Concentrate Vats

The concentrate vats recorded here sit inside a processing chamber of the former Peters Creameries Pty Ltd factory on Railway Parade, Chatham, a suburb of Taree on the Manning River in New South Wales. Their metal surfaces are heavily deteriorated, marked by rust and the lifting of whatever protective coatings once covered them. Industrial fittings remain on the vessels, though the pipework and connections that once carried dairy product through the plant are long gone or broken. The concrete floor and the chamber walls show the same pattern of slow neglect. The factory was purpose-built as a steam-driven dairy processing plant, with a production capacity of 1,000 gallons of milk per hour. Building contractor D. Gallagher, who had extensive dairy factory construction experience, died before the building was completed; his estate finished the contract. The official opening took place on 4 November 1939, with approximately 5,000 people in attendance and free public access to tour the premises. The plant was opened by the Minister for Works and Local Government. Machinery was supplied by Richard Wildridge and Co. of Sydney. From the outset, the factory produced condensed milk and butter for local trade, with milk collected from farms within a 20-mile radius and cream sourced from within a 50-mile radius. Two river steamers, "Yankee Jack" and "Viola", ran dairy collections along the Manning River and its tributaries for approximately four decades. A riverside pump house supplied 25,000 gallons of water per hour to support condensing operations. The factory expanded through the 1940s and 1950s under contractor A. J. Hayter, with additional buildings, a canteen, a recreation hall, gardens, and a swimming pool added to the site. A NIRO milk powder spray-drying plant, commissioned in 1953, added a capacity of 1 tonne per hour. Following corporate rationalisation under successive owners, the factory closed in the late 1990s. The building at Chatham remains standing. This photograph was made in 2016.