Production Floor

The production floor of the Peters Creameries Pty Ltd factory at Chatham, photographed in 2016, holds rusting machinery and scattered debris across a broad concrete floor. Light filters through dusty windows, falling on surfaces that have not been cleaned or maintained for years. Whatever order once governed this space has long since dissolved into rust and disarray. The factory was purpose-built as a steam-driven dairy processing plant, constructed by D. Gallagher under a contract let in 1938. Gallagher died before the building was complete; his estate finished the job. The official opening took place on 4 November 1939, before a crowd of approximately 5,000 people, with the Minister for Works and Local Government presiding and a temporary stage erected with broadcasting and amplification equipment. The cost was approximately £60,000. Initial staffing was estimated at 25, with capacity across three shifts for 70 to 80 workers. The plant processed 1,000 gallons of milk per hour using steam-driven machinery, with four Babcock and Wilcox boilers in the boiler house and two large air compressors. Milk was collected from within a 20-mile radius; cream from within 50 miles. Two river steamers, "Yankee Jack" and "Viola", made collections from farms along the Manning River and its tributaries for approximately four decades, carrying dairy from individual farm wharves directly to the factory. A riverside pump house supplied 25,000 gallons of water per hour for condensing operations. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the site expanded significantly under contractor A. J. Hayter, with amenity buildings including a canteen, recreation hall, gardens, and a swimming pool added for workers. A NIRO milk powder spray-drying plant was commissioned in 1953 with a capacity of one tonne per hour. The factory closed in the late 1990s following corporate rationalisation under successive owners, with production consolidated into more modern facilities elsewhere. The building at Railway Parade, Chatham, remains standing. What the photograph records is what was left behind.