Eating damper slathered with butter and dripping deliciously with golden syrup, (known as Cocky’s Joy) as part of the education programme led by Cheryl Muldoon is a treat enjoyed by some of the school groups visiting the Land of the Beardies Museum.
Damper was a staple of early settlers’ diet – however it was nowhere near as edible as today – fresh butter being a rarity and certainly not made with today’s refined white flour!
Early supplies of the basic rations – flour, salt, sugar & tea were reliant on slow bullock wagons & it took months to replenish stocks which often arrived wet, mouldy or weevilly; in 1838 flour cost £60 a ton .
When it was found that wheat could be grown here many new settlers built their own crude stone grinding mills to produce a coarse flour.
However, it was a long time between sowing the crop and making flour!
The first commercial water-driven mill was built in 1845 at Dundee beside the river opposite the present Dundee Hall.
By 1857 former convict Scotsman Peter Bowers was the lessee grinding local wheat with an 8hp engine which drove four foot stones and produced 200 bushels a week – at one stage selling for 2/6 a bushel.
District mills were at Mount Mitchell, Yarrowford, Bolivia, Stonehenge and Ben Lomond.
In 1858 Patrick Henderson set up a flour mill on the present site of Craigieburn. His mill stones are now at our museum.
Edward Grover starting milling in Glen Innes in 1871, and in 1882 JF Utz erected a ‘huge pile of brick buildings in Bourke Street as the most conspicuous industrial building in the town … a great magnet to visitors … there are many who will recall an interesting visit to the Mill, the management of which always extended a welcome to those who desired to investigate the way in which the golden dust, which is the raw product of ‘the staff of life’ is manufactured’.(Described thus by an Examiner journalist.)
By 1891 Grovers and Hendersons mills had closed.
In 1912 MC Mackenzie & Sons now owners of Utz’ store remodelled and enlarged the enterprise and Colin McAlpin drove a 2-horse lorry round town on mill business.
Depressed trading conditions, freight charges & non-arrival of a northwest rail link were factors in the closure of the mill in 1929.
