Community & Business
4 December, 2024
Pittsworth: dominance in the dairy industry
The Pittsworth Dairy Company Limited was formed in 1896 and quickly became a force of nature in the Queensland dairying industry across the next 84 years.
The first dairy registered on the Darling Downs was a small factory built at Hampton, near Crows Nest, in 1887.
The second was the Puslinch Butter Factory, established at Pittsworth in 1889 by Walter Francis Duke Yonge.
One of the best known and famed cheese factories on the Darling Downs was at one time, the Pittsworth Dairy Company Limited, established in 1896.
Land originally purchased by the company was Lot 1 Section 17 on the corner of Yandilla and Factory Streets.
Lot 1 had an area of two acres and was purchased for the sum of £70.
The Pittsworth factory commenced cheesemaking in 1896.
A loan of £325 at 4 per cent was granted by the government under the provisions of the Meat and Dairy Act.
By 1896-97, forty-one dairy manufacturing plants were in operation on the Downs.
The first annual meeting of shareholders of the Pittsworth Dairy Company Limited was held in 1897.
Those present were Messrs. Copp, Gray, McIntyre, MacIntosh, Mitchell, Boyes, Mann, Addicott, Tarbock, Jentz, Gerrand and Green.
At the turn of the 20th century, the operations of the factory underwent intense growth and in 1902, it was the largest cheese factory in the state.
By 1913 the company established branch factories at Yarranlea, Scrubby Mountain, Springside, Brookstead and Linthorpe.
At this time there were also three other Co-operative factories in the district: Southbrook Co-op, Mount Tyson and Irongate.
This was a period in time when the dairy industry was a hive of activity, and Pittsworth’s dominance in specialised cheese production was beginning to be observed.
Attempts to improve milk output per cow resulted in new land use activities involving a greater use of artificially formed pastures.
One report said green fodder expanded rapidly, and the acreage devoted to this crop increased at the rate of about 39 per cent.
In the 1914 season, 77.5 per cent of Queensland’s green fodder was grown on the Darling Downs.
The cultivation of stock feed was concentrated on four divisions - Allora (16,565 acres), Clifton (17,364 acres), Oakey (30,950 acres) and Pittsworth (24,717 acres).
By 1915, seventy-six dairy manufacturing plants were established on the Darling Downs - 16 butter factories, 59 cheese factories and one condensed milk factory.
As a result, in 1914 Queensland produced more cheese than any other state and in 1918, Queensland exported three times as much as cheese as New South Wales and Victoria.
Big cheeses were the order of the day, and the Pittsworth factory became famous for its production of two giant cheeses that held world records.
They were manufactured under the watchful eye of Percy Farrington, head cheesemaker, and were exhibited in the 1924 and 1925 exhibitions in London.
In 1933, the Pittsworth Dairy Company Limited changed its name to
the Pittsworth Co-operative Dairy Association Limited.
After World War II, there was a decline in dairy production, due to changes in grain and beef production, at times when the returns from dairying weren’t high.
On August 31, 1980, the Pittsworth factory closed its doors and the site was sold to Graeme and Margaret Cook to become Cooks Soft Drinks factory.
In February 2024 the factory was sold again.
Today, grain growing and field crops are the dominant form of agricultural activity on the Darling Downs.
