The Pioneer Butter Factory

Just as you leave Kiama heading out to Jamberoo, there is a bend in the road near Spring Creek. It was on this bend that the first cooperative butter factory in Australia opened, in 1884. The Fresh Food and Ice Company, from Sydney, assisted in the establishment of the factory and worked with the dairy industry members of the cooperative to ensure a first class process.

The Pioneer Butter Factory was built of weatherboard with an oak shingled roof. The building was dividing into a separating room, a butter room, a wash room, an engine room, and a store room. There were three Danish-built cream separators - the first of their kind in Australia. They had a separating capacity of 100 gallons each hour, and there were also three churns used to churn the butter after the separation process. For the process they needed about 2000 gallons of water each day, so there was a well drilled through the sandstone to access an unlimited supply of clean water from Spring Creek. The water coming from the well also meant that the temperature was able to be kept at the necessary 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Approximately 1200 gallons of milk were put through these separators each day and this produced about 500lbs of butter. They also had steam pipes that heated the water to produce steam for the cleaning of the equipment and utensils.

When the idea to establish a cooperative butter and cheese factory was first discussed, it was thought that the separated milk could be used to make cheese. However, the cream separators were so good that there was no cream left in the milk, and skim milk is not conducive for cheese-making. The milk was collected from the cooperative member farmers, then it was passed through the separators where the cream would be forced through a strainer and cooled, and the remainder skim milk was sold for domestic purposes or to farmers for feeding their pigs.

The butter factory played an important role in the dairy farming community of Kiama until the 1900s/10s, when the demand for fresh milk in Sydney increased, resulting in less milk being supplied to the butter factory for butter production. The factory subsequently closed down and the building was demolished in 1936.

In 1962, a memorial was erected on the original site. The top piece is a replica of a wooden butter keg. Enclosed within the monument is a document sealed in a bottle that was used to test milk