World Angus Forum at The Star Brisbane ballroom hosted a dinner with a beef difference

There’s been another startling carve-up at The Star – but this time it was in the brand new Queen’s Wharf ballroom.

Self styled “event butcher” Alison Meagher.

There’s been another startling high-steaks bloodbath and carve-up at The Star – but this time it was in the brand new ballroom at Queen’s Wharf, not in its boardrooms.

The Star Brisbane played host to more than 800 guests at a gala event last week as part of the World Angus Forum, visiting Brisbane for the first time this month.

And boy, were the knives out.

Event butcher Alison Meagher butchered a hindquarter of Angus beef live on stage at The Star ballroom in Brisbane.

For Citybeat: "Event butcher" Alison Meagher butchered a hindquarter of Angus beef live on stage at a ball in Brisbane.

It’s not often a black tie event requires the stage to be covered in plastic sheeting, and the speaker to wear rubber boots under her sparkly dress – but this was not your everyday slide show-powered corporate shindig.

Guests were “treated” to a display from self-proclaimed “event butcher” Alison Meagher, (illustrated) who butchered a hindquarter live on stage.

Delegates, who had enjoyed six beefy courses with matching wines, worked off their meat sweats on the dance floor before being herded out into the wilds of Brisbane.

Ambitions

Greg Brydon has been appointed Apollo Auctions first ever general manager and he reckons he has a “big. hairy audacious” goal for the company.

Founded in 2013 by Justin Nickerson, Apollo Auctions is the largest independent real estate auction house in Australasia and has a robust team of more than 35 auctioneers across Australia and New Zealand, collectively calling more than 7000 auctions annually.

Headquartered in Woolloongabba Brydon spent almost two years with Apollo as a master auctioneer after 15-year career in the real estate industry, spanning from administration to property management and sales.

He says he’s aiming to elevate Apollo Auctions further over the next 12 to 18 months by

increasing services for auctioneer contractors and sales agent clients.

Apollo Auctions general manager Greg Brydon.

“Our big hairy, audacious goal is for our team to be calling 10,000 auctions in the

2026 calendar year, as well as increasing our number of auctioneers to 50 across

Australia and New Zealand,” he says.

Brydon also plans to grow the existing team and cement Apollo Auctions as a

market leader in both the auction and training spaces.

“We want to be the identity of auctions across Australasia,” he says.

Nickerson says organic business growth in recent years has highlighted the need for a dedicated leadership role.

“It became apparent that we needed another leader within the business to focus on

growing our size and reach, provide additional support and leadership to our existing

stable of auctioneers, as well as recruiting new auctioneers,” he says.

Legal eagle

National law firm Holding Redlich has appointed Jonathan Usher as construction partner at its Brisbane office.

Usher has extensive experience advising on hotel, residential, commercial, industrial and mixed-use developments, as well as roads, gas, water and power projects across Australia and the Middle East.

Holding Redlich's new construction partner Jonathan Usher.

Usher, who has spent 13 years at construction specialists Usher Levi in the CBD, says Queensland continues to see significant infrastructure investment, particularly as we approach the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

“I’m pleased to be joining a team that supports clients at every stage of the project life cycle, delivering both front-end and back-end services,” he says.

Usher’s portfolio includes work on major road, rail, tunnel and port projects across Queensland and internationally, including the Bruce Highway upgrade, Townsville Port Access Road, and Yas Island’s F1 track and infrastructure in Abu Dhabi.