With thanks to Romsey & Lancefield Districts Historical Society. The society meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am-2pm, at Lancefield Courthouse, in Main Rd, Lancefield.
The first condensed milk in Australia was produced in Romsey on September 4, 1882, at a new two-storey corrugated iron factory built by the Melbourne Milk Supply Company.
Cheese and butter plants would be added later on the nine-acre site, which was adjacent to the Romsey-Lancefield railway.
Romsey Butter Factory operated until 1960, when the machinery was moved to Kilmore. The large double-storey building was dismantled in the early 1980s and the remaining buildings burnt down later that decade.
Several TV movies and series featured scenes filmed at the butter factory: A Descant for Gossips (1983), Street Hero (1984), My Brother Tom (1986), and The Flying Doctors.
📘 Fay Woodhouse’s book Romsey: An Historical Guide tells the stories of 55 buildings and landmarks in Romsey, and the families behind the businesses that occupied them. (Published 2021, $40.)
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