Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Thursday 14 February 1946, page 4


MILK BUSINESS.

MALANDA DISCUSSION.

PLANS TO DRIVE WEST.

MALANDA, February 11.—A special general meeting of shareholders of the Atherton Tableland Co-operative Butter Association Limited was held in the Majestic Theatre, Malanda, on Monday, February 4, at 11.15 a.m.

There were present Messrs. W. Scott (chair), S. H. Cleminson, R. S. Griffiths, G. B. Crowther, W. J. Sloan, A. E. Biggs, H. A. Campbell, A. E. Turner, J. H. Walmsley, the Manager and Secretary, and about 100 suppliers. The meeting was specially called to dis-cuss and deal with the many aspects

of the milk business.

There was a very frank and full discussion.

The Chairman gave a clear and lucid account of the milk sales business right from its inception to date.

Most of it was really of an internal or domestic nature and purely affect-ing the shareholders themselves.

Major Wakefield congratulated the Chairman- on his opening address, as it had cleared up many points on which

he and other shareholders were not quite clear. He felt all would now understand the position much better. A particular point of interest was that the Northern Branch of the Queens-land Dairymen's Organisation had lodged a petition with the Government for the establishment of a Malanda Milk Board. One of its duties when established will be to assess the relative values as between milk and butter and to fix the price of milk relative to that of butter. This has been a very vexed question, or rather a problem between the different factories and those supplying milk and those supplying cream to their respective factories. It was the main theme of the Chairman's address, and the consensus of opinion was that the establishment of a milk board was the only satisfactory solution. The meeting endorsed the directors' recommendation to expend £10,000 on the purchase of six stainless steel milk vats.

The Malanda factory is desirous of developing the distribution of fresh milk to all the townships in Western Queensland so that all their children and adults may derive just the same benefits as families in more favoured localities in the South.

The pasteurised milk will be pumped into these insulated, and specially con-structed stainless steel containers, each of which will hold 2000 gallons of milk, which will be automatically stirred while in the vat. These containers, which will be carried in trailers, will be taken by road to the Innisfail Railway Station, where the container will be lifted from the trailer, on to a specially constructed railway truck. This will then be con-veyed direct to Garbutt's Siding in Townsville, where the container will be pumped dry, cleaned and sterilised and sent back to Innisfail for a refill.

By this method of handling much time is saved and all possible sources of contamination are eliminated.

The ultimate objective of the Malanda factory in that the milk on arrival at its destination, will keep just as well and as long as if it were purchased at the factory in Malanda.

To achieve this they are improving the transport, and eliminating all chance of contamination in transit. There will be no using and washing of hundreds of 8-gallon milk cans and the milk will arrive at Garbutt Siding at a lower temperature than is now possible and without being "man handled" at any stage of its journey.

The Malanda Butter Association is undertaking a considerable expense and it confidently expects the residents out West will appreciate the very great care exercised and the con-sideration that has been given to make available pure and pasteurised milk to

all.

At present the railway service only permits of milk being delivered to Mt. Isa twice a week as the Railway De-partment can only supply cold storage waggons twice a week.

Malanda milk is however available more frequently to many other and closer townships on the Western Line.

The purity of the milk delivered to the Malanda factory, with the very high efficiency of its pasteurisation were points stressed by the Chairman.

The milk has to be transported

about 60 miles by road to Innisfail thence 158 miles to Townsville. When this was first announced last year it was considered a very remarkable achievement, in fact an Australian record, especially for the tropics, and interested milk distributors came North to see for themselves. Now, however, that feat has been totally eclipsed, for in delivering milk to Mt. Isa it has to be transported a further 602 miles by rail, and through some of the hottest districts in Queensland.

The ambition of the management is to deliver milk in Mt. Isa in such a pure condition that it will keep fresh for as long a period as does milk freshly drawn from the cow.