Golden Coast Co-Operative Dairy

The property is once again up for sale, perhaps for a cottage industry to start up a wee butter factory or even a boutique  cheese producer to accompany the neighboring distillery with drinks and snacks on a sunny Reefton today,,,as today certainly is.

By Allan Archer

          31 October 2023

On this day 100 years ago – 31st October 1923 on the outskirts of Reefton a large number of farmers and the general public along with the ensemble of dignitaries gathered on Buller Road opposite the Railway Station to witness the official opening of the GOLDEN COAST CO-OPERATIVE DAIRY COMPANY’S new facility……The ‘Reefton Butter Factory’.

                      The substantial building of corrugated iron cladding on concrete foundation, 51ft by 60ft wide (16m x 18m) housing the ‘’latest and most up-to-date machinery in the Dominion” capable of making 400 tons of butter per season( last season the Company  produced 200 ton in their old Cronadun factory).

     The entire factory plant is powered from a 35 hp Marshall Boiler obtained early in the year from the Electric Light Company on the banks upstream of the Inangahua River, when they upgraded to a larger boiler to assist in the hydro turbine. It was to be another 3 years before electric power would flow in the wires to the butter factory some 5km away, when they would have a dedicated circuit. Cooling is obtained by an ice machine producing 545 kg per daily.

1952 Boiler upgrade instalation drawings

This location was chosen for its centrality to the rapidly expanding Inangahua and Grey Valleys along with the Maruia Valley that was inheriting the companies former plant at Cronadun.       

The previous season, 1922 there were 126 shareholders in the Company, 177 tons of butter fat was purchased from 188 suppliers paying the  sum of £23,960 ( ,967,000.00 equivalent today ) gross  profit obtained was £7498 17s 8d ( 29,328.00 equivalent today)  a 5% dividend was paid to shareholders.

One farmer was mentioned to have attained a herd of over 40 cows producing 302 lb per cow ( 137 kg )

           One of the speakers on the day was Mr J D Christie, of  Dalgety & Co. Ltd Greymouth, who along with Mr Hopcroft operated the Cronadun factory from 1907, producing 13 tons of butter annually, ’dairymen‘ receiving 8d-9d per lb for butter fat (approx. .40-.45/kg today).

             Hopcroft & Christie sold out out to Mr MeHarry in 1919.

             Efforts to form a Co-op had been attempted as early as 1895, resulting in the Cronadun factory, as a private concern, with perhaps a few Cronadun farmers involved.

Mr Hopcroft & Christie from Collingwood purchased the Cronadun factory in 1907, in turn selling to Mr MeHarry in 1919, at this time another effort was made to form a Co-op, resulting in controversy shown in the letters to the Editor along with a petition circulating to support the factory owner, who twice withdrew an offer to sell to the proposed Co-op. An agreement was finally achieved to purchase rather than build a new factory and split the ‘dairymen’ and lessen profits for the area.

Adverts were placed in the papers by the directors inviting suppliers whether they are shareholders or not, their bold lettered motto …….’’BY THE SUPPLIERS FOR THE SUPPLIERS”….

And ……………..‘‘If you are not a shareholder today we hope to make you one tomorrow”

Suppliers of the company are found in the district stretching from Lyell in the North to Otira and below Greymouth in the South hoping to turn out 300-400 tons.

1944 shareholders Certificate.

Nerolie Dawson & Lorry driver Jack Mitchell of Cronadun.

             The Cronadun factory soon outgrew supply only after a year of production and the decision was made to build the new up to date factory in Reefton and move the Cronadun plant to Maruia immediately after the new factory was commissioned. The Reefton factory operated on this site for 48 years until 1971 when centralizing the Coast dairy industry began in Greymouth and Hokitika, the loss of 7 jobs

               The early 1980s another booming industry was taking off with moss harvesting, the large building was utilized by local Noel Farrell for drying & processing the moss. In Nov 1984 a spectacular fire engulfed the 66 year old building.

Local Jeff Moore purchased the property and set up another moss drying operation.

His brother Malcolm in turn took it on as a base for his developing contracting business until moving on the hill above a year ago. If you look in closely on the pic of the boiler chimney  that was built in the 1952 upgrade to the 50hp boiler,  ( about the same time as the larger Hospital Boiler chimney to gift coal smoke to the Inangahua sky )  Malc can be seen on the digger bucket at the demolishing of the chimney, due to the aging of the photo his safety harness is hard to pick out