Number 21 Map 1B Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
In the late 1880's, on King Road Wilberforce, a butcher's shop and abattoir were established by a Mr Patrick Daley. On a weekly basis Mr Daley would sell one beef, one pig and two lambs, travelling the district by horse and cart.
Fast forward over a hundred years later and I am greeted by a smiling Dean Diasinos, whose mother and father, Angela and Michael, bought the butchery and abattoir in 1990. Michael's own father and his brothers ran a butchery in Oxford Street Paddington - Dias Bros. - for many years, and Michael went on to have his own shop in Burwood.
Michael Diasinos..
Michael is clearly still very much involved in the butchery, although Dean has run it for the last eleven years, since he was 20 years old. Dean says that Michael has a very good eye for meat and is involved in judging carcases at Canberra, Royal Easter and Hawkesbury shows.
Whilst the family still run the butchery and own the abattoir, the abattoir itself is leased to another party. The meat in the shop though still comes from the abattoir which is only 200 metres away. Almost 100% of the beef and lamb comes from there and the pigs are brought in from elsewhere. Turnover of product is very high and certainly much, much higher than when Mr Daley set off with his horse and cart all those years ago.
When Dean took over the running of the business he was initially on his own. Now there are 6 butchers working during the week and 7 or 8 butchers working on Saturdays.
A typical day lasts from 6.00am to 6.00pm. The head butcher will set up in the morning whilst Dean goes to the abattoir and works out what to bring into the shop. He will then help set up and then it is time to attend to customers and to preparing the meat.
Dean and his twin brother Sam..
Customers come from everywhere! Many are locals, from all over the Hawkesbury, the mountains, Penrith and Kingswood. Others come from the Hills District and Parramatta . The shop has regular customers from Newcastle and one customer who lives in Western Australia who buys 10 - 20kg of sausages and has them sent to him!
Dean has seen tastes in meat change over the years. He had to educate his customers about chicken mignon and chicken kiev and the shop has gone from producing one plain variety of sausage to 13 different varieties.
It was lovely to talk to Dean about his family's ethos on running this business.
"M & A Butchery is really old fashioned," he says. " We would rather make friends than money here. Word of mouth is our best advertising."
I noticed some sheep and baby lambs in a paddock behind the shop. I assumed that they were destined for the abattoir.
Dean laughs at my assumption.
"Believe it or not Dad loves animals! These are his pets!"
M & A Butchery
62 King Road Wilberforce
02 4575 1233
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website.
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