Protein Partners Australia was established in August 2023 with a vision to bridge the gap between premium producers and discerning customers. Our aim has always been to work closely with processors and farmers, ensuring continuity of brands and quality across every product we deliver.
From day one, we’ve focused on building strong alliances with Australia’s finest protein producers. Our partnership with Victoria Hill Lamb, where we sell carcasses and handle all carton production, exemplifies our commitment to working hand-in-hand with farmers.
On a regular basis, Protein Partners carries beef from Mort & Co, Bindaree and Cabassi Wagyu. To these processors, we are forever grateful. These relationships aren’t just business – they’re built on shared values of quality, integrity and a passion for exceptional protein.
Director
I’ve been in the meat industry all of my life. Growing up in a farming family on dairies and beef cattle properties, the land and livestock became second nature to me.
At 17, I started as an apprentice butcher at Oriel Park Meats in Ascot and eventually bought that shop in 1995 at the age of 23. I quickly changed the name to Simon’s Galley of Meats and traded well, adding shops at Rosalie and Chapel Hill. In 2008, I moved on to work with Cabassi and Rea Wagyu under Pete Cabassi, one of the pioneers of the wagyu industry. To give the brand greater domestic presence, I reopened a derelict butcher shop at Camp Hill, named Kobe’s of Whites Hill, which became an instant success.
After a rewarding nine years managing D.R Johnston in Tasmania, I returned to Brisbane for family reasons and started at Stanbroke, establishing Stanbroke Foods—the domestic arm producing 2000+ bodies per week. This was an eye-opening experience in large-scale integrated beef systems.
In August 2023, I established Protein Partners Australia to work closely with processors and farmers, ensuring continuity of brands and quality. We’ve formed strong alliances with Victoria Hill Lamb, Mort & Co, Bindaree, and Cabassi Wagyu—partnerships I’m forever grateful for.
Director, Victoria Hill Lamb
As the great-great-grandson of the first Queensland Schmidts, farming runs in Stephen’s blood. Growing up immersed in agriculture, he witnessed firsthand the dedication required to work the land and raise quality livestock.
Together with his wife Claire, Stephen directs Victoria Hill Lamb—a Queensland-based, family owned and run farming business. Their partnership combines generational knowledge with modern innovation, creating an operation that honors tradition while embracing new practices.
Through Victoria Hill Lamb, Stephen and Claire are putting Queensland lamb on the national map. Their unwavering commitment to the land and livestock mirrors the resilience and pioneering ethos that have characterised the Schmidt family across generations, ensuring their family’s enduring narrative in Australian agriculture continues for generations to come.
Victoria Hill Lamb operates a 20,000 head feedlot in the Darling Downs region of southern Queensland. Located on the Dalrymple Creek with some of Australia’s best alluvial flood plains, they grow and source their own ration ingredients. VHL lambs are raised on grass for their first 150 days on family farms throughout western Queensland, then finished at the feedlot with carefully formulated grains and silage—resulting in the consistently exceptional lamb that Protein Partners supplies under the Talgai brand.
Today, we operate a full scale production room with the ability for portion control, minces and the processing of our aligned brands. Weekly, we bone Jimbour pork, Talgai lamb and Lilydale chickens, giving us the flexibility to produce any cut desired by our customers.
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