirty-horse power Cornish boilers’. While installation work was undertaken, Queensland Governor Sir Henry Wylie Norman was shown over the site in April 1892, a highlight of his northern Queensland tour.

With the boilers in place by May 1892, the Burketown boiling down works received 40 bullocks for its inaugural process. The stock reportedly came from Lawn Hill, a station run by former Burketown boiling down works manager ER Edkins. Burketown’s first process coincided with the opening of two other Gulf boiling down works, ‘Dalgonally’ in Normanton and the Torrens Creek works. Despite this competition, Burketown’s works had a successful first season. Cattle numbers were still rising in North Queensland, peaking at 1.3 million in 1894 but with cattle prices still low there was a market for numerous boiling works.

Machinery upgrades were installed at Burketown before the processing season began afresh in March 1893. By April 1893 the works had its own train and wharf facilities. Though the works were closed briefly following an outbreak of tick fever, the works was processing over 100 bullocks per day by 1895, including stock from New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and South Australia. In June 1894 Burketown was the third largest producer of both tallow and hides and skins in Queensland, out-produced only by Townsville and Rockhampton.

In 1898, the CMEC was replaced by the Burketown Meat Export Company. The works was leased to the Endeavour Meat Export and Agency Company, which commenced operations on the 7th of June 1898. Three days later, a steaming vat of tallow sparked a fire, and the boiling down works burnt down. Within a day, Burketown residents had raised £400 for rebuilding, and meatworks employees offered a month’s labour for rations only. The company also sought assistance from the Queensland Government under the Meat and Dairy Produce Encouragement Act (1893) to rebuild. Engineer WH Swales, a partner in the Burketown Meat Export Company, was engaged to install new machinery, while the construction work was contracted to William Brown of Townsville.

Rebuilding was completed for the 1899 meatworking season, and the North Queensland Register described the redesigned Burketown boiling down works in detail in February 1899. A new ‘imposing, substantial building’ housed the works. Equipment which had survived the fire, including the boilers, digesters and refiners, had been repaired and refitted, while new machines including an extract plant, mincing or shredding machine and a filter press and pump were added to the works. A 12 horsepower horizontal engine made by British company Tangye powered the mincing machine, dynamo and bone lift. The works also featured slaughtering pens and drying space for the hides, an engine and repair room next to the boilers, electric plant (powered by a small one horsepower engine), a manure grinding mill and a coopers’ shed where tallow barrels could be made.

By the turn of the 20th century, the boiling down works was Burketown’s major employer. The town’s population boomed from 164 to 300 during the six month meatworking season, with meatworkers, firewood getters and drovers flocking to the works. The works also provided a market for a local salt industry, as salt was used to tan hides and preserve meat. However, the Endeavour Meat Export and Agency Company succumbed to financial difficulties and wound up in March 1901.

The Burketown works was taken over by the Queensland Meat Export and Agency Company (QMEA), which was expanding its operations into the Gulf. Considerable improvements, including canning and preserving facilities, allowed for the treatment of 10, 000 cattle in 1901 and 1902. QMEA’s November 1901 export report indicated that Burketown was the second largest supplier to the London market, exporting 1, 588 cases of canned meat and 212 casks of tallow compared to Townsville’s 7, 275 cases of canned meat and 707 casks of tallow. Dalgonally, also operated by QMEA and formerly the larger of the Gulf meatworks, exported 801 cases of canned meat and 82 casks of tallow.

Despite this apparent success, there were hints of the Burketown works’ uncertain future. Cattle numbers in North Queensland dropped to a record low in the wake of a significant drought, and large numbers of graziers walked off their runs rather than restocking. In November 1903, a QMEA director suggested that the meatworks would only operate in 1904 ‘if cattle became plentiful’, and noted that unlike freezing works, Burketown’s limited operations did not use every part of the processed animals. Operations at Burketown were discontinued around 1904. A 1912 enquiry into the meat industry blamed transport difficulties, high wages, and lack of stock for the closure. Despite its eight year hiatus, the inquiry confirmed that the Burketown machinery was still in ‘good order’, though the meatworks buildings were reportedly being ‘eaten away by termites’.

QMEA retained the Burketown property until 1914. Rumours circulated that the buildings would be restored or removed, but the new proprietors appear to have had little interaction with the site. The buildings were removed in the late 1910s or early 1920s, possibly for reuse at another meatworks. A range of machinery was left on site, including the Burns and Twigg Cornish boilers, a Colonial Boiler and a set of vertical boilers, three engines, and other miscellany. No reference was made to the ship’s tank, though it was likely on the site at the time. Ships’ tanks were used all over Australia to store food and water. They were particularly useful in remote areas which lacked a guaranteed water supply. The tank on the site may have been left from Landsborough’s expedition: the Firefly sank in the river near the meatworks site, and an attempt to salvage two of her tanks was made some time in the 19th century. The tank has no other identification, such as a maker’s mark; these marks were usually on the tank lid, which has not survived.

From June 1917 the Burketown lease (Special Lease 472) was divided in two and leased to local residents, although they seem to have undertaken little activity on the site. Both tenants forfeited their leases and left Burketown by the early 1920s. The land was resurveyed as Portion 78 and gazetted as a Pound Reserve in July 1926. The old meatworks equipment, machinery, bricks, and other remnants remained on site, attracting sightseers who came to visit the nearby Landsborough tree.

In 2015 the Federal Court recognised the non-exclusive native title of the Gangalidda people over the site. The site remains in the trusteeship of the Burke Shire Council.

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

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