Tears as milk plant closes
Final shift for 120 Edith Creek workers
CAR and truck horns hooted and tears were shed as the last of 120 workers at the Edith Creek milk factory clocked off and the factory doors were locked yesterday.
Murray Goulburn’s decision to shut the factory in the North-West, along with two others in Victoria, sent shockwaves through the small dairy community in May.
Edith Creek, population 220, may be a long way from the head office of Australia’s biggest dairy company, but the ramifications of the decision to close the factory that has provided jobs in the region for almost 50 years hit hard.
Many of the 120 workers who were made redundant have since left the Circular Head region in search of other work.
Others have stayed and hope to reapply for a job at the factory when it reopens under new ownership in about six months. Thai dairy giant Dutch Mill has bought the plant from MG and says it plans to reopen in the second quarter of next year.
How many local workers it will employ is not yet known.
Kathy Willis and Charmaine Pratt were among the 40 or so workers left at the site for the final shift yesterday.
They had notched up 31 years of work on the UHT factory’s lines between them.
Mrs Willis will stay in the Smithton area and reapply for a job at the plant when they are advertised next year. Mrs Pratt is moving to Victoria to take up new employment.
“It certainly is the end of an era and there will be a lot of people we will miss,’ Mrs Pratt said yesterday.
“After knowing since May our jobs were gone, we are still trying to process the fact that the factory has now been sold and it will again be producing dairy products.
“It’s sad but we have had a barbecue today to also celebrate our time together. Many are leaving but others are sticking around hoping jobs be we there again in the future.”
The factory was established by Cadbury. Murray Goulburn bought the factory from Classic Foods in 2006 and three years ago spent $14 million upgrading the plant, supposedly, securing its future. Murray Goulburn still owns a milk powder factory at Smithton.