Beef's unsung sector and those who have wanted to ban live-ex

Yet it remains - in the words of Nigel Austin who penned the definitive history of the trade - one of the nation's great unsung industries.

Few sectors are so important in feeding so many people in overseas markets as the world population rushes headlong towards nine billion people, Mr Austin says.

Yet it is a trade that has contended for decades with efforts to ban it - from more than one corner.

And a trade that has already worn the brunt of one illegal ban.

In order to judge what sort of future the live-ex business has, knowing what has already passed under the bridge is crucial.

Australia has been an exporter of livestock for well over one hundred years. According to Australian Livestock Exporters Council records, the first cattle shipments from northern Australia to South East Asia happened in the 1880s.

By the 1920s, cattle were going to the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong - around 110,000 head annually.

But it was demand from Indonesia in the 1970s that kicked off what is today a multibillion dollar sector and effectively Australian beef's fourth largest market.

Richard Trivett, who - as head of Austrex - helped pioneer the trade into South East Asia, the Middle East and other parts of the world over a five-decade long career, said it was Brahman breeding heifers Indonesia wanted first.

"Their government was relocating families away from major cities and setting them up in farming communities and would give each family a cow," Mr Trivett said.

"We called it the crash program. Big numbers were sent."

In fact, it wasn't until the 1990s that the focus shifted to feeder cattle, Mr Trivett said.

That the demand exists has never been a concern.

The challenges have come from elsewhere - cyclones, military attacks, trade issues and attempts at home to see the trade shut down.

Mr Austin said the trade has a long history of political battles with the Australian Labor Party.

The first big one involved trade unions.

"The trade unions wanted to ban live exports in the 1970s and '80s, in an effort to boost jobs for meat workers," Mr Austin said.

"Inquiry after inquiry came out in favour of allowing livestock exports.

"The unions and the Australian Labor Party tried everything to stop the trade, but ultimately, they were outflanked by the National Farmers Federation.

"The unions were forced to accept the right of producers to a free market system, but the defeat rankled and coincided with a rise in animal activism, often from the left side of politics."

Mr Austin believes those early battles ultimately led to a commitment by the Labor Party to ban live sheep exports by sea during the 2022 Federal election campaign, translating to a decision by the Australian Government to stop the trade.

Beef industry stalwart David Crombie said the power of animal activists was possibly not taken seriously enough in the early days.

"Some in the industry saw it as a real threat from the start but in general it was thought of as 'save the whales one day, not enough sultanas in your fruit cake the next'," he said.

"There were plenty of placards being waved but what we didn't take enough notice of was that there was always a structure to these movements, starting with getting into universities to set a social agenda.

"There was a concerted effort to divide the local beef industry off from live-ex, to promote the idea Australia does not need the live export trade."

For Don Mackay, who has held many senior roles in the beef industry, it was a meeting with the European head of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, around 2011 that put the activism movement in perspective.

He was head of Australian Agriculture Company at the time and on a trade mission in Cairo with other beef industry leaders.

"I started to outline our company's animal welfare initiatives and she said she was just not interested - that her mission was for every animal in the world to be free from human contact, including pet dogs and cats," he said.

"We decided to just eat our breakfast because we had no common ground.

"I always thought that it would resonate more with society that PETA was coming for pet dogs but it doesn't seem to have."

Mr Combie says the argument for the live-ex trade is irrefutable, and for that reason it will always have a future.

"The logic of extensive low-cost cattle production in northern Australia, a short transit to Asia where low-cost feed inputs can put weight on and good quality beef can be delivered at affordable rates can't be denied," he said.

Mr Trivett and Mr Austin agree.

"Enormous amounts of work has been done in ensuring we know how to look after stock on vessels. Australia's animal welfare standards are world-leading. Mortality rates are negligible," Mr Trivett said.

"We are sending our cattle to parts of the world where there is an enormous need for protein.

"The majority of Australians see that, and support the trade."