From Strength to Strength by Sara Henderson

Author:Sara Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 1992-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

1971-1974

Drought had spread across most of America. Crops failed, the price of corn skyrocketed, and feed lots, closed right across the country. The profit margin between buying store cattle, feeding them corn, and selling the finished produce as table beef, disappeared.

The American range cattle, which had traditionally gone into the feed lots, were now used for the industrial beef market: small goods, hotdogs, tinned beef, spam and so on. America had imported only two per cent of its beef requirements from Australia, so it was just a short sneeze, but as it was the complete market for the north of Australia, we now had no market at all. So the prices plummeted. The meatworks paid us less for our cattle than it cost to get them there. This cattle depression lasted for seven years.

We struggled through the first year, but it was evident, even at the beginning of the season, that if the drought in America continued, we were in big trouble. There was no time to discuss private problems. Survival took up all our waking moments. So our private life was put on hold.

We started supplying Port Keats Aboriginal mission with beef. Port Keats was our next door neighbour, so to speak, across the Victoria River and north a bit. It had a large settlement of Aborigines, around three to four hundred people, and it was run by the Catholic church. The road into it was long, and almost non-existent, so it had difficulty getting supplies. Charles arranged to supply their beef by air, and so the Bullo River Family Abattoir was born.

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