Up to 900 people will lose their jobs when an abattoir and a chicken processing factory close at Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

The Churchill abattoir at Yamanto is due to cease operations in late September, costing 500 workers their jobs.

A further 300 to 400 jobs are expected to go when the Steggles chicken processing factory at Wulkuraka begins winding down in September before its closure next year.

The new Ipswich mayor, Andrew Antoniolli, said he would reach out to all levels of government to seek support for axed workers but he was hopeful the Churchill abattoir might be rescued by an overseas investor.



“Certainly over the last year or so there has been an attempt to sell to even Chinese investment and we’ve done our best to roll out the red carpet for them here in Ipswich,” Antoniolli said on Tuesday. “However, there’s been no in interest to date.

“We’re still very hopeful something might happen in the near future that might be able to get those gentlemen their jobs back.”

He said concerns about the abattoir’s future had been swirling for some time but the Steggles announcement had come out of the blue. “The chicken meat industry is growing enormously so that came as an absolute surprise.”

A Churchill company director, Barry Moule, said the facility was the largest domestic abattoir in Australia and had been striving to become an export facility.

“That’s happening but it’s a matter of probably not happening quick enough,” he told ABC radio.

The Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union said it would do everything it could to support affected workers.



“It’ll be devastating for the local community,” said a spokesman, Matt Journeaux. “How can you take that amount of wages out of the local area and it not have a significant effect on the local economy.”