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In early June, I departed Dublin Airport and headed across the world to Queensland, Australia. Despite travelling almost 16,000km, it is true to say that the world remains a very small place. On informing my aunties and uncles of my itinerary, it turns out that I have landed myself into the very region of Australia where my great-uncle Fr Joseph Meade served as a priest for many years. ‘‘Fr Joe’’ as he was known was based in Emerald, Rockhampton, and is buried in Bundaberg, along the east coast of Queensland.
The roads turned from tar to dirt
I grimaced at the thought of 33 hours of planes, airport transfers and idle time, but what took me less than three days took Fr Joe almost six months by boat back in the 1950s and 1960s.
After landing in Emerald, I headed 65km southeast and as the roads turned from tar to dirt near the small town of Comet, we reached Goonoo farm and feedlot. Here, I will spend the next six weeks in what can only be described as rural, outback Australia.
Goonoo farm and feedlot is run by the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo). AACo is a world-leading provider of beef and agricultural products. AACo owns and operates a strategic balance of properties, feedlots and farms comprising around seven million hectares of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory. This equates to roughly 1% of Australia’s land mass. Having been established in 1824, it is the oldest continuously operating company in Australia.
The AACo’s base at Goonoo encompasses tillage and beef enterprises. Approximately 7,000ha of land is farmed to produce fodder. Of this 7,000ha, roughly 1,300ha is under irrigation with the remainder growing crops using dryland or zero-till tillage. The fodder produced is used to either graze stock or as ration composition for the beef feedlot. Crops such as oats, lablab and forage sorghum are grazed by younger stock in the fields, while barley, wheat and sorghum fatten the cattle in the feedlot.
Largest producer of Wagyu beef
The cattle on site number an astounding 30,000, approximately 21,000 beef animals are situated in the feedlot with younger stock grazing some of the 27,000ha here at Goonoo. The feedlot here is unique as it is the largest producer of Wagyu beef in the southern hemisphere, renowned for its extreme marbling and flavour.
Although it has only been a short time since my arrival, so far it has been a wholly positive culture shock for me. The laidback, easy-going nature of the people has made it very easy to settle in. The array of wildlife is incredible, from kangaroos to cockatoos, from pelicans to koala bears, butterflies to Wagyu cattle, it is a haven of creatures and life.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to gain an insight not just into the way of life here, but delve into the scale of production in Australia. I believe my time here will offer me invaluable knowledge into a completely different production system to that of conventional Irish agriculture.
In my short stint living and working in Goonoo so far, I’m starting to understand why Fr Joe called Queensland his home.
James Meade is an agricultural science student at UCD and travels on the professional work experience programme supported by the Irish Farmers Journal and the Agricultural Science Association.
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