Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Longwarry and District Dairymen’s Cooperative factory in 1933.

This is part two of our series on the milk factory in Longwarry.

By 1930, the early days of the Great Depression started to impact on the cooperative and it began to struggle for finance.

Monty Dauber, who was the managing director of Larcher’s Dairy in Melbourne, had been able to convince management to allow them to become the factory’s sole city depot. When Larcher’s suddenly withdrew their orders, they were easily able to cripple the Longwarry factory and make it ripe for takeover, which they did soon afterwards.

Whilst this might seem a somewhat underhand way to acquire the factory in the shadow of those downturned times, it did bring much needed funds, expansion and development to the factory, to serve their retail distribution in the city.

By the 1950s, half of Melbourne’s milk was supplied from West Gippsland, with Longwarry,

Drouin and Warragul being the biggest milk depots.

The factory remained a cooperative with Larcher’s holding 51 per cent of the shares. The remaining 49 per cent were held by local farmers and businessmen.

The relationship with the Larcher/Dauber family became jointly beneficial and remained for 40 years. This was until Britain joined the Common Market, closing off many outlets for Australian dairy produce.

Further large investments were needed for bulk handling and to exploit new markets with new products, particularly in Asia. As a result, the Longwarry Dairymen’s Cooperative was sold to the English company Unigate in the early 1970s.

Photograph and information courtesy of the Longwarry and District History Group.

The group focuses on the history of the 3816 postcode, including Longwarry, Labertouche and Modella, and is always seeking new members and sponsorship.

Visit longwarryhistory.org.au for further information.