Douglas

Taranaki

10 Jul

Page 12A - Stratford Co-operative Dairy Company Diamond Jubilee 1894-1954 booklet

Dates: 1899-1958
Location 1: (1899-1919)1747 State Highway 43, Douglas, Taranaki (-39.300628, 174.475982)
Location 2: (1919) 4 Douglas Road, Douglas, Taranaki (-39.305702, 174.466333)
Location 3: (1919-1958) Cnr of State Highway 43 and Bredow Road, Douglas, Taranaki (-39.306150, 174.466403)
Registration No: 263
Brand name: CROWN; DOUGLAS

Douglas Dairy Beginnings (1889-1918)

Settlement in the Douglas district began when T. Bayly sold land sections in 1889, and dairying soon followed. The Crown Dairy Company opened the first creamery in late 1899 on the flat near the saleyards, where “the concrete base of the skim milk tank can still be seen”. Farmers delivered milk by horse and dray, with cans hoisted to the stage by chain. Separated cream was transported to the Crown Dairy Company’s Toko butter factory about 9kms away. Payment was initially by volume with the payout in the 1899-1900 season being 3p per 11lb gallon. The Stratford Farmers’ Co operative Association Limited took over the Toko butter factory from the Crown Dairy Company as well as related creameries including Douglas in 1902.

Photo: James McAllister - circa 1899-1902

Building the New Cheese Factory (1919)

As production grew, local suppliers successfully petitioned for a cheese factory rather than a replacement creamery, and construction began in 1919 on the crossroads site. However, progress was repeatedly delayed by railway restrictions, which prevented essential materials - cement, gravel, timber - from being transported. One report described how the railway refused to carry cement, prompting jokes that it might need to be “packed in beer barrels and consigned as Speight’s XXXX” . Major J. B. Hine appealed directly to the Minister for Railways, requesting permission to move “80 tons cement… 360 yards of gravel… and 12,000 feet of timber” for the Douglas build. The swampy ground also caused major foundation problems, requiring hard fill and concrete bags; one wall even had to be knocked out when a boiler proved larger than expected. A temporary creamery operated in the Douglas stables while work continued. The new factory included a whey tank “placed on a four foot matai log” and eventually opened on 11 January 1920.

Factory operations and Community Connections (1920s-1950s)

Milk delivery to the Douglas factory remained largely horse‑drawn well into the 1930s, with some suppliers continuing to use horses into the late 1950s. At its peak, the factory handled more than 4,000 gallons of milk a day, turning out up to forty eighty‑pound cheeses, and by 1927 had expanded with new vats and a pasteuriser. Staff lived close to their work, including in company housing such as the former Douglas Boarding House, purchased in 1941 and converted into flats for married employees the following year. Community life and factory life were tightly connected: in 1940 a Douglas cheese crate sent to London carried a hidden note from Eric Wills the son of the Manager, prompting a reply from an English cheese worker who wrote, “We are not down hearted, and we won’t let it get us down”. Under long‑serving manager Edgar Wills, the factory earned the Moller Trophy for the highest cheese grade in 1950–51.

Closure and Aftermath (1958)

In 1958, suppliers voted to adopt tanker collection, attracted by higher payouts and freedom from can washing and delivery time. The shift made the Douglas factory redundant, and it closed in June 1958. The buildings were sold to the Douglas Transport Company while the community marked the end of an era with a social and dinner in the hall, commemorating nearly 60 years of dairying at the heart of Douglas.