November Find of the Month


November 2022

Political mooves.

Canberra's developing milk and dairy industry.

Supermarket Dairy Section, 19851

Milk. There are so many options to choose from to suit individual preferences or dietary requirements. Full cream or skim cow’s milk, almond, soy, or oat milk. The list goes on. Whatever you choose, it is a staple food that most of us include in our daily diet, and yet we don’t often recognise what an important source of nutrition it is. In reading through a file held by ArchivesACT it is obvious that authorities were very much aware of how important a stable supply of quality milk was to a rapidly increasing Canberra population during the early and mid twentieth century. We thought it would be interesting to include some of the challenges encountered and changes to Canberra’s milk supply and distribution in our November Find of the Month.

In 1930 the Canberra Co-operative Dairy Society was formed as a dairy milk producers distribution organisation. By 1935 all of Canberra’s independent milk delivery runs had been purchased by the Society. At this time there were 11 dairies operating in the Molonglo Valley.[i] Australia was still in the midst of the Great Depression and Canberra residents included many families who were working on the early development of housing and infrastructure. It is poignant then that our featured file starts with a document that records the following motion submitted by the ACT Advisory Council (Council) at its meeting held on 14 October 1935.

That this Council recommends to the Honourable Minister the urgent necessity for the introduction of the policy of free milk distribution to school children.[ii]

A memorandum was sent off to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior the following day, but it is unclear whether any decision was made regarding this request. Nearly a year later the Council sent a similar request asking that the Minister of Health be approached ‘for the purpose of having continuous free milk supplies made available to families showing definite indications of malnutrition’.[iii] Despite further resolutions and requests over the next few years it seems there was no decision made by successive Ministers until March 1941 when the then Minister of the Interior, Harry Foll, replied to the Council’s Chairman Colonel Goodwin. He argued that existing milk supply programs delivered by the Canberra Relief Society were meeting the needs of school and pre-school children.

Moove milk van, 19852

Nonetheless, the supply of milk in the ACT continued to be of concern after the Great Depression and into the second World War. The Council persisted in their attempts to get the Minister to intervene with Councillor, Dr L W Nott, arguing that;

An adequate and continuous supply of fresh milk is as vital to the health and well-being of any community, as is the supply of fresh air…[i]

Dr Nott put a motion to Council that the Minister for the Interior give urgent consideration to the nationalisation of the milk supply in Canberra. His motion was defeated, but it gives an appreciation of the importance given to the issue by the Council.

While a number of reasons were suggested for the persistent supply shortages, no one could agree on a solution. A depleted workforce because of the war, a reduction in the number of dairy cow herds and a suggestion of profiteering by retailers were some of the suggested causes.

Given that there was a war on, it was perhaps inevitable that the Canberra Dairy Society would propose to ration milk supplies in response to the supply problems. Their proposal focussed on prioritising supplies to shops, Parliament House, hotels and the Defence Department in particular. Their suggested rationing measures went to the Commonwealth Department of Health, whose staff presumably consulted with their colleagues in the Department of the Interior, who were responsible for the ACT and for consulting with the ACT Advisory Council. While the Minister for the Interior didn’t agree with all the suggested rationing measures, he did accept the Dairy Society’s proposal to raise a Rationing Control Order and had it published in the Canberra Times on 9 April 1943.

This was a surprise to the ACT Advisory Council, which called for a special meeting to pass a resolution protesting that it had not been consulted before the Rationing Control Order had been promulgated. There were no subsequent changes to the order. The Canberra Times reported:

Whilst he was prepared, in the meantime, to accept certain principles in the Order, Dr Nott said it seemed that the milk trade had been taken out of the hands of the dairy society and placed in the hands of the retail shops, a feature hardly to be of advantage to the producers and the consuming public.[ii]

Milk bottling operation, 19853

Dr Nott then foreshadowed what should be the next steps for the ACT milk industry. At the next meeting of the Advisory Council, he would move that the system of milk distribution known as the ‘municipalisation of milk’, should be implemented.[i]

Dr Notts’ motion proposed that the ACT put in place a system of milk supply similar to the one operating in Wellington, New Zealand. He argued that their system would provide producers with increased incentive to produce higher grade milk and that consumers would receive pasteurised and bottled milk at reasonable prices. The resolution was passed and forwarded to the Minister. It seems the timing wasn’t right for such a big change while the war was still to be won, the minister, having carefully considered the proposal ‘decided that the present was not an opportune time to give effect to this scheme’.[ii]

Minister's response to ACT Advisory Council4

Canberrans had to wait for the pasteurised and bottled milk promised by the Wellington system. This didn’t stop Dr Nott and other councillors advocating for better pricing, supply and quality of ACT milk. Canberra’s milk continued to be a regular discussion point in Council meetings, but there were delays in building the necessary plant and installing equipment that was required for the Canberra Dairy Society to be able to pasteurise and bottle milk.

Our featured Find of the Month record shows that the first pasteurised milk did not become available to Canberra residents until February 1950, and it was made available in bottles from 1954.[i] If you would like to know more about the early years of Canberra’s milk industry, you can view the files in our reading room. Just contact us by completing our online form or emailing archives@act.gov.au.

Milk promotion, 1985.5

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References

i Department of the Interior – Inquiry by the Milk Authority of the Australian Capital Territory – Statement of Evidence for Presentation to the Milk Authority of the Australian Capital Territory – Australian Government Publishing Service – November 1972 – p. 1 and Appendix I.

ii ArchivesACT – A3244/515#01 – Milk – Distribution of, Bottling Etc. Part 1

iii ibid.

iv ibid.

v Canberra Times – Milk Rationing-Canberra Order Reviewed – 29 April 1943.

vi ibid.

vii ArchivesACT – A3244/515#01 – Milk – Distribution of, Bottling Etc. Part 1

viii ArchivesACT – A3245/515#02 – Milk – Distribution of, Bottling Etc.

Images

1 – ArchivesACT – ACT Milk Authority, 37 – BOX33.

2 - ArchivesACT – ACT Milk Authority, 7 – BOX33.

3 - ArchivesACT – ACT Milk Authority, 46 – BOX33.

4 – ArchivesACT – A3244/515#01 – Milk – Distribution of, Bottling Etc. Part 1

5 - ArchivesACT – ACT Milk Authority, 14 – BOX33.

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