Milang Lakeside Butter Factory from 1893 churned back to original condition by decade of effort by community
Karyn and John Bradford, with Milang and District Community Association chief executive Stuart Jones (centre, bottom right) were among town volunteers who restored the Milang Lakeside Butter Factory from its rundown condition (top) to the days when Milang jetty had boats such as the P.S. Jupiter bringing in cream from farms around South Australia's Lake Alexandrina and the River Murray.
Images courtesy ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News (by Caroline Horne) South Australia, and the State Library of South Australia
The South Australian state-heritage-listed Milang Lakeside Butter Factory, processing milk from farms around Lake Alexandrina near the River Murray mouth in South Australia from 1893, was restored by the lakeside town’s community over a decade up to 2024.
John and Karyn Bradford were among driving forces since a public meeting in 2014 when the community agreed to work towards buying and restoring the factory and the manager's cottage. Milang and District Community Association received $325,000 from Alexandrina Council towards buying the property in 2016.
Milang Lakeside Butter Factory was opened on July 3, 1893, and continued as an important part of the Milang and districts agricultural businesses into the 1960s. The factory’s first owners were the Buckland and Lipson partnership who also had opened auxiliary creameries at Queen's Own Town (later Finniss) and Meningie. A press report said they were “leaving no stone unturned to make the Lakeside brand of butter bring a high price, and the milk suppliers support them extensively. Already their product brings a good price in the (Adelaide) City and English market, and as the milk supplies are so rapidly increasing that it is expected by the end of next month no less than 2,000 gallons per day will be treated”.
The factory had a 13-feet (3.9 metres)-deep cellar with a tunnel going to the base of Tod's Hill to ventilate and cool the milk and butter. Paddle steamers lined up at Milang jetty below the factory as their crews offloaded produce from farms dotted around the lake and up the river. In the early days, the butter from Milang and other small South Australian dairy factories was often sent to the West Australian goldfields.
The Buckland and Lipson venture closed in 1904 but the factory was reopened in 1915 by Murphy Fromen & Co. At that time, cream was brought from Meningie twice a week on the P.S. Jupiter. By the 1920s, the factory had been enlarged with corrugated iron outbuildings and was owned by South Australian Farmers’ Union.
In 1934, the Victor Harbour Times reported that D. H. Griffin has bought the Milang butter factory from A. T. Pasche. Griffin added a bacon department to the factory and, at the Adelaide Show, his produce gained a championship, five first prizes, and a second prize with seven exhibits. The championship honours went to his exhibit of half a ton of export bacon.
The Milang butter and bacon factory finally closed in the 1960s and, aside from being used in 1990 as a backdrop in the television mini series Shadows of the Heart, remained largely untouched. Community members dedicated thousands of volunteer hours to fundraising, grant writing and physical labour to restoring the factory after the town took ownership in the 21st Century.
