In early April, we welcomed a group of our partners and customers to experience the King River operation from the inside. Not a product presentation or a curated highlight reel — we revealed the full picture, from our feedlot at Lotus Park to the conference floor at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
Starting in Central Queensland
Our guests flew into Mackay on Saturday 11 April, a 1.5-hour flight north from Brisbane into the heart of Central Queensland. That evening, the King River team (Josh Rich, Carla Welsh and Shell Rafton) met everyone at the hotel for a casual dinner to go over what the next few days would look like. No agenda, no formalities — just good food and a chance to get acquainted before an early start the following morning.
A day at Lotus Park
Day two was the one guests had been waiting for – our visit to Lotus Park.
Lotus Park has been a family business since 1970. The feedlot was registered in 1995 and is licensed to 9,500 head, with 6,000 head of capacity to date. It was built originally to get a better return on grain grown on the property, and family members are still running it day to day. This is where our Wagyu are grain-finished before they go to market, and walking the pens with the people who manage them every day gives you a different understanding of what that actually involves. Afterwards, the Lotus Park homestead hosted afternoon tea — the hospitality there is genuine, and our guests experienced it firsthand.
Into Brisbane
Monday was a travel day. Guests flew south to Brisbane, with the afternoon free to catch up on work or settle in before Tuesday’s program.
Tuesday morning, the King River Brisbane new head office at Herston hosted a session with Josh Rich and Alex Miles over morning tea. They walked through the thinking behind our brand refresh — not the logo or colour palette, but the story we’re building and where the business is headed. We also revealed our new customer portal – an exciting step in how we help customers around the world represent King River. It was an open conversation about what King River has been building, what’s coming next, and the role our partners play in that. We’re proud of what we’ve put together, and it was good to share it with the people closest to the business.
That evening, the group gathered at Moo Moo The Wine Bar + Grill on Edward Street for the reveal of the King River Room. Moo Moo has been a long-term King River restaurant partner and one of Brisbane’s most recognised venues. The King River Room is a dedicated private dining space within the restaurant — our first permanent city presence — and the evening was a proper celebration of that milestone. The product speaks for itself in a setting like that.
Wagyu Edge 2026
For guests who extended their stay, the Australian Wagyu Association’s Wagyu Edge 2026 conference ran from Wednesday to Friday at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. King River entered the Wagyu Branded Beef Competition 2026, and the results on the Wednesday evening were ones we’re very proud of: Gold in Purebred Wagyu, Gold in Commercial Wagyu MB 5–7, Silver in Crossbred Wagyu, and Silver in Open F1 Wagyu. Four categories, four medals.
On Friday morning, Harry and Josh took the stage for a session called The Quality Shift. They spoke to producers and industry professionals about something the Wagyu industry doesn’t always discuss openly: where marble score actually comes from. Their data shows that genetics account for 70–80% of marbling outcomes. Feeding program accounts for the remaining 20–30%. Extra time on feed doesn’t change that. Understanding this has shaped how King River approaches selection, DNA testing, and the real cost difference between producing an MB4 and an MB8 animal — at the same carcase weight of 450kg, that gap is around $1,845 per head. When you know that, it changes every decision you make upstream.
Harry and Josh also talked through King River’s approach to breaking the carcase into 30-plus individual cuts per marble score across multiple markets, rather than selling a generic full sets. It’s a more complex operation, but it gives us more control over how the product is positioned and reduces our exposure to any one market. They were honest about the challenges too, particularly around maintaining year-round supply consistency when calving windows don’t naturally align with continuous demand. It was the kind of session that stays with you.
Thank you for coming
To everyone who joined us across the week and became a stronger part of the King River family — thank you. Showing our partners the full operation matters to us. It’s how we build the kind of trust and understanding that makes a business relationship work on a global scale.
