Country Towns
Butter factory, Gloucester, NSW, 1937
This former factory was designed by Arthur William Mackenzie Mowle of Gloucester and built for the Gloucester Co-op. Dairy Co. Ltd by Daniel Gallagher, J.C. Pickles and A. McIlroy in 1937.
The main building measures 253 ft x 63 ft (77.11 m x 19.20 m), made entirely of brick, concrete and steel. It was capable of pasteurising 1,000 gallons (3,785.40 l) of cream an hour and producing 70 tons (71.12 t) of butter a week. It was the first butter factory in the State with a tiled roof, which was a progressive move as it kept everything in the factory much cooler than under a traditional corrugated iron roof. The roof overhangs the pavement all around to further aid cooling and all the insulated rooms are lined with corkwood sourced from Spain just before the civil war there broke out. This was a marked improvement on the previous system of insulating the walls with charcoal. Power for the new factory was generated by a 275 h.p. Ruston & Hornsby Ltd engine.
The receiving platform measures 59 ft x 41 ft (17.98 m x 12.50 m), on which there was an electric milk can washer. The risk of dust accumulation on the platform was minimised by a 20 ft (6.09 m) wide pavement. In the cream store were six cooling vats with a total capacity of 6,000 gallons (27,276 l). The churn room (which held three large churns) measures 52 ft x 41 ft (15.85 m x 12.50 m), and the butter cold room has an area of 280 sq. ft (26.01 sq. m) capacity. The ice store, in which ice could be stored for nearly six months, measures 16 ft 6 in. x 8 ft (4.88 m x 2.44 m). Other rooms include the pasteurising room, brine tank room, cold water room, box room and the salt and paper storeroom. There were extensions to the factory in 1963, but it closed in 2001, though is now partly reused.
Reference: Phillip Simpson, “Historical Guide to New South Wales”, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2020.
Butter factory, Gloucester, NSW, 1937
This former factory was designed by Arthur William Mackenzie Mowle of Gloucester and built for the Gloucester Co-op. Dairy Co. Ltd by Daniel Gallagher, J.C. Pickles and A. McIlroy in 1937.
The main building measures 253 ft x 63 ft (77.11 m x 19.20 m), made entirely of brick, concrete and steel. It was capable of pasteurising 1,000 gallons (3,785.40 l) of cream an hour and producing 70 tons (71.12 t) of butter a week. It was the first butter factory in the State with a tiled roof, which was a progressive move as it kept everything in the factory much cooler than under a traditional corrugated iron roof. The roof overhangs the pavement all around to further aid cooling and all the insulated rooms are lined with corkwood sourced from Spain just before the civil war there broke out. This was a marked improvement on the previous system of insulating the walls with charcoal. Power for the new factory was generated by a 275 h.p. Ruston & Hornsby Ltd engine.
The receiving platform measures 59 ft x 41 ft (17.98 m x 12.50 m), on which there was an electric milk can washer. The risk of dust accumulation on the platform was minimised by a 20 ft (6.09 m) wide pavement. In the cream store were six cooling vats with a total capacity of 6,000 gallons (27,276 l). The churn room (which held three large churns) measures 52 ft x 41 ft (15.85 m x 12.50 m), and the butter cold room has an area of 280 sq. ft (26.01 sq. m) capacity. The ice store, in which ice could be stored for nearly six months, measures 16 ft 6 in. x 8 ft (4.88 m x 2.44 m). Other rooms include the pasteurising room, brine tank room, cold water room, box room and the salt and paper storeroom. There were extensions to the factory in 1963, but it closed in 2001, though is now partly reused.
Reference: Phillip Simpson, “Historical Guide to New South Wales”, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2020.