Nolan Meats this year celebrates 60 years in the processing and meat industry. What started with Pat Nolan and his wife Marie owning outright a butcher shop in Mary Street Gympie in 1959 wanting most likely to only provide for his family and provide quality local product for his immediate community is now a worldwide-recognised red meat brand associated with quality, commitment and excellence.
Today this fully integrated operation at any one time would have in excess of 20,000 head on cattle on feed in the company’s feedlot operation to finish for the restaurant and wholesale trade as well as their many international markets. The latest development was in 2017 when the company commissioned the Distribution Centre locally in Gympie that was officially opened in August that same year. This enabled the company to bring their Brisbane distribution centre and and coldstore facility back to Gympie, providing more employment opportunities for local Gympie residents. The Nolans are proud of their community and the feeling is mutual with the locals.
The family rightly celebrated with the community, staff and business associates at the Gympie racecourse last Saturday and this family operation with Pat’s sons Tony, Michael and Terry driving the company forward will certainly ensure the Nolan brand continues the quality excellence it enjoys in the markets where the brand competes. It is hard to imagine that there would today be another young person in a country butcher shop that would have the same drive as Pat all those years ago, who will never use the word “can’t” in his vocabulary.
A souvenir edition “Tongues and Tales” has been published to recognise the company’s achievements to date and is a wonderful summary of events from the family as well as long serving staff members that captures the Nolan Meats story.
The Breakfast Creek Hotel has a fine reputation for the best steaks in town and is a proud customer of the Nolan Meats Private Selection beef cuts. Each year for the past 30 or so, in a tradition started by the late Gordon McNichol, proprietor of Sunstate Coaches, and Brisbane’s oldest teenager, Stan Wallace, the bus departed the Brekky Creek for a day at the Gympie races.
Breakfast Creek Hotel manager Sam Gullo packed the bus again this year with hardened punters and characters from the popular Brisbane establishment. What a mix it was – accountants, restaurateurs, fruit wholesalers, share traders, reporters and agents of all persuasions provided for a very entertaining day. The entertainment and refreshments started once all boarded at 9am and continued throughout the day. Sam was also responsible for the on-board refreshments and we just happened to run out of supplies about an hour out of Brisbane on the return trip. When we arrived back at The Creek, there was a rush to the public bar by all on board. Well done/organised Sam!
Congratulations to Santos for their generous donation to the Queensland and NSW drought appeals. Not only did Santos provide sponsorship of the Ekka’s Champion of Champions and Droughtmaster competitions, they also donated $75,000 to each of the states for relief funding. On top of that, the proceeds from the cattle that Santos marketed in the prime section of the show, grossing some $41,000, were also donated. Elders, the marketing agents for the Santos show cattle, also donated their marketing fees. Total donations from the company for the week amounted to close on $200,000. Santos has a number of rural property investments and breed predominantly from a Droughtmaster base of breeders in the Injune district. I think it is wonderful to see company’s like Santos, who are more recognised as oil and gas producers, prepared to engage whole-heartedly in agricultural industries and by being exhibitors and sponsors at the Ekka show a great commitment to the communities in which they operate and the great support they give rural and regional areas of Queensland and NSW.
