High above Mackay on top of Clarke Range is Eungella, where there are three dairy farms left and next year that number will fall to two.
That was why Eungella’s Dale Fortescue decided to crowdfund a milk processing plant for the region.
Mr Fortescue supplies Parmalat with his milk but with only a few farms left on the Eungella Range, he did not know how much longer the milk tankers would keep coming.
He estimated 150-thousand dollars was needed to set up the facility, which would include a number of cold rooms and a bottling plant.
«After you built the pasteurising plant you would make a cheese plant so you could extend on that and make local cheese and have it as a tourism market for Eungella.»
Mr Fortescue believed the plant would help provide a secure processing option for the region’s remaining farmers.
He was confident there would be plenty of local support for the plant if he could get the idea off the ground.
«People are coming up to me all the time, asking ‘when are you going to get it going? How can we donate?’ so I think after talking to people, crowdfunding looks promising,» Mr Fortescue said.
«We are also trying to get some grants, I am having some meetings with both council and government about it.»
Mr Fortescue supplies Parmalat with his milk but with only a few farms left on the Eungella Range, he did not know how much longer the milk tankers would keep coming.
He estimated 150-thousand dollars was needed to set up the facility, which would include a number of cold rooms and a bottling plant.
«After you built the pasteurising plant you would make a cheese plant so you could extend on that and make local cheese and have it as a tourism market for Eungella.»
Mr Fortescue believed the plant would help provide a secure processing option for the region’s remaining farmers.
He was confident there would be plenty of local support for the plant if he could get the idea off the ground.
«People are coming up to me all the time, asking ‘when are you going to get it going? How can we donate?’ so I think after talking to people, crowdfunding looks promising,» Mr Fortescue said.
«We are also trying to get some grants, I am having some meetings with both council and government about it.»
He said the industry had been crippled following deregulation and finding the money to fund the plant was his last option to sustain his business.
Without the plant, he believed he would be off the land within five years.
«Obviously it’s not working because a lot of the farmers have gone out of the industry and we’re down so low in Queensland now that we don’t have enough milk in Queensland to supply Queenslanders with Queensland milk.
«That’s a sad state of affairs really.»
Source: ABC