Taungatara (Awatuna)

Taranaki

28 Dec

Dates: 1900-1989
Location 1: 2922 Eltham Road, Taranaki (-39.435657, 173.951961)
Location 2: 2954 Eltham Road, Taranaki (-39.43561, 173.951961)
Registration No: 1622
Brand name: TAUNGATARA

With the success of the Awatuna and Pihama co-operative factories, discontent among the Crown Dairy Company suppliers at the Punehu (Eltham Road) and Taungatara creameries grew to the extent that in October 1898, a delegation of those suppliers requested the Awatuna company to establish a branch factory in the Taungatara district.

The Crown Dairy Company were approached to buy their creamery on the north western bank of the Taungatara stream but the offer was rebuffed. So the Awatuna company built a creamery on the north eastern bank of the Taungatara stream which opened in January 1900.

The first creamery which opened in January 1900

A cheese plant was constructed in November 1900, the creamery’s old wooden floor was replaced by a concrete floor in 1904 and the creamery was replaced by a cheese factory in 1907/08 when the Taungatara branch received its own registration number (1622).

Further extensions were built in 1912 following the closure of Pihama’s Taungatara creamery as well as in 1927.

Taungatara factory on left by Sam Feaver 1922

On 2 February 1936, a flood severely damaged, washed away and undermined parts of the Taungatara branch factory and road access making it unsafe to rebuild.

The suppliers decided to rebuild the factory further west of the old factory and the successful tenderer was Messrs Boon Bros for a contract price of £9,524. Plant was installed by the National Dairy Association at a cost of £3,185. The new factory was opened on 10 March 1937.

Timbers from the old factory were used to build the Makaka Hall in 1939. The hall was renowned locally for its excellent dance floor attributed to wax dripping from curing cheeses in the Taungatara factory

The mid-20th century saw major changes in the dairy industry, including improved transport and the introduction of milk tankers to the Awatuna and Taungatara factories in 1962. By 1969, all milk was being collected by tanker.

In 1973, the Awatuna and Taungatara factories ceased production and their registrations were cancelled on 17 September 1973. The factories began supplying milk directly to the Rennet Company in Eltham for specialist cheese making with surplus milk going to the Taranaki Dairy Company which had its headquarters in Stratford. Most assets of the Co-op were sold, except for the Awatuna store which continued trading. That contract ended in 1989 when the Awatuna Co-op joined Kiwi Dairies of Hāwera as part of industry-wide mergers.