Kristen Davidson (with her co-host Nige Johnson) decided to find out if Lindbeck’s Raiders sausages were worth the hype. Photo: Supplied.
At the risk of being deported, we need to talk about the Raiders green sausages from Lindbeck’s Butchery in Queanbeyan.
Show a photo of these bright green long sausages to your interstate friends and they’ll demand you throw them out. For those in the know, these green snags are as rare as the lime milk and as local as Ricky Stuart.
There are rumours that Canberra kids who eat them for dinner and then scrape their knees at school literally bleed green.
We love the idea of these rare edition, weird-looking green snags. We love what they represent, which is the Canberra Raiders’ passion.
But what do they really taste like?
Let’s look at the stats first … to the video, Ref.
When the Raiders played in the 2019 Grand Final, Lindbeck’s sold 1.2 tonnes in the week leading up to it alone.
Now in 2025, with our run into the Grand Final looking more promising (trying not to get too excited) with every game, they’ve been on shelves since 18 August and sold more than 600 kilos.
“I’m making them for customers while they wait,” long-time Lindbeck’s employee Jamie Cole said.
Don’t be confused, they’re not always on the menu.
Lindbeck’s Butchery in Queanbeyan whip these bad boys out for Raiders fans when the time is right.
They’re a limited edition and only on sale when owner Pete Lindbeck simply feels it’s time.
He offers the delicacy in the lead-up to big games or finals and has done so for years.
Since 1987, the Queanbeyan shop simply reads the room; they know when it’s time.
And friends, it’s time.
Frying up Lindbeck’s Raiders sausages for the family … Photo: Kristen Davidson.
After living here for almost 15 years and barracking for the Raiders for longer, I cooked up a batch of the green delicacies for the kids and me for the first time this week.
They’re so green. Greener than you think they’re going to be. They get greener as they cook. It’s concerning.
It doesn’t look right, but it’s RAIDERS.
“Green dye goes up my arms when we prepare them,” Jamie said.
“I have green dye under my fingernails for days after making a batch.”
… and the longer they cook, the greener they get! Photo: Kristen Davidson.
The taste? I can taste community. I can taste excitement. I can confirm, they are DELICIOUS.
After explaining to the kids that I hadn’t gone mad, and it was OK to eat bright green snags, they agreed.
Can a sausage bring us together as a town? The team that inspired the snag does.
It feels like everyone is on the bandwagon. Well, everyone except Jamie from Lindbeck’s.
The 20-year veteran employee is the only Canterbury Bulldogs supporter at work among the Raiders supporters.
They love to put him on green sausage duty just to rub it in. Literally.
“I’m disgusted,” Jamie told me with a smile.
“I dread when Pete [Lindbeck] says it’s time to start making them. I refuse to get in any of the photos when the media come around.”
Good luck, Jamie, when the Canberra Raiders make the Grand Final. Maybe you should take your Christmas holidays earlier this year, say, around 5 October.
Kristen Davidson is a long-running breakfast host on MIX 106.3, and a marriage and funeral celebrant.
