The dairy factory

The Hikurangi Dairy Factory was built on George Street Hikurangi in 1903. Before that the farmers from this area would send their milk and cream to Whangarei using the railway. Some of the farms didn’t have very good roads and couldn’t get their milk to the train. They had several meetings and decided to build their own dairy factory. Mr McKenzie from Otonga, bought the land in George Street and was the first chairman of the factory.
In 1949 the old factory was replaced by new buildings. The factory had it’s own mine because it needed 1,600 tons of coal a year to keep the machines going. In 1950 the factory opened a farming trading store so that the farmers didn’t have to go all the way into Whangarei to buy their farming equipment.

The Hikurangi Dairy Company closed down in 1985 because they joined up with the Northland Co-operative Dairy Factory which is now the Fonterra factory in Kauri. The factory buildings are now used to hold Guyco’s wooden pallets.