Drought closing shops in the bush

While demand remains strong for the award-winning naturally grown beef and lamb and the Hetherington family is looking to continue developing their online business, the huge costs outlaid every month and uncertain returns made the shopfront unviable when they had little meat for sale.

A flow on effect of drought for rural communities is the belt tightening consumers undertake to manage their own mounting costs and loss of income, which Mitchell Grass Meats co-owner Anna Hetherington said would have a long-term effect all around the west.

“In a retail business, you’ve got so many costs to keep up – staff to pay, electricity, rates and rent, money invested in stock –and some days they’re just not seeing enough customers through the doors to cover these costs.” she said.

“It’s been a very uncertain time for everyone, not just people on properties, and I think it shows how much our towns are linked to what happens on the land.

“People put so much work into their businesses – times like this are a real concern for so many.”

The Hetheringtons opened their Longreach butchery in 2012 in order to have more ownership of the full processing business, and to meet demand for their chemical free meat from the local community.

They were employing a full-time butcher and an apprentice butcher, both of which lost their jobs with the January decision to close.

“Things were so grim,” Anna said. “We had rain last February then very little until now.

“By early December, we had processed the last animals we could and hoped for rain to change the situation.

“We’d got to the point where we’d exhausted all options for a viable local supply and we didn’t want to start buying meat in from away.”

Small business closures and the loss of staff has a flow-on effect throughout small communities, as Anna is all too aware, when there are less people to buy things and fewer needing services.

She believes government attention to high wage costs in small businesses would help stimulate jobs growth and in turn help all in the community.

“Landholders and other small business owners are doing more and more themselves with less and less labour.

“There’s plenty of work but people just can’t afford to employ more, and the skills base is being reduced at the same time.”

She also believed small business development grants and facilities would help stimulate small business activity across rural Australia.

“There are plenty of good ideas, enthusiasm and skills but small business owners within the rural industry need encouragement and a boost to get things going.”

In the meantime, some recent rain at the Hetherington’s Longreach property Muyong has boosted the supply side and the sheep especially have responded well to the green pick coming up.

“Some are nearly ready and we’ll be back processing soon,” Anna said.

“We know this type of meat sells and the demand from away hasn’t lessened, so our online business will still be there.

“It’s been a setback but we’ll come back again.”