Butcher Haylee Laidely is excited to take on a new chapter of her life owning the Gunning Butcher Shop. Photo: Tenele Conway.
With weekly supermarket deliveries coming to the town of Gunning, a local country butchery is no longer an essential service like it once was. Yet according to the fervent locals, they prefer to buy their meat locally and with a new proprietor of Gunning Butcher Shop, it looks like they’ll be able to do just that for some time to come.
Haylee Laidely took over the shop in the first week of March, moving her family to the town to accommodate the opportunity which at first seemed like a stretch with two young kids at home.
“We looked over the books, and it’s a good business; we thought that we just have to do it,” Haylee said.
As a mother with her oldest only five years of age, Haylee admitted it wasn’t easy to juggle her own business and her home life with her husband working shifts, and it had forced her to find new ways to make it work, but she was upbeat, saying it was definitely achievable.
“The kids get to see their mum work hard; they get to see how money is made. It’s an amazing lesson for them to grow up with,” she said.
Haylee’s most recent role was with Bungendore Country Butchery, where she had a big team around her, including dedicated serving staff and juniors to pick up a lot of the jobs, but in Gunning, the butchers do it all, Haylee said.
“It’s old-school where the butchers do all the jobs from start to finish, including serving the customers.”
Adam Stratton has sold the Gunning Butchery to Haylee Laidely. Photo: Supplied.
The business came well set up with an existing online ordering system that the former owner set up during COVID, plus an extensive network of wholesale customers throughout the region, but only a week in, Haylee was already finding new opportunities for growth.
One of her limitations is coolroom space. Haylee is a big proponent of whole-carcass butchery, where she breaks down the meat herself into its individual cuts, but with a small coolroom she can only manage around two bodies a week, a far cry from the 12 or so they used to process in Bungendore, but Haylee has already eyed off the large courtyard at the rear of the premises for more coolroom space.
Meeting Haylee at the local drinking hole, the Telegraph Hotel, for our catch-up was a stroke of genius. Although she only moved to town just before Christmas, it is clear that she is already an important part of the community. The pub regulars greet her with a smile and compliments on their last meat purchases, and Haylee can show her appreciation in person.
Gunning locals prefer to get their meats at their local country butcher. Photo: Tenele Conway.
It’s a symbiotic relationship with the locals; a chap called Matty wandered up, and they got chatting about a recent body of beef that Haylee had delivered. She wasn’t happy with the visual appearance of it, and while the meat was still good, she wasn’t willing to display it in the store. Haylee rustled up Matty and the guys at the pub to come and buy the beef at a discounted price; the locals got a good deal, and Haylee moved some stock that she might have had trouble moving otherwise.
In a show of local camaraderie the pair laughed that she sold all the T-bones she had in two minutes to three blokes.
Matty, who is a master farrier and well acquainted with the land, was full of praise for her hard work and had a little laugh that the locals didn’t mind having a pretty young lady manning the counter at the local butchery.
Haylee took it all in good humour. “It’s a gimmick for sure, being a female butcher, and I’ll play on it, but I’m here and I’m doing the job as good as anyone else, and that’s important to me,” she said.
I have a soft spot for Haylee; it might be that I once worked in an abattoir 20 years ago and the jobs were split by gender roles with the women on packing duties and nothing else. At 27, Haylee is articulate, practical, driven and passionate about her work. Her amused outlook on breaking gender roles seems older than her years.
If you’re ever worried about the state of the world and what the future generation might bring, head to Gunning for the day, where people like Haylee are living real and honest lives in the most reassuring of ways, and why not grab some T-bones while you’re at it? The locals will all tell you they’re pretty darn good.
The Gunning Butcher Shop is located at 80 Yass Road, Gunning and is open 6 days a week from Monday until Saturday.
