THE walls are coming down.
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Demolition began this week on the former Bonlac dairy factory in Camperdown as the resurgence of the south-west dairy industry stepped up a gear.
Most of the old factory is being removed to clear the way for construction of Camperdown Dairy International’s (CDI) $120 million milk and nutritional powder plant.
The 36-metre-high ‘Niro’ building, which has dominated Camperdown’s western skyline since 1973, is expected to be gone completely by the end of this week.
CDI chief operating officer Tony Addinsall said a long reach excavator was being used to demolish the high sections of the Niro building, so named for the milk drying equipment used in the building.
Mr Addinsall said former cheese rooms and maintenance facilities would also be cleared from the site as part of the demolition project.
“Most of the old Bonlac sheds will go,” he said.
Much of the factory had been disused since it was closed by the former Bonlac Foods company in 2000.
Mr Addinsall said the site’s 34-metre brick chimney was set to be cleared in the second demolition stage, likely to occur before June 30.
However, buildings at the western end of the site used by a separate company, Camperdown Dairy, for milk processing would remain, as would the heritage-listed Camperdown Cheese and Butter Company facade that fronts Manifold Street, Mr Addinsall said.
A former manager’s residence was also being retained, he said.
Mr Addinsall said no date had yet been set for the start of construction of the new milk and nutritional powders plants.
He said the plant aimed to secure more than 200 million litres of milk a year to produce powders for Asian markets, including China.
CDI plans to be a vertically integrated business with control of milk supply through to the operation of the processing facilities and export of dairy products.
Corangamite Shire Council recently gave planning permission to the new factory after no objections were received.
Phase one of the project involves building a new spray dryer tower, warehouse, the restoration of the heritage butter factory facade along Manifold Street to include a new administration building and relocation of the heritage-listed manager’s residence to a new area on the site.
Phase two includes building a second drying tower and associated processing equipment to produce infant formula. That is set to provide 77 new jobs when complete, following 28 positions created in the first stage.
The Camperdown Cheese and Butter Company built the first dairy factory on the site in 1891.
The factory has been altered and extended many times, with major works occurring in the 1930s, 1967, 1970 and 1974.
The 1915 brick chimney was replaced by the current shaft when a new boiler house was erected in the 1950s.
Camperdown Dairy In-ternational is backed by agricultural investment management company, the EAT Group, and mining services, property and construction company, the MCG Group.
