Another bit of my History gone!

Thirty six years ago this month our family moved from Orbost in East Gippsland Victoria to Corryong in North East Victoria. My Dad was the maintenance Engineer at the Orbost Factory (above) for many years and when The Butter factory at Orbost was closing down  Dad had the job of moving the boiler and other pieces of Equipment to the factory in Corryong. We spent a lot of our childhood in the Orbost factory playing around the stacked bags of dehydrated milk powder and getting jars of beautiful yellow cream to take home. Dad used to tell us about the platypus in the river where the water pump was and the locals used to gather in front of the Factory when the Snowy River was flooding to watch the water come up. The move was a huge change for us. Not only were we leaving the Town we were born in but also leaving the Ocean where we spent all of our holidays to living at the foot of the mountains. In the time he worked there Dad went from  Engineer at the Factory to being the Manager. I think he preferred being in the Factory with the men much more than sitting in an Office. The Factory at Corryong hasn't run as a milk factory for quite a few years now as the milk is now sent to the Murray Goulburn Factory at Kiewa. When it closed down a local company took over the boiler and produced Mint Oil until they set up their own Factory at the other end of town. After that it became a seed processing plant and has been ever since. Yesterday I found out that most of the old building is being torn down and replaced  with modern sheds. Another part of my history gone. My Father worked there until he retired, it's where my brother did his apprenticeship , my husband had a brief stint there (before we were married) and I worked in the Office on and off for eight years. I'm still working for Murray Goulburn in the Store which is next door to the old factory. My house is only a few minutes along the road and it was the Store managers house until we purchased it from Murray Goulburn in 1981. It's a little bit sad but the memories will always be there and change is something that will happen whether we want it to or not.

If your wondering what happened to the Orbost factory....it was neglected for quite a few years but came into it's own when the Paddle steamer Curlip Project was conceived.