The Ross River Meatworks Chimney is a heritage-listed abattoir at Stuart Drive, Idalia, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

[1] Although the wool industry was the impetus for early pastoral activity in Queensland, cattle soon proved better suited to the wetter conditions in northern areas.

However, early development of a Queensland cattle industry was hindered by the lack of a sufficiently large market for fresh beef.

Entrepreneur and businessman Robert Towns (after whom Townsville is named) and his business partner John Melton Black founded the settlement at Cleveland Bay to supply their pastoral leases in the hinterland.

At Cleveland Bay, the Queensland Meat Export Company established a meatworks south of Townsville on Alligator Creek in 1879, using some of the equipment from Towns' factory.

During the 1870s the increase in population at newly opened Queensland gold fields, particularly on the Palmer River, provided a ready market for beef.

Following the drought of 1884-1886 cattle were driven overland to southern markets, but droving costs led to a huge reduction in profitability.

[1] Australian experimentation with meat-freezing works and the fitting out of refrigerated ships to carry frozen meat to Britain was initiated in Sydney and Melbourne, with mixed results.

The Central Queensland Meat Export Company's works at Lakes Creek installed freezing equipment in 1883, but was burnt down shortly after.

In 1889 the North Queensland Meat Export Company restarted the Alligator Creek works, initially for boiling down and preserving, and later utilising the freezing equipment from Poole Island.

In the freezing room, the two compound engines could produce 400 horsepower each and each machine could circulate 170,000 cubic feet of air per hour.

In August 1892 the Ross River meatworks was inspected by New Zealand industry experts, who described the works as "superior to any in the colony - actively engaged in the meat export trade".

Transport from Ross River was problematic with the meat taken by rail to the Townsville wharf, then loaded aboard a lighter, and reloaded for shipping to London.

The next shipment to reach England in mid-January included meat from the company's recently opened Eagle Farm meatworks, but was partially spoilt.

The Queensland Meat and Export Agency Company applied for funds to duplicate and upgrade both the Townsville and Eagle Farms works.

Even during the drought and the problems associated with ticks in the early 1900s, the Ross River Meatworks was producing more meat than any other establishment in Australasia.

By 1915 the company restructured, forming two organisations - the Queensland Meat Export and Agency Co Ltd (QME&A) and Australia Stock Breeders Company Ltd.[1] During 1918-1919 there was a series of protracted strikes at the Ross River and Alligator Creek meatworks, which began with the workers' rejection of compulsory arbitration in favour of direct bargaining.

By July 1919 the ongoing dispute degenerated to the point where riots occurred in Townsville with police firing shots to disperse the crowd of 1000 people who were protesting the imprisonment of strike leaders.

Ross River works were run down by then and suffered considerable losses in 1951 and 1954, due to prolonged industrial disputes, increasing wages, drought and government controls on exports.

In 1955 the Vestey company bought the meatworks and began replacing old dilapidated buildings and introduced new killing and processing mechanised operations, reducing staff.

Export markets changed from the United Kingdom to America during the 1960s and in more recent times to Japan, Korea and South East Asia.

The meatworks remained the major employer in Townsville and by 1990 had a record year, processing 93,601 beasts, handling 27 percent of the north Queensland production.

Despite an unusual alliance between the union and animal liberation activists aimed at stopping the live meat trade, they were unsuccessful.

Smorgon announced the closure of the Ross River meatworks in February 1995 arguing that the business was no longer profitable because of drought, live cattle exports and the falling Australian dollar, and it was part of a general divestment of company assets at the time.

[1] The Meatworks along with its 40-metre (130 ft) tall stack, stayed empty for two years until the land was bought by the developer of Fairfield waters, who looked upon the stack and the three gable buildings alongside it as something the public would like, had plans of turning the chimney as a public monument and three buildings into a brewery alongside the meatworks.

[3] Jenny Hanlon (Leader of the fight) gained support from the local community via Text to the Editor in the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.

In 2009, the chimney stands in the north of a large, vacant residential subdivision, part of the Fairfield Waters development in south Townsville.

[1] The plinth is distinguished by a plain oversized cornice and the northwest, northeast and southeast faces are relieved by an indented rectangular mid-panel defined by a bevelled cement perimeter band.

[1] A public walking/cycling track winds along the south bank of the Ross River and as it passes the chimney it is about 20 metres (66 ft) from the face of the plinth.

[1] Ross River Meatworks Chimney was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 August 2009 having satisfied the following criteria.