Sutherlands. The interior of Eudunda Farmers Cooperative first general store which opend in 1896. Store originally owned by Stephen Gale
Sutherlands and the Origins of Eudunda Farmer’s Cooperative.
The town was named after William Sutherland who took up 2,000 acres here in 1879. He was the first in the district to employ wood cutters to fell and chop Mallee branches and roots for sale in a wood yard in Adelaide. He subdivided some of his land in 1881 to create a small township after the Eudunda to Morgan railway passed through this spot in 1878. The railway was the life blood of the settlement as often the main source of income for grain farmers was the cutting and selling of Mallee wood and Mallee stumps. This was one of the busiest rail lines in the state and around ten trains passed through Sutherlands every day of the week. The town, for a short time, thrived on the cut wood trade by clearing the Mallee scrub. With the railway as the focus the first Post Office was opened in the wooden railway station building in 1878. The first Post Master was William Sutherland himself. Post Office services for Sutherland disappeared in 1973. Sutherland also opened the first general store before Eudunda Farmers’ opened theirs in 1896. St Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1890 with a cemetery created nearby but the congregation was formed earlier in 1880. The church closed in 1964 and became a residence. The church has especially fine and curvaceous barge boards and matching cement rendering which are quite unusual on a Lutheran church. For a very short time Methodists and Anglicans also had services in the small town but not in a purpose built church as Sutherland was just a “preaching place.” The fine stone government school was built in 1889 but an earlier government school opened in 1883 in a dug out cellar for coolness. The school enrolment must have grown in the early years as a 1909 newspaper report on Sutherlands said that it produced “children and firewood”. The roll books for 1920 show that 72% of the students had a German background name and 28% had a British background name. This was probably fairly representative of the wider community too which was dominated by German background families and that was why the only church built in Sutherlands was a Lutheran Church. The school closed in 1953 as a consequence of rural depopulation. It then became a residence. The farming district around Sutherland followed international and Australian wide trends. The very first petrol driven tractors from commercial producers appeared in the late 1920s. Sales became static in the early 1930s because of the Great Depression but climbed steadily from 1933 with a year of peak production and sales year in 1940. As tractors came into wide spread use farm horses and farm labourers disappeared. The farm labourers of course not only ploughed the paddocks but they also looked after all the draft horses and transport horses used by the local farmers. Rural populations declined rapidly and town businesses and school enrolments suffered. Sutherlands School was lucky to survive the widespread school closures of 1944 and 1945 which was many small regional schools were closed ready for the formation of Eudunda Area School in 1946. The Sutherlands Hotel which opened in 1892 and was built around that time still operates for passing travellers. But most other businesses of the early Sutherlands have disappeared. In its heyday Sutherlands had the hotel, a Post Office – the railway station-, a bank, a blacksmiths which made buggies and agricultural implements until 1917, a butcher, a saddler, a green grocer, a brass band and the Eudunda Farmers’ General store. The Eudunda Farmers Store in Sutherlands closed in 1958.
Sutherlands is just to the east of Goyder’s Line of 1865 so it is very much marginal land and little grain is grown there these days. The general store here became the first Eudunda Farmers’ Store in 1896. From Sutherlands Eudunda Farmers expanded to all parts of South Australia as a farmer’s cooperative store with discount for members. It began as a trader in cut Mallee wood whereby it encouraged farmers to sell their wood direct to Adelaide merchants thus bypassing the “middle men.” The Adelaide wood merchant who became their agent, Thomas Roberts, set up in the Eudunda Hotel to arrange the trades hence the final name for the cooperative. The sale notes were used like local currency to purchase groceries and farm supplies. A local Eudunda man Henry Mucklow came up with the idea of a farmer’s cooperative. A meeting of 100 local farmers and Eudunda residents was held on 26th December 1895 in the Eudunda Hotel Assembly rooms to form a committee to draft a constitution for the cooperative society. Thus the organisation came into being on 7th January 1896. Late in 1896 the Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative purchased Gale’s general store in Sutherlands. A store was purchased and opened for trade in Bower not long after this. At the beginning of 1901 the activities of Eudunda Farmers’ were focussed on Eudunda itself when the Cooperative leased Nock Bros general store in Eudunda. This then became known as branch number five. Branch number one was the head office in Adelaide which was established in March 1896 before the Sutherlands store was purchased and opened. Other early branches were number 6 Murray Bridge in 1904, number 7 in Lameroo 1906, the paddle steamer Pyap branch number 8 in 1908 , branch number 9 in Blyth in 1908, branch number 10 at Geranium in 1908, branch number 11 in Parrakie in 1909, branch number 12 in Pinnaroo in 1909 and branch number 13 in Bute in 1910. This shows how quickly Eudunda Farmers’ grew and spread across the state. Other early branches before 1929 Great Depression were: Loxton 1910; Kapunda 1911; Parilla 1911; Robertstown 1913; Gawler 1915; Freeling 1917; Balaklava 1917; Angaston 1918; Waikerie 1919; Sedan 1919; Brinkworth 1920; Tanunda 1921; Berri 1921; Laura 1922; Caltowie 1922; Kadina 1923; Morgan 1923; Mannum 1926; Jamestown 1926; Naracoorte 1926; Crystal Brook 1926; Strathalbyn 1926; Millicent 1927; and Saddleworth 1928. The next stores did not open until after the Depression in 1936 and before World War Two – namely- Bordertown 1936; Clare 1936; Renmark 1936; Port Pire 1936; Snowtown 1939 and Whyalla and Wallaroo both in 1940. More stores came after World War Two with the last store opening in Woomera in 1992.
