Showing posts with label Dairy industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dairy industry. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Butter, Cream and Milk factories

In 1889, the Victorian Parliament allocated £233,000 to establish creameries, cheese and butter factories in the Colony and to aid other primary industries (1). By 1895 there were 174 factories and 284 creameries in Victoria, including a number in the Koo Wee Rup Swamp area. Up until the 1930s the area could sustain several factories for a number of reasons. Firstly, dairy cattle numbers were at their peak in the 1920s. It is estimated that the Parishes of Koo Wee Rup, Koo Wee Rup East and Yallock (essentially the area of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp) had 12,000 dairy cattle in early 1920s (2) Secondly, most farmers were still using horse and cart for transport, so local factories were necessary. Lastly, the factories had slightly different purposes. For instance, whole milk was received at Iona and Cora Lynn, whilst farms with a separator could deposit cream at Drouin, Lang Lang or Bayles.


My grandparents farm at Cora Lynn in 1928. I have written about their dairy farm, here.

At Iona, a Creamery run by the Fresh Food and Frozen Storage Company, was opened in 1897 and by 1900 it had 50 suppliers. The Creamery operated until around 1907. In 1906, the Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory established a factory in Iona on the corner of Little Road and the Main Drain. It closed in October 1928 and was demolished in 1930 (3). Another butter factory, owned by Holdenson and Neilson, operated in Iona from 1912 or 1917 (depending on sources). It closed in 1921 (4).  At one stage the Fresh Food and Frozen Storage Company operated 70 butteries and creameries in Victoria (5). Holdenson and Nielson operated at least 20 and in the early 1890s they produced over 2 million pounds of butter, most of it being exported (6). The two companies amalgamated in 1908 to become Holdenson and Nielson Fresh Foods P/L.(7).

The Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory was established in 1904 (8) and expanded under the leadership of their aptly named General Manager, Bill Kraft. This Company should not be confused with the Drouin Co-Operative Creamery, which was established in 1891, went into liquidation in 1895, and was taken over by the Victorian Creamery and Butter Company, who were another big player in the dairy industry, at this time.


Cora Lynn Cheese Factory, taken in 1998. I have written about the Cheese Factory, here.

The Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory established a factory at Cora Lynn in 1910. This was extended in 1930s, partially to compensate for Iona closing down. In 1932 the factory had around 500 regular suppliers, however it was closed in the late 1940s (9).  The building is still standing at Cora Lynn and was restored a few years ago. Drouin Co-Operative Butter Factory took over the Bayles Butter Factory in 1944, which had been established in 1922. It was re-built and enlarged in 1966 and operated until January 1980. This gave Drouin access to the Melbourne market as Bayles had a City distribution license.  It was for this same reason that Drouin had obtained shares in the Cranbourne and Croftbank Dairies in Cranbourne in the 1930s (10). 


Bayles Milk Factory, 1943.
Image: Bayles Fauna Reserve collection.

Yallock Southern Creamery, which was situated on the corner of the Yallock Creek and the No.5 Yallock Drain Road (which was thus also known as Creamery Road) opened in 1897 as a Co-Operative, closed in 1898, re-opened 1899 and eventually sold to the owners of the Lang Lang Butter Factory (11).  A butter factory had operated in Lang Lang for a few years before it closed in February 1893. It re-opened around 1895 with Charles Wood (or his company Wood & Co) being listed as the owners until 1926, when it was sold to Southern State Produce.

 In 1928 it was purchased by Ivan Stedman, a butter merchant. The Factory was a major employer in Lang Lang. Part of the original factory was destroyed by a wind storm in August 1930 (12). In 1934 it was reported that Extensive additions and alterations are to be made to the Lang Lang butter factory, at a cost of £2000. It is proposed to build a brick milk factory adjoining the present butter factory, a commodious modern garage to hold six trucks, a fodder room, and greatly extend the present can rack (13).  Not sure if this ever came to fruition as this photo from the Weekly Times of June 1932,  looks very much like the later photo, shown below it. 


Lang Lang Butter Factory


Lang Lang Butter Factory,
Image: Lang Lang & District Historical Society.

Farm pick-ups were initially done by horse and cart, but the 1930s the Factory had a fleet of trucks which collected from farms as far away as Phillip Island (14). The factory was sold in 1940 (15). In 1946 Prestige Ltd, the lingerie manufacturers opened in the factory for  a time (16).  Lang Lang Butter Factory is now occupied by Larmax. 


