AGY-983 | Metropolitan Meat Industry Board [I]

Full description

A public outcry over Sydney’s meat supply led to an inquiry in 1902 by the Parliamentary Public Works Committee which recommended the re-establishment of the Glebe Island Abattoir at a new site. The Sydney Abattoir Construction Act, 1906 authorised the building of a new abattoir and appurtenances at Homebush Bay. Excessive delays in construction of the new facility led to a Royal Commission in 1913 resulting in additions and alterations to the work in progress.

The Metropolitan Meat Industry Board [I] was established by the Meat Industry Act, 1915 (Act No. 69, 1915) (1) to control and maintain abattoirs, cattle sale yards, meat markets, and slaughterhouses within the County of Cumberland. No meat could be brought into the Metropolitan Abattoir Area without the consent of the Board.

By the late 1920s the operations of the State Abattoir at Homebush included animal slaughtering, the harvesting of by products - tallow, dripping, lard, oils, fertiliser, sinews, hoofs, hair, bones, and horns, - with meat distribution by motor vans to butchers, and rail to the Pyrmont Meat Depot. Mutton and lamb carcasses for export were refrigerated in the Cold Storage Depot. The Animal Food Department produced Meat Industry Board Poultry Food while the Chemical Research Department was responsible for rennet production plus the removal of sewerage effluence and noxious odours. Condemnations of diseased meat and the screening of infected animals were undertaken by the Board’s Meat Inspectors and Veterinary Officers (2).

Outside the Metropolitan Abattoir Area meat inspections were sometimes carried out by the Board’s staff however, a number of public agencies could be involved in regional New South Wales. During the 1920s responsibility for meat inspection in the Illawarra District was divided up between by a Metropolitan Meat Industry Board Inspector, Municipal Health Officer, and two Police Constables. (3)

Under the terms of the Meat Industry (Amendment) Act, 1932 (Act No.62, 1932) the Metropolitan Meat Inspection Board [I] was replaced by a Metropolitan Meat Industry Commissioner and an Advisory Council.

Endnotes
1. Assented to 31 December 1915, NSW Government Gazette, 7 January 1916, p.60.
2. Resume of the Operations of the Metropolitan Meat Inspection Board for the year ended 30 June 1928 in the Joint Volumes of the Parliamentary Papers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, 1928-29, Vol. 4, pp. 935-938 and Resume of the Operations of the Metropolitan Meat Inspection Board for the year ended 30 June 1929 in the Joint Volumes of the Parliamentary Papers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, 1929-30, Vol. 4, pp. 1003-1006.
3. Report of the Royal Commission (Ernest Arthur Prior, Esquire) upon the Meat Industry within the South Coast and Illawarra Districts of New South Wales in the Joint Volumes of the Parliamentary Papers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, 1930-31-32, Vol. 5, p. 1033.