The Butchers Advocate 19 October 2021
Dunnes Meats lies in the outback town of Charleville, 683km west of Brisbane, and is known for providing the small local community with high quality products.
Owner, Shaun ‘Zoro’ Radnedge, is a man of many talents, known not only as the owner of Dunnes Meats, but also the Murweh Shire Council Mayor, and the council representative on four key economic development and local government disaster management agencies in the region.
Shaun is passionate about the meat industry and spends his spare time developing new recipes and brainstorming new ways to attract young apprentices to consider a career in the meat industry.
Dunnes Meats is family owned and run, with the goal of servicing the local town and region. Shaun completed his apprenticeship at the store and then left for Toowoomba where he gained 7 years’ experience working in a variety of roles within the meat sector.
“I’ve been at the current site for 22 years now, it basically my home!”
Providing the best service to customers is the foundation for the business’ success. Shaun believes this is Dunnes Meats point of difference and helps to create a local, loyal customer base.
“We have the best service in the west, customers are the core of all we do, they are very important to us.”
As well as their focus on service, Dunnes Meats offers a range of meat, fish and poultry products and source as much as possible from local farmers and suppliers.
They also offer a range of very popular value-added products which include chicken kievs, homemade popcorn chicken, beef wellingtons and a range of different curries and stews.
“We do seasonal products, offering different types of products in summer and winter.”
As Charleville is 8 hours West of Brisbane, halfway to Birdsville where tourist travel to use as a starting point to the Simpson Desert. Over a third of customers are grey nomads travelling through Charleville, with this number only growing over the past few years.
“We are a stopping point for a lot of tourists and travelers, especially those heading to the Simpson desert.”
Shaun employs two family members in his shop, two fully qualified butchers, one apprentice working towards becoming fully qualified and two support staff who assist with service and wash up.
Over the past 12 years, Dunnes Meats has won two regional Sausage King awards for their pork and beef sausages. It is of no surprise that these are two customer favorites with high demand for these products.
“Beef and pork sausages are crowd pleasers!”
As well as running Dunnes Meats, being Murweh Shire Council Mayor and being the council representative on four key economic development and local government disaster management agencies, Shaun works hard to promote his region as an outback tourist destination.
He also has begun lobbying to get international sporting teams to ‘go bush’ and base themselves in Charleville for pre-event training camps, as part of Queensland hosting major events in the build up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
Shaun is heavily involved in the local sporting community in the region and is passionate about maintaining his position as a pillar within the local community.
He has no plans to step away from his multiple roles within Charleville, only a more passion to continue to advocate for the community.
When asked what his business motto is, Shaun said: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
Visit their Facebook: www.facebook.com/Dunnes-Meats
