Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 22 October 1860, page 5


REMOVAL OF THE SLAUGHTER HOUSES

FROM SYDNEY.

On the 1st of October all the butchering establish-ments were removed from Sydney, by a proclamation issued by the Government under an Act of the Legis-lature prohibiting further slaughtering within the city. This act was passed about six years ago, and the public abattoirs at Glebe Island were com-menced shortly afterwards; but in consequence of a change of plan on the part of the Government when little more than the foundations of the abattoirs were laid, the work was stopped, and was only recom-menced last year. The abattoirs consist of two paral-lel ranges of stone buildings, each two hundred and twenty feet in length, the one consisting of twelve slaughter-houses for beef, and the other the same number of slaughter-houses for mutton. The leases of these were sold by auction a month before they were opened, and were taken mostly by separate butchers at a slight advance upon the upset prices, which were, £ 150 per annum for the slaughter-houses for beef, and £100 per annum for those for the mutton. Easy and expeditious communication with Sydney is afforded by means of double punts, worked by steam, which run between the island and the western shore of Pyr-mont, from which an excellent road has been con-structed to join the Pyrmont-bridge road, bringing the abattoirs within a mile and a quarter of the George-street markets. These punts will be superseded in a few months on the completion of a bridge between Glebe Island and Pyrmont, the first pile of which was driven last week. The length of the bridge will be 1045 feet, and its width 28 feet ; it will have a swivel close to the Pyrmont side to allow of vessels passing. The work is being carried on under the direction of the Engineer for Harbours, and will cost £15,825. The bridge will be open for traffic in July next, and will afford a much shorter communication by lund between Balmain and the adjoining suburbs of Sydney.

The new abattoirs have hitherto worked very satis -factorily, the buildings being spacious and commodious and the various arrangements convenient. The meat is sold at the abattoirs to the re-tail butchers, the vendors delivering it in their own carts. The whole of the slaughterhouses are occupied, excepting two of each kind reserved by the Government for the smaller butchers to slaughter single animals in; these have been but little used. The only expense incurred by the slaughterers, be-sides the rental of the abattoirs, is a fee of threepence per head of cattle for inspection. The number of animals slaughtered at the public abattoirs during the first fortnight of their opening was as follows : cattle, 811 ; sheep, 3469 ; calves, 68 ; and pigs, 520.

Some abattoirs at Collingwood, near Liverpool, on the Great Southern Railway, erected four years ago by Mr. Atkinson, have been leased to five of the principal carcase butchers, and supply the city with a large quantity of meat. These consist of three

slaughterhouses, two for cattle and one for sheep, each forty feet by twenty. The doors open above the railway siding, so that the meat is with little handling hung in the vans, and conveyed ulong the line to a shed adjoining the Sydney terminus, where it is sold to the rfctail butchers, the first train arriving soon after five o'clock. The first fortnight's slaughtering at Collingwood was, - 447 head cattle and 825 sheep.

Another establishment, which sends down meat to the metropolitan market, is the abattoirs at Newing-ton belonging to Mr. Blaxland. The meat arrives daily in a small steamer built for the purpose, and is sold at the wharf. The quantity brought down is about 80 bullocks and 150 sheep weekly.

The removal of the slaughterhouses from Sussex-street and from Blackwattle Swamp has already effected great improvement in those parts of the city, both in doing away with the offensive and noxious odour arising frem the operations, and also in pre-venting the frequent accidents which have arisen from the escape of infuriated cattle from the yards.