The Air Beef scheme was an ambitious project designed to overcome the problem of having to drove cattle long distances in Australia's north-western Kimberley region before they could be slaughtered at a coastal port for shipping. With no roads or railways, the long drove caused the cattle to lose a lot of condition, and therefore value, before they could be killed.

On November 4, 1948, Air Beef Pty Ltd was founded as a consortium of Australian National Airways (ANA), MacRobertson Miller Airways (MMA) and a group of Western Australian pastoralists. The core of the scheme involved cattle being droved from surrounding stations to Glenroy Station, in the central Kimberley, where an abbatoir was built. From there, carcasses would be flown to Wyndham, and later Derby, for freezing and shipping. The distance from Glenroy to Wyndham is 300 miles (480 km).

Improving roads throughout the Kimberley meant that there was less need for air transport and consequently the scheme terminated in 1962.

The photos on this page were taken by DCA Radio Technician Colin Hayes in 1954. Colin was based in Hall's Creek, but travelled widely throughout the region to service radio equipment.

At the bottom of the page is a link to a downloadable article by Nick Stroud from The Aviation Historian magazine that gives a comprehensive history of the Air Beef scheme.

Above: MMA Douglas DC-3 VH-MML Gascoyne shows off the Air Beef logo. Each of the MMA aircraft was given the name of a region of Western Australia. Although MMA had operated the service in the first season, 1949, between 1950 and 1953 it was operated by ANA Bristol Freighters. However, in 1954 MMA once again took over, using VH-MML.

This aircraft was built in March 1945 as a C-47B-30-DK and allocated the USAAF serial 44-76613. It was transferred to the RAF under lend/lease as KN740 and found its way to Ceylon. After the war, in 1947, it was returned to the by-then USAAF and issued to the Pakistan Air Force as H-717. In 1954 it was sold in Britain for civil conversion, becoming G-ANMA briefly before delivery to Australia for MMA. In Australia it was converted to a freighter for Air Beef, reportedly becoming the world's lightest DC-3.

Above: The killing floor at the Glenroy abbatoir. Carcasses were chilled at Glenroy prior to transport, but the aircraft was not refrigerated, the air temperature on the flight to Wyndham being low enough to keep the meat fresh.

Left: Carcasses were moved from the chiller to the aircraft along a gantry.

Below: A general view of the gantry with carcasses being moved out to the parked DC-3. The aircraft end of the gantry was on wheels, enabling it to align with the aircraft's parked position.

Left: Even the MMA crew helped with the loading.

Below: Loading beef into VH-MML at Glenroy.

Above: A general view of the abbatoir at Glenroy from the aircraft, with the chiller being the nearest building.

Below: End of season celebrations at Glenroy. Gordon Blythe, one of the chief proponents of the Air Beef scheme is sitting on the bench wearing a shirt. Next to him with a towel in his hand is DCA Radio Technician Colin Hayes.

Above: VH-MML takes off from Glenroy's dusty airstrip.

Below: Changing spark plugs on the freighter's port engine at Glenroy. Colin Hayes recorded "We lost a motor on takeoff with 3 tons of beef and only just made it back."

Above: Up front in the DC-3. Passengers had to sit on the beef up the back as there were no other seats.

Below: VH-MML taxying up to the bowser at Wyndham for refuelling.

Above: Unloading at Wyndham. The carcasses were taken by truck for storage in a freezer at the Wyndham meatworks.

Below and bottom: A ship from the Blue Funnel Line loading beef for the UK at Wyndham jetty.

< Click on the icon at left to download Nick Stroud's article on the Air Beef scheme (1.9 MB .pdf file)