In the 1930s, land near the old co-operative settlement was used as slaughter yards by butchers W. D. Colman, and Harry Williams and Sons.
Colman and Co bought out the business of W. O’Regan (who began trading in the 1890s) and established extensive piggeries in the thirties.
Harry Williams began his career at Alpha when refrigeration was unknown and meat was sold ‘twitching on a plate’. Williams acquired a shop at Bogantungan, bought out his old employers at Alpha, and in 1932 took over the butchery shop of D. Stibbards in Barcaldine. He registered his business as Harry Williams and Sons and went on to ownership of butcher shops in Longreach, Barcaldine, Aramac, Jericho, Alpha and Bogantungan, and several bakeries as well. Trading with the slogan ‘We feed the West’, he employed 30 to 40 workers.
In 1932 W. J. Brown partly demolished the old Francis home, Craigneish, to put in a cold room and set up another butchering business.
