Australian Town and Country Journal at KellyGang 8/6/1872 (4)
I must return to my task by stating that among the private residences of Echuca the finest is that of Mr James Shackles. It is a splendid building, two storeys high, and in the Elizabethan style of architecture. It is erected almost on the border of the town, and the grounds about are laid out with considerable taste. This completed our morning's work, and in the afternoon buggies were got out, and your correspondent had a seat in Mr James Shackles' buggy, to which were attached a dashing pair of horses. With such a whip as Mr Shackles "going to the country" was thoroughly enjoyed on that fine afternoon. We passed through open forest country, mp the left bank of the Murray for several miles.
After calling at a few places, we came to the Riverine Meat-Preserving Company’s Works. These works, about three and a half mile above Echuca, were erected at a cost of about £12,000. Successive floods considerably damaged the property, and the original company was broken up. Under the new company and a really practical manager, Mr T W Chambers, the works are again making favourable headway. In an article like the present, it is impossible to give a full technical description of the various processes of meat preserving, therefore it will suffice to give an outline of what is to be seen. The nominal capital of the company is £20,000
The works cover four or five acres of ground, and 100 men being employed, the place presents the appearance of a township. A Public School and inn are already on the ground. We first visited the slaughtering yard where 1300 sheep per day have been disposed of. No so many are now killed daily, as they are not in full work. From the killing yard we went into the shop were 500 or 600 sheep were skinned and dressed as if for market. All the sheep are here cut up, and the bones taken out.
The meat is then put into caldrons and par boiled, while part of the bones are being boiled in coppers to make a kind of jelly or liquor to cover the meat when tined. When parboiled the meat is taken out of the caldrons, cut up and weighed, and put into the tins. By a funnel the liquor or jelly is poured in, and the tins are then passed through au opening in the wall to the next compartment. Here two men are engaged soldering them up, after which process they are put through another opening into a third department. Here the tins are finally closed, and all air excluded. Immediately afterwards they are submerged in immense vats. They are then taken out and placed in the testing room, which has a temperature of 120 degrees.
Those tins which have convex lids are condemned, while those with concave lids are sent to the packing room, where they are painted and labelled "Boileau," that being the name of the works. The packing cases are made on the ground, of pine principally. Each is capable of holding four dozen 2lb tins, two dozen 4lb tins, or one dozen 5lb tins, and of these sizes they are prepared for market. The tins are also made on the ground, and the process is a most interesting one. Eight men are employed making tins, and beside those there are four finishers and four labourers. The dies were cut by Mr O Bobardt, of Melbourne.
The tallow room is also well arranged. Shoots rum from the boilers, and trap holes from the shoots open over the casks below. Immense boilers of 30 horses power and several small engines are on, the ground, Tramways run through and intersect the yards. The outside yards are crossed with hundreds of wooden lines on which the sheepskins are hung to dry.
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