THE last butcher in Boggabri was set to close up shop only a couple of weeks ago – but there’s been an 11th-hour reprieve, after two local people stumped up an investment in keeping them open.
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New Boggabri Meats manager Paul Higgins – who worked at the butcher under its previous ownership – said the two men, who wanted to remain anonymous, were backing the store on the proviso it make a profit within 90 days.
The small village between Gunnedah and Narrabri was set to lose two businesses – the butcher and the nearby Battler’s Café, which has since closed.
“These guys are guardian angels,” Mr Higgins said of the butcher’s new owners.
“If they didn’t come to the rescue, she’d be shut today.
“It takes a bit of pressure off the older people. A lot of them can’t drive. I believe this is going to work. My main concern is: are people going to support it?”
Boggabri has been without a butcher once before and, according to Boggabri Business Promotion Association president John Shaw, a second closure would have had a domino effect on other businesses in town.
Local businesses have sent around a flier to Boggabri residents, urging them to spend locally to ensure their businesses are here to stay.
A relieved member of Boggabri Lions, Roger Hollingworth, was among those lining up for a meat order at Boggabri Meats this week.
Mr Hollingworth said Lions held regular barbecues for staff at Boggabri Coal, feeding about 500 people at shift changes.
“This is great,” he said.
“We were very concerned. We didn’t know where we were going to go.”
Mr Hollingworth said the size of their meat order for the barbecues would mean bringing eight big Eskies full of meat back from Gunnedah in a ute, and the meat would need to be stored somewhere until early the next day. He said the organisation had been forced to consider buying its own coldroom for the purpose.
“The reopening of the butcher shop is a godsend to us,” he said.
Mr Hollingworth said the butcher’s shop was also a key player in the very popular Boggabri Drover’s Campfire event.
One of the “guardian angels”, who asked not to be named, said the idea to save the butcher’s shop seemed like a good one over a beer or two.
“It was closed for a long time the first time,” he said.
“Then, when the grocery store shut, it really put a dampener on the town.”
He said the reopening of Boggabri Meats by Justin Hall and Lea Baldwin in 2013 had come at a great time when the mines were expanding.