A group of King Island producers has banded together to ensure residents and tourists can buy locally produced meat.
Story Terri Cowley Photos Neil Newitt
In the main street of Currie on King Island, where you really have to be if you want to run a successful shop on this industrious Tasmanian outpost, a classy looking butchery with wood panelling on the outside and retro tiling on the inside is bustling. A steady stream of locals drops in to pick up meat, always staying for a chat with those serving behind the counter. Everyone knows everyone, of course. A dry-ageing fridge displays various cuts of meat like art exhibits. Controlled temperature and humidity – for up to 50 days – results in a nutty flavour and tenderness for $85/kg.
King Island Meat Providore was established in March 2022. For many decades there had been an island butcher shop, but it stopped serving local meat when JBS Australia’s King Island abattoir closed in 2012, meaning most King Island livestock is sent away to abattoirs elsewhere. A community-supported initiative led to the establishment of a small, multi-species abattoir in 2017, and this is where King Island Meat Providore sources its local meats. The shop sells two full yearling bodies a week, plus 10–12 lambs, many of those grown by one of the directors of the company, Steph Ellis, who works with her father Robbie Payne. Where meat can’t be sourced locally (such as with pork and chicken) it will at least come from elsewhere in Tasmania.
This story excerpt is from issue #163
Outback Magazine: Oct/Nov 2025
