The earliest settlers were the squatters who brought sheep and cattle to the Northern rivers in the 1830/40s and claimed large tracks of land for grazing. After surviving slumps in the market where they were forced to boil down their stock for tallow, and after realising that sheep were not suitable for the region, the squatters developed a solid market in beef cattle. At the time, dairy cattle were limited to a house cow supplying the family with milk, butter and cheese.
With the advent of the Robertson Land Act, the large squatting runs were broken up into smaller landholdings and traded hands many times over during the next 50 years. As the cedar was cleared and the farming land opened up to maize and sugar cane, the larger beef producing stations enjoyed a period of prosperity. Dairy was still limited to the local market due to transport and preservation challenges. There was no electricity and therefore no refrigeration. Butter had to be heavily salted to prevent it going rancid.
Dairying was very labour intensive. The cows were milked by hand, and once the cream was separated, it had to be churned by hand. With the influx of experienced dairy farmers during the 1880s, the industry began to expand. The introduction of a cream separator streamlined the process and reduced the time that the milk could spoil. These machines were expensive and so the more progressive farmers formed co-operatives. The first butter factory to be set up was at Spring Hill in 1889 – it was refrigerated and had ice-making capabilities. This was followed by factories at Bexhill and Rous with many smaller separating stations set up closer to the farms. Cream was then transported in bulk, usually by riverboat, to the butter factories. Those who were not in co-operatives sent their cream to the private company NSW Creamery and Butter Co. Ltd. in Lismore. Farmers took the skim milk back to the farm to produce casein or to be fed to the pigs.
Pasture improvements with a new grass like paspalum and the introduction of pasteurisation to ensure the products were clear of the tuberculosis bacillus allowed the industry to boom at the turn of the century. Refrigerated cargo ships could deliver both beef and butter in large quantities to the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and later, world markets. For the farmers without river access, the rail line to Byron Bay transported their cream to the co-op which, in 1904, became Norco.
As towns like Coraki, Ballina and Casino grew, they established their own butter factories and the cream boats did a roaring trade. New technology came on the scene with more efficient milking machines and the Babcock tester which was able to gauge the amount of butterfat in the milk and rewarded the farmers for better quality.
In 1906, the beef and dairy industries were so strong in the northern rivers that a comprehensive 164 page book called Farm Life was produced to promote the area. It featured over 100 of the local farms, giving a brief history and biography of the farmer and showing dozens of photos of the prize-winning stock emanating from the rich farmland.
One of the largest cattle sales that has been held at Coraki was conducted by Messrs. R. A. Watterson and Coy. (Casino) and Robert Gordon and Son (Lismore). New yards were erected at the rear of the Commercial Hotel and the forty pens were filled with all classes of cattle, There was a good attendance of buyers and onlookers. Source
Over the next century the dairy industry faced many political and marketing challenges with government policies affecting every aspect of growth. Easier transport options saw the demise of the river traffic; many of the local co-operatives were amalgamated into Norco; small farmers could not afford to upgrade their facilities to compete with the larger farms and fluctuating prices led to the eventual dissolution of the Richmond River dairy industry.
Farming & Industry
