Big Bruno, the bull of an island.
Only a little island, on a big river, on another sorta little island.
I had his back, as much as a 12 or 13 year-old could.
I liked him, even though I had never him.
I had a few bulls and cows over the back fence, in the ‘Franciscan Friary’ church paddock behind my home that my friends and I would stir up from time to time growing up.
But most cow interactions were reserved for throwing cow shit at each other, the boyz and I, yet we did see a calf get born one day.
Bruno was a bull that owned an island. This bucking big beast had a whole island to run amuck upon until the mid nineties.
The Tamar river, set through Launceston, Tasmania, has an island bestowing its namesake, which was for the best parts abandoned for 30 years, baring annual duck hunters, and Bruno the bull.
A huge shit storm kicked of in the mid nineties when the council put an add in the paper looking for an abattoir that could get over to the the island, take Bruno out, them bring him back from the island.
And the public went apeshit.
Calls from far and wide, as wide as Europe, were spoken to save Bruno the bull.
Sure enough, the government relented and a team were put together to come and get Bruno.
My old man thought it was funny, ‘I’ll go get him for them, Ill even bring my own boat’ he quipped.
Yet Bruno wouldn’t have made to far from our kitchen table had he made the trip with us.
Bruno would have most likely ended up being slain. His carcass stripped of consumables, his hide tanned, and his skull most probably hanging from the loungeroom wall.
Yet l am not sure about the offal? We always utilized all parts of animals, but never the offal
Lambs brains are a big one that sticks out in Australian culture, as it is an old bistro/ pub classic here in Australia. But not cows brains!
Beef cheeks and ox tongue hold cult status in gastronomic culture worldwide that are in the offal category, yet not the brains.
We would regularly get whole and half beasts at home growing up. Processed on the kitchen table. All sorts of primal beef cuts, lamb cuts, whatever cuts. All delicately cleaned and boned from the carcass, to be completely incinerated under the grill.
I cannot ever remember seeing any cow heads getting cleaned, anywhere, ever, though.
So given I am a chef, I decided to clean one up myself recently.
And make a video about it!
Beef in general plays a huge part in our society here in Tasmania.
Tasmania was always known to be a world class producer of beef. Us locals always knew it, and finally the world is catching on.
Well before Bruno the bull was holding fort on Tamar island, many Tasmanian producers were farming these magnificent beasts.
According to the examiner, Launceston’s inaugural newspaper, corned beef was available from its very early printing cycles in the 1860s.
Quamby estate, a picturesque, heritage listed hotel in the upper central northern region, had the first commercialized abattoir here in Tasmania.
Then there is cape grim, and their smaller little sister brand ‘Bass Strait beef’, pumping out quality beef cuts all over Australia.
I remember my amazement when working in Airlie Beach, one of the base townships for the Whitsundays, in Tropical Queensland, and coming across Cape grim eye fillet at a restaurant I grinded at for a while. I was nearly as proud as when I came across Boags draught on tap while getting loose one evening at a local bistro down the road from me homestead.
I’m a proud Tasmanian and I always get sentimental when I see our products abroad.
Tasmania is also home to some of the world-renowned Wagyu beef.
Robins Island, on the northwest coast, not too far from Cape Grim, produces wagyu that is imported back into Japan.
The Hammond brothers drove their wagyu back and forth from Robbins Island, allowing them to feast on open pastures without being tainted by any sort of hormones or other types of growth stimulus.
Just clean, old school farming. Check em out here.
Bruno the bull owned his island. The Tamar island.
The only place in Tasmania that bulls still roam are on the central plateau, near cradle Mountain.
We had to be careful driving to work from Moina at certain times of the year when I worked up there from 2006 to 2009.
If these big beasts were eating on the side of the road. You had to get outta their way, as they were not going to move for you.
Australia, in general, is renowned for top quality beef.
I’m certain there is some sort of scientific reason behind our status as a top producer of beef.
Yet it I think it comes down to the basics.
Australia, and Tasmania more so, is still, for the most part, untainted due to a lack of agriculture that hasn’t stripped the land of its natural resources for thousands of years like many places across the globe.
Bruno was reluctantly relocated in 1994 to a nearby farm, for where he could still view his island.
@matsoncatering
After many attempts at breaking free from his captors in order to return to his island over a few years, Bruno passed away in 1998.
Fortunately for us, Tamar island and its surrounds are a protected wetland reserve that accommodates many protected species. Get on over and check it out sometime.
I hope you enjoyed my story and you can check out some of my beef recipes here.
How to clean a bulls head for commercial use.
References-
https://www.utas.edu.au/tasmanian-companion/biogs/E000652b.htm
https://www.imaios.com/en/vet-anatomy/bovines/bull-and-cow-general-anatomy
https://www.robbinsislandwagyu.com.au/
https://parks.tas.gov.au/explore-our-parks/tamar-island-wetlands-centre/tamar-island
Tales of a Tassie Chef 