Country View at Blayney Abattoir, long shadows stretch across the cool room hall, where broken windows reveal glimpses.

01 Blayney AbattoirBlayney2016

ISO 1001/100f/8.024mm

Series · 25 prints

Blayney Abattoir

Photographed 2016
Frames 25
Camera NIKON D7000
Location New South Wales, Australia
Status Disused since 1998/1999
Years 1957 to 1998
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

At peak the Blayney Abattoir employed about 1,600 people, one of the largest workforces in Central West New South Wales. The site had been a butter factory and freezing works from at least 1900, converted to an abattoir in 1957. ANZCO Foods, the New Zealand owner since 1996, announced closure in March 1998 with about 600 workers given a week's pay.

The plant ran on multiple floors, one per species. The mutton floor carried two chains, the larger processing 3,000 to 4,000 sheep a day and the smaller around 1,500. Beef ran at 250 to 400 cattle a day and pig at around 400; cold stores, holding pens, boning rooms and packing rooms filled out the rest of the building.

At full daily capacity the plant could handle around 5,500 sheep, 350 cattle and 400 pigs, sent into domestic and export markets. ANZCO's purchase fit a trans-Tasman meat industry consolidation pattern through the 1990s. The company cited stock shortage as the reason for closure; the Australian Meat Industry Employees' Union named economic factors, with the Asian financial crisis sitting in the trade-press background.

In the weeks before final shutdown the workforce had fallen from 1,600 to about 100. The plant has stood disused since 1999. A major project listing on the NSW Planning Portal records that redevelopment of the site has been formally considered through the state planning system; current status is unconfirmed.

Australian Abattoirs (Blayney), NSW Department of Planning (Blayney Abattoir) and Wikipedia (Blayney, New South Wales)

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1900
1957
1996
1998
1999
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Country View at Blayney Abattoir, long shadows stretch across the cool room hall, where broken windows reveal glimpses.
Country View
Main Loading Yard at Blayney Abattoir, red brick buildings line both sides of the main loading yard at Blayney Abattoir.
Main Loading Yard
Cool Room Hall at Blayney Abattoir, this corridor once linked the kill floor to the chillers, lined with workers stamping.
Cool Room Hall
Cold Storage at Blayney Abattoir, steel rails run in parallel lines across the ceiling, fixed to a grid of metal.
Cold Storage
Kill Floor at Blayney Abattoir, steel columns rise from a concrete floor divided into shallow bays and drainage channels.
Kill Floor
Yard Facing Southeast at Blayney Abattoir, this wide concrete yard once pulsed with daily movement, now overtaken.
Yard Facing Southeast
Wash Room at Blayney Abattoir, a shaft of light falls through an open window onto cracked floor tiles.
Wash Room
Bottom Holding Area at Blayney Abattoir, a grid of steel uprights stretches into the distance, framing the remains.
Bottom Holding Area
Washing Area at Blayney Abattoir, a corridor opens into a wider room where the floor sits dark and bare.
Washing Area
Showers at Blayney Abattoir, granite-faced partitions run in a long row down the left side, stepping back toward a tiled.
Showers
Dark Hallway at Blayney Abattoir, a narrow concrete corridor runs deep into shadow.
Dark Hallway
Toilet Block at Blayney Abattoir, stalls line both sides of this abandoned toilet block, their doors still mostly in place.
Toilet Block
Rendering Plant Machinery at Blayney Abattoir, disassembled equipment from the former rendering plant lies scattered.
Rendering Plant Machinery
Rendering Plant at Blayney Abattoir, this former blood pit at the rear of the rendering plant is now filled with rainwater.
Rendering Plant
Dressing Area at Blayney Abattoir, this part of the dressing line once processed carcasses after slaughter, beneath a grid.
Dressing Area
Top Holding Area at Blayney Abattoir, steel columns support a wide corrugated roof over a dirt floor thick with dried mud.
Top Holding Area
Downstairs Exit at Blayney Abattoir, a concrete corridor narrows toward a mesh gate at the far end, where grey light spills.
Downstairs Exit
Pig Kill Floor at Blayney Abattoir, steel I-beams span the ceiling above corrugated metal walls.
Pig Kill Floor
Train Line at Blayney Abattoir, corrugated iron roofing stretches over a timber-framed open bay.
Train Line
Pig Kill Floor South at Blayney Abattoir, this view across the pig kill floor leads toward the chillers, where the line.
Pig Kill Floor South
Hide Puller at Blayney Abattoir, a stainless steel bowl sits on crumpled tarpaulin beside an open floor chute.
Hide Puller
Beef Boning Room at Blayney Abattoir, light cuts across the boning room floor, once busy with movement and routine.
Beef Boning Room
Skin Shed at Blayney Abattoir, steel columns run in rows across a wide timber floor, supporting a corrugated iron roof held.
Skin Shed
Dead Sheep at Blayney Abattoir, a mass of raw wool and organic matter covers the tiled floor of a small washroom.
Dead Sheep
Office at Blayney Abattoir, this narrow hallway in the former office building is now scattered with ceiling panels.
Office
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

06 PRESS

In the press

Often I'd find myself looking at the machines and architecture and challenging myself to find one single object designed purely for aesthetics. Craftsmanship made way for efficiency in engineering long before I'd even left school.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

People talk about what it was like to work or stay in these places, who they knew, what they did, how great the Christmas parties were, that store man nobody liked, what all the different machines were, how they worked and what became of them.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

There's this sense of wonder you get when looking at abandoned buildings. You try to imagine what these spaces were like when they were filled with busy workers trying to meet production targets. And why did they close?

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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