Queensland Meat Export Company Pty Ltd, Townsville, Archive
Ross River Meatworks began operation in the 1890s and developed into a major exporter in the Townsville region. Its economic contribution to Townsville, both as exporter and as local supplier of beef, has been considerable. The closure of the meatworks in 1995 ended a century of periodic expansion, conflict between producers and processors and between employer and employees, of keeping pace with industry changes, adjusting to variations in export demand, being prey to the weather, and coping with international and national economic restructuring.
Archive Location: 340L-340R, Special Collections Map Drawer 12, QMET 238 (painting) at separate location.
Detailed Listing
QMET 1. Register of Employees 1940s - 1950s, log book.
QMET 2. Bentley's Complete Phrase Code, E. L. Bentley, London, 1912 (with private supplement of additional codes for local firms and stations).
QMET 3. Collection of newspaper clippings of Meat Industry 1966 - 1984.
QMET 4. Technical Handbook - Offals and Fancy Meats, Australian Meat Board, 1970 (booklet).
QMET 5. An Introduction to Australian Export Meat, Australian Meat Board, n.d. (booklet).
QMET 6. The Imperial Organisation, W. Angliss and Co., Sydney, n.d. (booklet).
QMET 7. Report on the Application for the Establishment of a State School at Oonoonba - 1918 (3 pages, photocopies).
QMET 8. Site plans for works site x 3 (photocopies).
QMET 9. Certificates of Appreciation from TPA & I Association 107, 108, 109, 111 and 112th Annual Exhibitions.
QMET 10. Report on QME office building by Clayton Pemberton and Associates Pty. Ltd. n.d. with coloured photographs in booklet.
QMET 11. Photographs of employees and buildings x 14, n.d. (photocopies).
QMET 12. Memorandum of transfers (land) to 1955 (6 pages, photocopies).
QMET 13-58. Certificates of Land Title, 1886 to 1975 - incomplete (photocopies).
QMET 59-64. Deeds of Grants of Land 1901 to 1969 - incomplete (photocopies).
QMET 65-237. Certificate of Registration and Licence Renewals File, 1977 to 1983 - letters, memos, certificates, application forms and other material relating to abattoir licence, export licence, Factories and Shop Act, Clean Air Act, annual registration, Trademark, Flammable and Combustible Liquids Act, and Meat and Bone Meal Requirements.
QMET 238. Water colour and Indian ink landscape painting of Ross River Meatworks, Townsville, c. 1900 (60cm x 120cm) framed.
QMET 239. Laminated reproduction photographs (17 in total, with accompanying annotations) of the Ross River Meatworks site and operations during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Located in the Reading Room Cabinet, Drawer 12.
QMET 240. "Looking Back 19/2/1996", with brief comment on the freezing works, and following high quality b/w photographs and set of negatives taken at the W. Weddel & Co. stand at Smithfield meat market, London:
i. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1959
ii. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1960
iii. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1960
iv. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1963
v. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1965
vi. Townsville Agricultural Society Show Beef 1968
vii. Probably inside Ross River Meatworks, with caption on back, "circa 1957"
QMET 241. Article, notes and photographs on restoration of c.1910 Merryweather fire engine imported into Townsville as a private fire appliance for a large meatworks at Alligator River, south of Townsville
QMET 242. Aus-Meat Accreditation 1987 - two colour photographs recording this event
QMET 243. Unidentified and undated colour photographs, presumably Ross River Meatworks
QMET 244. Three negatives of aerial shots of Ross River Meatworks' plant
QMET 245. Documentation/correspondence regarding the Ross River Meatworks' centenary, 1890-1990
QMET 246. Roll of negatives, marked "Townsville Sept. 1960"'
