Co-op’s doors close for last time

KATINA CURTIS

THE Gerringong Co-op has shut the doors of its hardware store for the last time.

Now the Co-op's manager, Ian Godfrey, and staff are tidying up the last bits of paperwork and preparing for the probable sale of the old dairy buildings.

Mr Godfrey said the plan was that eventually the Gerringong Co-op shareholders would become part of the Bega Co-op.

"We've got a meeting of shareholders in the next month to get their approval to sell the place and then the new owner will have to lodge a DA," he said.

"Eventually it will be disbanded, but it will take time to go through all the procedures.

"When they become shareholders in Bega, the Gerringong Co-op will be wound up."

The farmers in the Gerringong area have been supplying Bega with milk since 1989 and Mr Godfrey said it was "the best move we've made", giving the shareholders the best deal possible.

He said he would be "tidying things up" and looking after the place before the new owners took over in September next year, just in time for the Co-op's 120th anniversary.

The Co-op was formed in February 1888, but the first milk did not go through its factory, on the site the Mayflower Retirement Village now occupies, until September 13 that year.

The factory was moved to its present site in 1915 to take advantage of the railway line.

At its peak in the 1950s, the Co-op had 75 farms supplying milk.

It now has just 10, although Mr Godfrey said those 10 produced more milk than the 75 because the farms were much bigger.

The deregulation of the milk industry was a key factor in the Co-op's demise.

"When the milk went in 2000, that was the first indication that we couldn't keep going," he said.

The dairy was closed in September 2000 and the farm service soon afterwards, leaving just the hardware store.

Mr Godfrey thanked everyone who had supported the store over the years and said the last closing of the doors marked the end of an era.