Queensland Country Meats butcher Eddie Graham wins gold at regional WorldSkills butcher competition

One of Roma’s own has won gold at a regional event that saw him slice and dice his way through the competition. Find out how the sausage is made, and what goes into being a champion butcher.

Eddie Graham from Queensland Country Meats has claimed gold at the WorldSkills butcher competition.

While he is only a few years into this career as a butcher, Roma’s Eddie Graham has already proven to be a cut above.

“A butcher once told me, you can become a butcher in a week, but it doesn’t mean you’re any good,” he said.

At a recent competition Mr Graham put the pro in protein when he was crowned as the WorldSkills regional winner for Central West at a retail butchery competition.

Mr Graham said he and his boss at Queensland Country Meats, Paul Lavelle, packed into the car and set off to Emerald for the competition, where he competed on June 5.

While there, Mr Graham’s butchering skills wowed the judges, so much so he brought home gold at the Central West division, and is now on the Queensland skills team set to compete at next year’s national skills championship.

Eddie Graham started his butchery apprenticeship at Queensland Country Meats when he was in grade 12.

Mr Graham enrolled in a school-based apprenticeship at Roma’s Queensland Country Meats, when he was in year 12.

He said he always knew he wanted to be a butcher.

With both parents in the livestock industry, Mr Graham said he had been exposed to the meat processing industry from a young age.

“The meat industry is so big; It feeds the country, it feeds the world,” Mr Graham said.

He said in the time he’s spent completing his apprenticeship at Queensland Country Meats, he’s had some incredible experiences, and felt a real sense of camaraderie with his colleagues.

“I’m so lucky to have such an awesome crew,” he said.

This is the first competition Mr Graham has won but he has competed across the region before, including at Meatstock in Toowoomba.

Mr Graham said he has had some great experiences through his time as a butcher.

He said the crowd, lights and stage blew him away, but really the most valuable part was the people he met along the way.

Mr Graham is now a qualified butcher, and his boss, Mr Lavelle said he has big hopes for the young man.

“The very first time I met him I wasn’t sure,” Mr Lavelle said

Mr Graham and his boss, Paul Lavelle, at Meatstock in Toowoomba.

“But there was a flare that came out in him which I hadn’t seen in an apprentice before.

“With Eddie, nothing’s ever really a problem.

“He went from a boy to a man at a rate of knots.”

Mr Lavelle said attending butchery competitions was something he always encouraged, because it gives butchers of all skill levels the opportunity to upskill and train in different ways.

Eddie Graham was crowned the WorldSkills champion in the Central West butchery competition in Emerald on June 5.

Mr Lavelle also said he was struggling to find new apprentices to join the ranks on the butchery floor, a sentiment echoed across the industry, Australian Meat Industry Council Queensland state manager Tony Morgan said.

“We are already in a skill shortage, and finding apprentices that want to take up the trade is difficult when they have so many other options,” Mr Morgan said.

“This is a national issue, and we are working hard to address this, through programs such as AMIC’s Apprentice of the Year competition, WorldSkills and working with governments to promote the trade as a career.”

Mr Morgan said attracting apprentices to butchery was also challenging in circumstances where other apprenticeships can have higher remuneration.

The WorldSkills butcher competition asks the competitors to display a range of skills.

“For remote and regional areas there is also that added complexity that they are not close to a major town and that is predominantly a harder sell to come and live and work in a regional area,” he said.