Back in 1896 at the founding of Eudunda Farmers’ Thomas Roberts became the first general manager in 1896 and Henry Mucklow was in charge of the Eudunda woodyard. The general store in Sutherlands, like the others that followed sold groceries and fertilisers etc at lower or discounted prices to their members because the Cooperative purchased in bulk at lower prices than usual. The third branch was opened in Bower in 1898 and then a fourth branch opened in Mount Mary 1899. Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative built a multistorey building on North Terrace near Holy Trinity Anglican Church in 1938. Eudunda Farmer stores covered the state from the Riverland and Eyre Peninsula to the Murray Mallee, the South East and the Mid North. The majority of Eudunda Farmers stores had opened by 1928. The stores began to close as demand changed in the 1980s and Eudunda Farmers merged with United Supermarkets in the 1990s and still operates supermarkets under the Foodland or IGA banner. By the late 1990s it still had 21 supermarkets and by 2009 this had fallen to 16 supermarkets all badged as Foodland Stores.
Sutherlands. The interior of Eudunda Farmers Cooperative first general store which opend in 1896. Store originally owned by Stephen Gale
Sutherlands and the Origins of Eudunda Farmer’s Cooperative.
The town was named after William Sutherland who took up 2,000 acres here in 1879. He was the first in the district to employ wood cutters to fell and chop Mallee branches and roots for sale in a wood yard in Adelaide. He subdivided some of his land in 1881 to create a small township after the Eudunda to Morgan railway passed through this spot in 1878. The railway was the life blood of the settlement as often the main source of income for grain farmers was the cutting and selling of Mallee wood and Mallee stumps. This was one of the busiest rail lines in the state and around ten trains passed through Sutherlands every day of the week. The town, for a short time, thrived on the cut wood trade by clearing the Mallee scrub. With the railway as the focus the first Post Office was opened in the wooden railway station building in 1878. The first Post Master was William Sutherland himself. Post Office services for Sutherland disappeared in 1973. Sutherland also opened the first general store before Eudunda Farmers’ opened theirs in 1896. St Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1890 with a cemetery created nearby but the congregation was formed earlier in 1880. The church closed in 1964 and became a residence. The church has especially fine and curvaceous barge boards and matching cement rendering which are quite unusual on a Lutheran church. For a very short time Methodists and Anglicans also had services in the small town but not in a purpose built church as Sutherland was just a “preaching place.” The fine stone government school was built in 1889 but an earlier government school opened in 1883 in a dug out cellar for coolness. The school enrolment must have grown in the early years as a 1909 newspaper report on Sutherlands said that it produced “children and firewood”. The roll books for 1920 show that 72% of the students had a German background name and 28% had a British background name. This was probably fairly representative of the wider community too which was dominated by German background families and that was why the only church built in Sutherlands was a Lutheran Church. The school closed in 1953 as a consequence of rural depopulation. It then became a residence. The farming district around Sutherland followed international and Australian wide trends. The very first petrol driven tractors from commercial producers appeared in the late 1920s. Sales became static in the early 1930s because of the Great Depression but climbed steadily from 1933 with a year of peak production and sales year in 1940. As tractors came into wide spread use farm horses and farm labourers disappeared. The farm labourers of course not only ploughed the paddocks but they also looked after all the draft horses and transport horses used by the local farmers. Rural populations declined rapidly and town businesses and school enrolments suffered. Sutherlands School was lucky to survive the widespread school closures of 1944 and 1945 which was many small regional schools were closed ready for the formation of Eudunda Area School in 1946. The Sutherlands Hotel which opened in 1892 and was built around that time still operates for passing travellers. But most other businesses of the early Sutherlands have disappeared. In its heyday Sutherlands had the hotel, a Post Office – the railway station-, a bank, a blacksmiths which made buggies and agricultural implements until 1917, a butcher, a saddler, a green grocer, a brass band and the Eudunda Farmers’ General store. The Eudunda Farmers Store in Sutherlands closed in 1958.
