Dairy Factories

Boisdale Butter Factory

John, Linda and Spencer are back at it, and working on the history of dairy factories. We didn't realise there were so many! We are working on a book in time for Mardi Gras, so need some help. The full list appears below, but we need further information, especially about those that do not appear on this list.

Dairy factories can be cheese factories, creameries (where the butter was made elsewhere), butter factories or condensed milk factories. Or even milk factories.

Maffra
Maffra Cheese Company 1870 to 1878 (Photos needed)
Fresh Food and Frozen Storage creamery 1891-1896
Maffra Concentrated Milk Company, became Bacchus Marsh Concentrated Milk Company, and then Nestles
Maffra Co-operative Milk Company formed in 1919, still there in Murray Goulburn.
The Willsmere Milk Company Pty Ltd

Mewburn Park / Tinamba
Heyfield Co-operative Butter Factory operated creameries at Tinamba (1892 - ) and Mewburn Park ( -1910). There may have also been a small early private cheese factory at Mewburn Park ( -1874). (Photos needed)

Heyfield
The Heyfield Butter formed in 1891, with creameries at Tinamba, Glenmaggie, Dennison (photo needed), Mewburn Park and Maffra.

Glenmaggie
The Fresh Food and Frozen Storage Company opened a creamery in 1890 It was taken over in 1898 by the Heyfield Butter Factory and closed in 1907/1908.

Medowra
A small private cheese factory operated at Medowra, possibly in the 1870s/early 1880s, but re-opened by Tom Riggall in 1904 and operated until a short time after the start of World War I.

Newry/Upper Maffra
David Miller established a small private cheese factory on his property in 1873/1874, and replaced this with a large cheese factory in the town area in 1876 It was taken over by Fresh Food and Frozen Storage from Melbourne in 1889.
In 1904 the Upper Maffra Co-operative Butter Factory was formed, and built a large brick factory that was amalgamated with the Maffra Co-op in 1950

Boisdale
Operated as part of the Foster family subdivision, erected in 1903. In 1918 it was sold to the Bacchus Marsh Concentated Milk

Little Plain
John McDonald operated a cheese (later Butter) factory at Little Plain, at least 1889 to 1904. (Photo needed)

Valencia Creek
The Fresh Food and Frozen Storage Company established a creamery at Valencia Creek in 1894, and was purchased in 1910 by the syndicate that acquired the Bushy Park Estate. (Photo needed)

Briagolong
Built in 1873, it was still operating in 1904, and closed some time before 1910, when the buildings were sold for removal. (Photos needed)

There were a number of other small, family operated cheese factories. Details on these, especially photographs, would be most welcome.

Closed for Christmas

The Research Team that meets on Mondays at the Maffra Library has now started Christmas holidays, and will be back in mid January - date to be confirmed, but probably 16 January.

The Museum will reopen in February.

Over Christmas, some of the Research Team will be working on a new set of notes, which will be on the Dairy Factories in the former Maffra Shire, and on a Biographical Database of early residents.

Stay tuned for further announcements.

But in the meantime, we wish everyone a Joyous and Safe Christmas, and hope that Santa fills your stocking with interesting facts about your own research into our local history.

Flo talks about Boisdale

There is now an ABC interview with our doyen of historians, Flo Pearce, about the Centenary of Closer Settlement at Boisdale, online on the ABC Gippsland website. You can read, and hear, it HERE.

Baptisms by Rev John Roberts

The Society has long held a copy of the baptismal register for the Rev John Roberts, who came to the Maffra Presbyterian Church in late 1865, later moving to Stratford. Overall, he spent fifty years ministering to the people of Gippsland from the two towns, carrying out 1,240 baptisms in the process.

The Rev Roberts often travelled to Lindenow and Bairnsdale, and occasionally to Tarraville. However the largest proportion of his baptisms are at Maffra, Little Plain, Valencia Creek and Upper Maffra.

The Rev Roberts was born in London in 1829, and arrived in Adelaide in 1849. He worked as a lay preacher in various Adelaide suburban missions, until being appointed to the new charge of Goolwa the following year. He remained there for ten years, but maintained strong links, often returning there for holidays. He was returning from a holiday there in December 1915, to celebrate his fifty years of continuous service to the Presbyterian Church in North Gippsland, when he died suddenly on the train at Camberwell. He had carried out two baptisms in South Australia several days previously.

After Goolwa he relocated to Melbourne, spending time at missions at Footscray and Maidstone, before moving to Stratford and Maffra in 1865. Ill-health forced his retirement from full-time ministry at Stratford in 1897, but he continued to baptise children, often the children of those he had first baptised many years before. In retirement, he lived in Maffra.

The records now held by the Society have been organised by surname, making it easy to check for those interested in their early family history. They will be added to the Society's resources in the Maffra Library in the near future.

Photos and Books in the Mail

The Society has recently received a large parcel of photographs and local books in the mail. However it is unable to locate appropriate details in order to acknowledge the donation, which it sincerely wishes to do.

It is deeply appreciated. Thank You!

New (Reissued) Book

Maffra and District Historical Society has reissued "Gippsland Estates 1882: A series of articles which appeared in The Gippsland Mercury from January to August 1882"

This updated edition is in a larger typeface, with the addition of seven photographs. properties described are:

Park House (photo)
Allerdale
Holey Plains
Riversdale
Mewburn Park (photo)
Spring Park (photo)
Powerscourt
Boisdale (photo)
Bushy Park (photo)
Llowalong (photo)
Inverbroom
Craigielee
Drayton
Williamsvale
The Airly Estate
Glencoe
The Heart
Newton
Cavan House
Clydebank
Maristow
Strathfieldsaye (photo)

Photographs from a similar time frame are sought for all properties not illustrated.

The book is A4, comb-bound, 65 pages, indexed for places and surnames. It is $12.00 plus postage, from P.O. Box 321, Maffra 3860.

Beet Book now Available Again

Just reprinted. The book, previously known as Maffra Beet Sugar Industry, 1894 to 1948, has just been reprinted, with a photo supplement.

It is now $9.00, available from the museum, or $10.50 posted, from Box 321, Maffra, 3860.

It is 34 pages, a high-quality photo-copy, comb bound, A4

We will have it at the Centenary of Closer Settlement at Boisdale on 26 November.