Phil Mahnken comment: I grew up at a time when many Lilydale farmers had their dairy shed, my grandfather Jim and his brother Leo at North Lilydale, the Browns on Browns Road, the McCarthy in-laws over at Karoola, Pat Griffin on Second River. The rhythmic sounds of those electric milking machines, the smells of shitty cows and concrete floors, the flicking tails, were a part of the way of life. The cream can left on the side of the road for collection by factory truck or carrier was a familiar sight. The cream check was important to keep many families going.
I never before thought about a time when dairying was not yet established although I did hear tales of my grandmother at Ringarooma and her sisters milking by hand out in the paddock or in a shed. Now by 2017, the little players have been squeezed out, dairying has become concentrated in the hands of those prepared to spend big on large automated plants although it still takes long hours and hard yakka. The largest dairying operation in Tasmania, the VDL company, has passed into foreign hands. I wonder if any more generations of Tasmanian kids will learn to milk by hand, shear sheep with blades and slaughter your own meat, as my brothers and I did.
Jill Cassidy report page 137 Lilydale Butter Factory
The presence of butter factories in Launceston, especially associated with a good transport system,meant that surrounding areas were less inclined to set up their own factories. However, there were afew small ones in earlier times. The first was at Lilydale, begun by that indefatigable entrepreneurLudwig Bardenhagen. He built the small wooden factory two doors from his shop on the corner of Station Road and the main road (map reference Lilydale 180332), and used water channelled from Rocky Creek by means of a wooden flume constructed on the side of the main road. In 1896 he owned 30 cows but had to buy milk because all the milk and cream he produced was sold as butter.His brand of butter, the "Wheat Sheaf", attracted large orders from both Launceston and Lefroy. In 1899 one male and one female were employed at the factory to produce 1400 pounds [634kg or less than one ton] of butter valued at 700 pounds.
The machinery was valued at 100 pounds and the land and building was worth 50 pounds. 27In 1903 he was purchasing supplies from neighbouring farmers who kept a few cows as a sideline, but in 1904 the Weekly Courier pointed out that he had "a private creamery, but does not always keep it in use". It is unclear if by this time Bardenhagen was actually only separating cream, as people sometimes used the term creamery when they meant butter factory. He continued to insert the "Lilydale Butter Factory" in the Post Office Directory until 1916 but it is unlikely it was much used, although it is remembered to have been working in 1914.
In 1904, in describing the bigger operation of James Wilson, the Weekly Courier correspondent reported that there was hardly another dairyman in the district unless it be Mr Bardenhagen" .28
Wilson's farm was Maxwellton Braes on North Lilydale Road and he had "one of the best managed dairies in Tasmania, .. . scrupulously clean" with a sloping concrete floor. He practised winter dairying and made butter for a Launceston outlet. In 1908 Wilson turned to the provision of tablecream which he continued until 1917 when he left to take over the management of the Relbia Farm and Dairy CO. 29
The Dairy Heritage of Northern Tasmania Part 1
The Dairy Heritage of Northern Tasmania Part 2