Sutherlands is just to the east of Goyder’s Line of 1865 so it is very much marginal land and little grain is grown there these days. The general store here became the first Eudunda Farmers’ Store in 1896. From Sutherlands Eudunda Farmers expanded to all parts of South Australia as a farmer’s cooperative store with discount for members. It began as a trader in cut Mallee wood whereby it encouraged farmers to sell their wood direct to Adelaide merchants thus bypassing the “middle men.” The Adelaide wood merchant who became their agent, Thomas Roberts, set up in the Eudunda Hotel to arrange the trades hence the final name for the cooperative. The sale notes were used like local currency to purchase groceries and farm supplies. A local Eudunda man Henry Mucklow came up with the idea of a farmer’s cooperative. A meeting of 100 local farmers and Eudunda residents was held on 26th December 1895 in the Eudunda Hotel Assembly rooms to form a committee to draft a constitution for the cooperative society. Thus the organisation came into being on 7th January 1896. Late in 1896 the Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative purchased Gale’s general store in Sutherlands. A store was purchased and opened for trade in Bower not long after this. At the beginning of 1901 the activities of Eudunda Farmers’ were focussed on Eudunda itself when the Cooperative leased Nock Bros general store in Eudunda. This then became known as branch number five. Branch number one was the head office in Adelaide which was established in March 1896 before the Sutherlands store was purchased and opened. Other early branches were number 6 Murray Bridge in 1904, number 7 in Lameroo 1906, the paddle steamer Pyap branch number 8 in 1908 , branch number 9 in Blyth in 1908, branch number 10 at Geranium in 1908, branch number 11 in Parrakie in 1909, branch number 12 in Pinnaroo in 1909 and branch number 13 in Bute in 1910. This shows how quickly Eudunda Farmers’ grew and spread across the state. Other early branches before 1929 Great Depression were: Loxton 1910; Kapunda 1911; Parilla 1911; Robertstown 1913; Gawler 1915; Freeling 1917; Balaklava 1917; Angaston 1918; Waikerie 1919; Sedan 1919; Brinkworth 1920; Tanunda 1921; Berri 1921; Laura 1922; Caltowie 1922; Kadina 1923; Morgan 1923; Mannum 1926; Jamestown 1926; Naracoorte 1926; Crystal Brook 1926; Strathalbyn 1926; Millicent 1927; and Saddleworth 1928. The next stores did not open until after the Depression in 1936 and before World War Two – namely- Bordertown 1936; Clare 1936; Renmark 1936; Port Pire 1936; Snowtown 1939 and Whyalla and Wallaroo both in 1940. More stores came after World War Two with the last store opening in Woomera in 1992.
Back in 1896 at the founding of Eudunda Farmers’ Thomas Roberts became the first general manager in 1896 and Henry Mucklow was in charge of the Eudunda woodyard. The general store in Sutherlands, like the others that followed sold groceries and fertilisers etc at lower or discounted prices to their members because the Cooperative purchased in bulk at lower prices than usual. The third branch was opened in Bower in 1898 and then a fourth branch opened in Mount Mary 1899. Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative built a multistorey building on North Terrace near Holy Trinity Anglican Church in 1938. Eudunda Farmer stores covered the state from the Riverland and Eyre Peninsula to the Murray Mallee, the South East and the Mid North. The majority of Eudunda Farmers stores had opened by 1928. The stores began to close as demand changed in the 1980s and Eudunda Farmers merged with United Supermarkets in the 1990s and still operates supermarkets under the Foodland or IGA banner. By the late 1990s it still had 21 supermarkets and by 2009 this had fallen to 16 supermarkets all badged as Foodland Stores.