I'd been in touch with the Cundletown and Lower Manning Historical Society to piece together some of the history behind a shoot at the abandoned Peters' Ice Cream Factory in Taree.
The timing of this post lined up with the 2016 National Trust Heritage Festival. The Society had organised a reunion for the local dairy workers, past and present, of the Manning River and Cundletown dairy industries, including those who had worked at the Peters' factory.
A week before the reunion, Jo Barlin of Barlin Milk sent through a document of factory history that became the basis for the captions on the gallery.
I worked on the copy from an 800-mm-square dining table in a tiny Airbnb in Maebashi, Japan. Rush job, but it worked, and the reunion went well.
The post itself doubled as an announcement to former dairy workers across the region. Laura Polson at the Manning River Times got in touch to publish an article timed to the reunion. She comes from a family of dairy farmers herself. We did a long email interview, and the Times piece ran the day before the reunion. From what I heard afterwards, members of the general public turned up for the ice-cream and butter-making demonstrations on the day. I wish I'd been there.
"The remnants of Peters Ice Cream Factory in Taree have been captured by a Sydney-based photographer through his project 'Lost Collective'. He shares the photos online to engage everyday people by 'encouraging them to reconnect with former lives and sometimes former friends.'"
Read the Manning River Times piece at manningrivertimes.com.au.
