City Beat: Woodchop attracts top end of town to Ekka

The Ekka has attracted tens of thousands of Queenslanders and even some international superstars, but when it comes to some of the state’s most powerful political and corporate elites, there was only one place at the Brisbane Showgrounds to be seen.

North West Phosphate boss John Cotter has been a busy man at the Ekka this week.

Cotter has been officiating as councillor-in-charge of the woodchop and sawing events where some of the toughest axemen in the country have been doing battle.

Cotter took some time from his duties to put on a nice selection of wine and cheese in the woodchop corporate box where your diarist spotted some powerful movers and shakers including Governor Jeannette Young, Supreme Court Judge Thomas Bradley, Senator Susan McDonald and Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner. Business types in attendance included Indigo Group managing director Mitch Nielson, AAM Group’s Gary Edwards and Cliff Nicholls of Cox Architecture.

John Cotter.

Luckily your diarist wore his Ekka suit this year because Cotter called on him to present the winning sashes to some of the biggest man mountains he has ever come across. You need some serious muscle to wield axes against hardwood logs and these boys were the real deal.

When not busy at the Ekka, Cotter is a man on a mission to transform Australia’s agriculture sector and make farmers less reliant on imports of materials such as fertiliser.

The former town planner who grew up on a cattle station near Gympie is the head of North West Phosphate, a private company that plans to develop Queensland’s huge phosphate fertiliser reserves in the North West Minerals Province of Mt Isa.

It’s the biggest high-grade phosphate project in the southern hemisphere using a process that not only recovers high-grade phosphorus but rare earths.

BACON ROLL

Pork lovers will be heading to Kingaroy next week for the town’s annual Baconfest. Long known as the home of the peanut, pork is now king in Kingaroy with the Swickers Bacon Factory one of the largest employers in the South Burnett region.

Kingaroy now produces more than 20 per cent of Australia’s pork and processes 95 per cent of Queensland’s pigs. Sunpork, the company that operates the Swickers factory, has been big supporters of Baconfest since it’s inception in 2018.

Chef Matt Golinski in preparation for the Baconfest. Photo: Patrick Woods.

This year 35 of the nation’s top barbecue teams will descend on Kingaroy from August 19-21 to fight for the title of Sunpork Smoke-Off Grand Champion. Sunpork fresh foods chief commercial officer Rhys Collins says the Swickers plant now employs 850 people, an increase of 250 people since the factory was given a $103m facelift in 2019.

As the only export-accredited pig abattoir in Queensland, Swickers has increased its hourly processing numbers from 540 to 750 pigs as well as adding a new slaughter floor, freezers, chillers, and offal rooms. The boning room was razed to the ground by fire in 2016 putting hundreds of jobs at risk but thankfully no employment was lost.

MUSEUM MOVES

The Queensland Museum Network has appointed two experienced academics to its board. Griffith University deputy vice-chancellor Professor Shaun Ewen and Kyl Murphy, a non-executive director of South Bank Corporation, will join the museum board for a three-year term. The board acknowledged the work of QUT adjunct professor Bronwyn Harch, who is retiring from her board position after three years.

Queensland Museum Network chief executive Jim Thompson says it is an honour to welcome “highly esteemed and dynamic professionals to the board.” “Professor Ewen and Kyl Murphy both have distinguished careers in the education sector, research

and policy analysis, indigenous health and leadership as well as proven commercial acumen,” Thompson says. The network includes the Queensland Museum including SparkLab,

The Workshops Rail Museum at Ipswich, Toowoomba’s Cobb+Co Museum, the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville and the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying.

Kyl Murphy.