After four-and-a-half decades in the trade, local butcher Mark Dwyer has hung up his knives and called it a day.
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Mark moved straight out of school and into a butcher apprenticeship with his father Jack and uncle Kevin in the same shop he has now worked in for 45 years.
“I started in 1975 when I was 16,” the now 60-year-old said.
“I always remember Dad and Kevin saying don’t be a butcher.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so I started and I enjoyed it.
“It’s been good, I’ve met plenty of good people.”
Butchering definitely runs in the Dwyer family, Mark’s brother Colin is also a butcher, starting his career in 1983.
“Grandfather took over in 1942, the shop has been here for 77 years,” Mark said.
“When I first started, there were nine butcher shops in town, now there are only two shop fronts.”
The Dwyer family sold the business to the Peterson’s who owned and ran Food Service Central in 2003 and Mark took over as manager until the company was sold to PFD Food Services in 2014.
“It’s been a family business since it started because PFD is a family business also,” Mark said.
The shop front was closed but the staff, three butchers and an apprentice, remained the same and continue to prepare meat for retail sale from Parkes Cellars and wholesale from PFD.
Mark recalls a horror accident in the early 1980s which saw his uncle Kevin lose two of his fingers.
“They got caught in the cubing machine, he was in there for an hour before dad found him,” Mark said.
“Dad said when the ambulance came and they got him out, the whole ceiling was covered in blood.”
Mark on the other hand has never cut himself seriously.
“I’ve had plenty of nicks but never had stitches, they say it’s unusual” he said.
Mark said he has enjoyed his career but feels butchering is now a dying trade
“Back in the day a butchers was like a gold mine," he said.
“When I first started there were seven butchers and two casuals working in the shop flat out.
“We used to do 18 bodies of beef, 140 lambs, 40 odd pigs a week and now you don’t do anything like that.
“They say, in Sydney one butcher shop closes every two weeks.”
Mark said now he’s retired he plans on spending more time in the garden, with his grandchildren, and playing bowls and golf.
He and his partner, Heather Gillies, are currently holidaying in NZ with plans to travel to Italy and Croatia later in the year.
“Heather has been retired for three years now, she loves it, she says it’s the best thing she’s done, but I don’t know if I’ll get bored,” Mark said.
“I’ll still have my name down here at the shop. For the time being I’ll do a bit of casual work if they get stuck, if someone goes on holidays or gets sick."
With a decade of experience, Michael Dumesney will now fill Mark's shoes and take over as manager.
