We proudly acknowledge the Bunurong as the first people to love, live and dine on the lands on which Attica sits today.
We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples were the first sovereign nations of Australia from time immemorial, and they never ceded this sovereignty.
Bush Beef: A Supplier Story from Cape York
Not all beef is the same. This is wild, chemical-free beef, raised on Country that the Harrigan family has spent years healing. We went to see it for ourselves.
Words by Kylie Shewry
Published 21.08.26
Normanby Station sits on Balnggarrawarra Country on the Cape York Peninsula. This is tough country: rocky, wet and dry, sometimes all at once. It’s covered with vast croc-filled lakes and rivers connected by flowing streams and waterfalls that join, cutting off access to the station during the wet season, when it becomes accessible only by boat.
We were awestruck after climbing a steep section that holds rock art older than anything most of us will ever stand in front of, depicting the eels in the river below and the pearling luggers and cutters that had sailed along the coast and traded with local Indigenous people. Looking out across the open country, where the cattle roam through grey-green eucalyptus on red dirt that blends into blue horizons, was similarly spellbinding.
Welcome to Balnggarrawarra Country
Ben and I visited a few weeks ago. It was one of those trips I know will stay with us.
The station is run by Normanby Aboriginal Corporation’s Vince, Cliff and Pando Harrigan; Balnggarrawarra Traditional Owners who have been quietly doing something remarkable here for years. For over a century cattle have roamed unmanaged across unfenced stations on Cape York. In time cattle impacts on the fragile alluvial soils have damaged the rivers, eroded the land, and send silt run-off all the way to the Great Barrier Reef. That silt feeds crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat coral and can destroy the reef. The connection between a cattle station in Cape York and a dying reef is not one most people would make, but the Harrigan brothers – who consider the land holistically – made that link, and are doing something about it through land rehabilitation.
The cattle at Normanby live entirely wild until, over the course of a few weeks, they are gently coaxed into a pen with a large pot of molasses that is refilled each day. Usually, this is the first time they have seen a human. They are then moved into large open-field pens in the bush, where they are fed and allowed to settle, becoming more used to the humans around them before harvest. No feedlots. No chemicals. Very low stress. The result is beef that is extraordinarily lean, clean and full of character. A pure expression of the country it came from, and the most truly organic beef you could have.
Ben first met Vince and Cliff at Sharon Winsor's Australian Native Food Festival at Carriageworks in Sydney last year, as well as Dom Bird of Wild Foods, a wonderful First Nations-owned distribution company, working to bridge the gap between First Nations famers and growers and their customers. We do not usually serve beef at Attica. Sustainability is part of it (the hard-hooved animals create a multitude of problems on the land that was never supposed to house them), but so is the question of what genuinely Australian food is. Beef has never felt like part of that story to us, but this was different.
Knowing exactly where your meat comes from matters to us. Knowing that the people who raised it are using processes to heal their country, protect the reef, preserve their culture and build a future for their wider community matters even more. Bush Beef is perfect in the bolognese ragu that sits on top of our Edge of Reason dish. What we did not expect is that guests who normally do not eat beef for ethical reasons quite often choose to eat this wild beef. That has shown us that there is a market for a more ethical version of beef.
The Edge of Reason
The Harrigan brothers were the kindest, most generous hosts. The station they have built is holistic in the truest sense: cool-burning to manage the land, removing invasive weeds, repairing erosion, protecting culturally significant sites, passing knowledge to the next generation. Standing in that ancient, peaceful landscape, it felt like a place that was being genuinely cared for and caring for us in return.
That care is in every bite.
Ben and Kylie Shewry At Normanby Station
