Australian Live Cattle Export: From Northern Ports to Indonesia and Beyond

What is Australian live cattle export?

Australia is the world's largest live exporter of animals for slaughter. The trade covers cattle, sheep, goats, dairy cows, buffalo and alpacas, and the majority of animals are cattle and sheep. In 2011 it involved over three million animals worth about A$1 billion, yet by 2014 it was only 0.4 percent of all Australian exports. This page focuses on cattle, shipped mainly from northern ports. Figures come from the Wikipedia article on the industry.

The trade is not new: the first live sheep were exported from Western Australia to Mauritius and Singapore from 1845. The article does not give a start date for live cattle shipments, so this page does not offer one.

Where the cattle go and how they leave

Australia ships live animals to many countries, including Indonesia, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China. Indonesia is Australia's largest market for live cattle. Exports leave through Darwin, Broome, Townsville, Portland and Perth (Fremantle), and loading can take several days. Ships are mostly converted container ships, the type described in the livestock carrier article.

In 2011 the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated exports of 694,429 cattle worth $629.4 million, alongside 2,458,448 sheep worth $328 million. Government reporting says 1.289 million livestock were exported in 2023 to 2024, including 746,829 cattle and 519,531 sheep.

Getting cattle to the ports

For northern cattle the first leg is a land journey. Historically it meant droving along routes like those described in the travelling stock route article, and road trains have largely replaced walking since about 1980 according to that article. The live export article does not describe the road leg itself, so details of trucking distances are left to other sources.

What is documented is that the supply chain across northern Australia is sensitive to sudden changes: when exports stopped in 2011, the disruption spread through the livestock supply chain across the north.

The 2011 Indonesia investigation and suspension

In March 2011 Animals Australia investigated the treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesia and reported animals having their throats cut while fully conscious. This led to mass protests across Australia and calls for a ban, and RSPCA Australia supported one. In May 2011 Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig announced an immediate ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia, and the Gillard government briefly suspended the trade and came close to a full ban.

The sudden decision disrupted the livestock supply chain across northern Australia. In July 2017 a group of cattle farmers sued the Australian government for $600 million, arguing the suspension was irrational, disproportionate and unjustified. In June 2020 the Federal Court ruled in their favour, and Justice Rares called the ban order capricious and unreasonable. Exports resumed after 2011.

Regulation, observers and reform

The industry is regulated under the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 and the Export Control (Animals) Order 2004. Since 1985 at least ten government and parliamentary reviews have looked at live exports and welfare. Observers were introduced in April 2018 to monitor heat stress and deaths aboard ships. That program was wound back in 2019, halted during the pandemic and restarted in May 2022. An Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports was created after the 2018 sheep-ship exposure to oversee regulation.

Most of the sheep story differs from the cattle story. Australia will stop exporting live sheep from 1 May 2028, a move welcomed by animal rights groups and opposed by the National Farmers' Federation. The cattle trade is not covered by that phase-out.

Where to read more

For the shipping side, see the separate livestock carrier entry and the ranching section on farm.FM. A related story is a farm.FM story about live cattle exports.