Moveable Feasts
It’s pretty tough to find anybody who has anything even remotely left-of-centre to say about Amelia Park supreme-o, Peter Walsh. Not that anyone would want to. The former farmer is at the top of his game these days and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. Having just returned from one of many overseas trips, the spry fifty-something year old is the proud owner of one of the fastest-growing enterprises in the State.
Born in 2002, Amelia Park is a fairly recent arrival to the business scene, but the land on which it sits has been in the Walsh family since 1957. Back then, the farm was essentially a beef and lamb meat processing plant, but under the helmsmanship of Peter and brother Greg the company has re-packaged itself into Amelia Park. The business has invested heavily in another passion of the Walsh family – horse racing - and the property houses state-of-the-art horse facilities, including a lakeside training track, horse adjisting, syndicates, a breeding program and a horse swimming pool. It also provides top-notch beef and lamb to some of the best-known restaurants and hotels in the country and exports to a good part of the world as well.
Really, you think that would be enough for even the most manic among us. But Peter’s not exactly the kind of guy to sit back and put his feet up.
“We don’t just want to stick to producing meat any more,” he admits.
“We want to get into other products that will complement our meat. And we plan on bringing the best together.”
The best indeed. Enter multi-award winning chef Neal Jackson, head honcho of one of Perth’s most respected restaurants, Jackson’s. The pair met up twelve years ago when Neal established the now-famed eatery and Peter became a silent partner. And now Neal’s about to return the favour.
“Neal will be joining the team as our flavour consultant,” says Peter.
“He’s a real perfectionist and is going to make up all the flavours that will match our lamb and beef, such as sauces and marinades. We’re sending him off to China this week, right out to the Mongolian border, where there are a lot of lambs with different tastes and flavours and cuts. And he will be studying all that to see if we can relate it back to what we’re doing here. Then we’ll start looking into olive oil with him. And, down the track, there will also be chocolate. Neal’s a multiple award winner, and we are keen to go to the next level with him.”
Meanwhile, Neal is packing his bags for Inner Mongolia. He’s been to China before, he says, but not exactly to study the cut and thrust of the Chinese lamb industry.
“It’s just like Peter to be thinking outside the square,” he chuckles.
“He’s definitely a visionary. He never sits still and is always looking forward. It’s quite exciting to be getting involved.”
Creative thinking, it seems, is what maketh the man. Peter has been wheeling and dealing with China for nearly twenty years, in lamb and beef as well as sheepskin for the fashion trade, way before anybody else was doing it. He already has an office in Beijing.
“There’s a lot of talk these days about business expanding into China, but Peter’s been doing business with them since he first visited China around 18 years ago,” says Daniela Gordon, part-owner of Amelia Park Wines.
“So he’s been doing that kind of thing before anyone really thought about doing business with China. He’s always looking at new ways of doing things. He’s really visionary in his approach.
There’s that word again. And oh yes, did we mention Peter has also started producing wine? Daniela just happens to be married to winemaker Jeremy Gordon, recent winner of the esteemed Jimmy Watson trophy and former co-owner and founder of Flametree in Margaret River. Amelia Park Wines has now launched, with their varieties including a cabernet merlot, a shiraz and a sauvignon blanc semillon. The label is now in the process of going global, with many Sydney hotels and restaurants stocking their wines and exports already underway to China, Mauritius and the UK. When Amelia Park launches in September, Jeremy and Daniella will be winging their way over to the UK to spruik their wines in London. According to Peter, people are buying it without even tasting because they know of Jeremy’s excellent reputation in the industry.
“I think one of the reasons we decided to go into business with Peter was because he is such a straight shooter,” says Daniela.
“He’s very down-to-earth. I think probably one of his biggest assets is that he communicates with all types of people, from a top-level businessperson to somebody working on his farm. He treats everyone with respect.”
Most recently, Peter has had his sights on Africa, and not just for the World Cup either. Wait for it - he wants to branch out into smallgoods.
“We’ve just recruited a top smallgoods manager from South Africa, who will be arriving here in around September,” he enthuses.
“South Africans are very big on meat and barbecues. They do a lot of aged meats, as well as sauces and marinades. They always serve up their meats with some kind of condiment. It’s absolutely beautiful.
“And then we’ll be going to the next stage. We’ll start out with making sausages and burgers, and then we want to advance to other smallgoods, such as cold meats. All our machines are ready to go, so it’s just a matter of time.”
At this stage however, it is the quality of Amelia Park’s lamb and beef products that is making the most noise. With strict quality assurance in place, a mere 30% of the meat received from breeders passes the tight selection criteria. And it’s all West Australian.
“They’ve got a very good product and regardless of the fact that I’m involved I would be using their lamb anyway,” says Neal.
“It’s just great lamb. We always have it on the menu in at least one or two dishes.”
Greg Ryan from Ryan’s Quality Meats is the exclusive distributor for Amelia Park beef, and is proud as punch to be working with such a high-end product.
“It’s beef from South-West Western Australia that is selected from probably four of the best farmers in that area,” he says.
“They’ve got their feeding regime correct, so it’s a very clean product. And the quality is second-to-none. There is a selection criteria that it has to fit into. We start at the top, and the criteria works back from there. So our beef carcass ranges from 220kg to 280kg bodies. There has to be a fat depth of no more than 8mm, which is very good. Then there’s the meat colour criteria and the fat colour critiera. And that’s only selected from the top 30% of the beef every day. So we’re getting the best of the best. And that’s the body that suits what we want to do. We want to produce the best beef in Australia.”
Greg also isn’t one to mince words when it comes to his new business partner.
“Amelia Park is an amazing place. It’s just fantastic what Peter’s done down there. It’s like heaven on Earth for horses and humans. He was a very hard worker when he was younger and he’s still working just as hard now. He’s a very entrepreneurial person.”
But at the end of the day, it is Peter’s love for the industry he was born into that has him looking to the horizon.
“We have been in this industry for a long time and want to continue being in it for a long time,” he reflects.
“And we just want to keep being motivated. Being surrounded by top people really helps keep up that motivation. We believe having multi-award winners around us who believe in perfection and have the passion that we do, that is our next step.”
And what could possibly be next, one might wonder. A day spa, perhaps? A private resort in Bali? No, really.
