A local butcher has been crowned one of the best in the nation at an annual event celebrating all things meat.
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Nathan Gunter, who runs Darling Street Meat House in Dubbo, won third place at the Butcher Wars challenge at Meatstock in Sydney - an event which draws competitors from across the country.
"I was shocked at first and thought that I wasn't gonna get a result at all... A lot of people were pulling out their best work," he said.
"There were at least five butchers there that were on the Australian Butchers team and when I heard their name get called out before mine, I thought I must be under them.
"Then all of a sudden they called my name out on the third prize."
Butcher Wars competitors have 30 minutes to butcher and display a half saddle of pork and a half lamb live on stage in front of a crowd of hundreds.
They are judged on the final appearance of their display, creativity, technique and speed.
"It's a bit nerve wracking at first because you've only got 30 minutes to do it and the whole crowd is out there watching you and you have TV cameras in your face too and you're getting broadcast on a 12 foot screen," he said.
"You have to sort of just not think about that stuff and just watch where your knife's going and not cut your hand."
This is the second time Mr Gunter has entered Butcher Wars, the first time he entered was in 2023 with the competition taking place just two days before the opening of Darling Street Meat House.
This year his display was filled with fruit and flowers and herbs supplied by the Walan Community Garden, just around the corner from his butcher shop.
And they weren't just for decoration - Mr Gunter's creations were also infused with fruity and floral flavours.
Made ahead of competition day in-store were raspberry botanical lamb sausages and blueberry halloumi lamb sausages.
His creations on the day included spring lamb shoulder, Tuscan lamb rump, fruit glazed pork chops, tamarind lime pork loin, lamb leg with veggies and - his favourite - a botanical lamb loin.
"A lot of the guys who enter, they put their stuff together and it looks good, but they don't sell it in the shop... but I've decided to do good stuff that I can sell in the shop," he said.
"So if you want that leg of lamb done like that, I can do that, and the shoulders of lamb that I do there with all the flowers all over, I sell them here all the time."
Mr Gunter was beaten for the top spot by Meatstock veteran Brett Laws, who came first, and Queensland butcher Luke Thomas, who came second.
"You get to meet all these butchers from other countries and other places and see what they're doing in their shop and we all learn from each other," he said.
"I've learned so many things... I'm still communicating with the guys that I met down there and we're talking about customer service and new products that are coming in and new recipes."