Opening of the Prestige factory in the Butter Factory premises

Yannathan Butter Factory was established in 1900 or 1905 (depending on sources) and was purchased by Ivan Stedman at the same he purchased the Lang Lang Factory. According to the article from April 1929 (17) below, the plants from both factories were dismantled and re-assembled at Lang Lang.  The closure of the Yannathan factory is confirmed by the Cranbourne Shire Rate books as from 1929/1930 they list the Yannathan factory as the “old Butter Factory." Factory Road, off Heads Road, is all that is left to remind us of the Yannathan Butter Factory. 


Amalgamation of the Lang Lang and Yannathan factories.
Great Southern Advocate, April25, 1929, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/254596341

Yannathan, Catani and Bayles dairy farmers could also send their milk to Melbourne on the train, after the Strzelecki Railway line opened in 1922, and in 1923 the milk train carried over 1000 gallons of milk per day from those stations (18). Read about this Railway line, here.


Yannathan Butter Factory
Image:  More Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup by David Mickle, published by the author, 1987.

Incidentally, Ivan Stedman (1895-1979) was a champion swimmer and led the Australian team at the opening ceremony of the Antwerp Olympics in 1920. He won a silver medal in the 4x200 freestyle relay team at those Olympics and also competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics. This is an achievement, made even more remarkable, by the fact that Ivan spent over three years in the A.I.F. during the First World War and was wounded at Passchendaele (19). 

Before we leave this subject there was a private cheese factory,  constructed in 1892 by John Henry Smethurst on his property Glen Avis in Yannathan.  Smethurst was a pioneer in the use of machines. His dairy had a four horse-power boiler and a three horse-power Tangye engine which worked a 90 gallon separator and 200lb butter churn. He milked 75 cows at Yannathan and also had another cheese factory on his other property Lang Lang Park, at Athlone, where he milked 260 cows (20).

 
Glen Avis, Yannathan, in 1979
Image: Shire of Buln Buln by Graeme Butler (Shire of Buln Buln, 1979)


Footnotes
(1) Godbold, Norman Victoria: Cream of the Country – a history of Victorian Dairying (Dairy Industry Association of Australia, 1989). p. 18.
(2) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968), p. 195.
(3) Nest, Denise Call of the Bunyip: History of Bunyip, Iona and Tonimbuk 1847-1990 (Bunyip History Committee, 1990), p. 17
(4) Ibid.
(5) Godbold, op. cit., p. 58.
(6) Godbold, op. cit., p. 75.
(7) The Argus, June 26, 1908, see here.
(8) Godbold, op. cit., p. 142.
(9) The Argus, September 29, 1932, see here.
(10) Godbold, op. cit., p. 144.
(11) Gunson, op. cit. p. 146.
(12) The Age, August 18, 1930, see here.
(13) Dandenong Journal, September 6, 1934, see here.
(14) Protector's Plains: history of Lang Lang Primary School No.2899, 1888-1988 and district compiled by Barbara Coghlan (CBC Publishing, 1988), p. 12.
(15) Sale of Butter factory

Advertisement for the sale of the Lang Lang Butter factory
Dandenong Journal, August 14, 1940 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216062604

(16) Dandenong Journal, March 20 1946, see here.
(17) Great Southern Advocate, April 25, 1929, see here.
(18) Gunson, op. cit. p. 196.
(19) Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, written by Harry Gordon https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stedman-ivan-cuthbert-11754
(20) Butler, Graeme Buln Buln: a history of the Shire of Buln Buln (Shire of Buln Buln, 1979), p. 181-182.  
This book is now, unfortunately, out of print, but if you have an interest in the area it worth trying to track down a copy from a library or a second hand book dealer. Yannathan was part of the Shire of Buln Buln until 1893 when it was annexed by the Shire of Cranbourne. 

A version of this blog post, which I wrote and researched, also appears on my work blog - Casey Cardinia Links to Our Past and has appeared in the Koo Wee Rup Township newsletter, The Blackfish.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Cora Lynn Cheese Factory

The Cheese Factory at Cora Lynn is  a prominent landmark, and as you can see by the date on the factory, it was established in 1910. This photograph was taken in 1998 and it has since been refurbished. I have tried to find out the exact date of the opening, but can only conclude from the following newspaper reports that it was either December 1910 or January 1911. The factory was extended in the 1930s and in 1932 had around 500 regular suppliers, however it was closed in the late 1940s. 


The Argus Wednesday, August 3 1910 page 6

Tenders were accepted in October 1910 to build the factory.
 
The Argus Saturday, October 15 1910 page 20
  
The Factory was under construction in December 1910.

Berwick Shire News   Wednesday, December 7, 1910.

The factory had just been completed in January 1911.



The Argus, Tuesday January 31, 1911 page 6.
From Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper