Harry West with a bull and cows from his herd at Stanhope in the 1930s.
For one Stanhope family, their connections with the town’s dairy factory go back almost 100 years.
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John ‘Harry’ West settled on a small soldier settlement farm south of the town in 1924, and initially supplied the Stanhope Butter Factory from his small, hand-milked herd.
Today, his grandson Leighton West and his son Sam run a 170-cow dairy farm on the same property and supply the Fonterra Stanhope factory.
Dick Innes (left) with a horse and sulky carrying cream cans destined for the factory with Jack West and sister Jean.
Harry West was born in Bristol, England, but migrated to Australia in 1900 to take up jobs in the mining industry before becoming a gardener in Melbourne.
Family legend has it that Harry once worked on the gardens of celebrated opera singer Dame Nellie Melba at Sorrento
After serving in World War I and recuperating in the United Kingdom from wounds sustained in the European theatre, Harry bought a property near Stanhope but had to move due to flooding.
His 20-hectare farm on West Rd began supplying cream to the Stanhope factory, before he was eventually persuaded to switch supply to the new Girgarre factory a few kilometres up the road.
The family built a walk-through milking shed between 1938 and 1940 for their 16-head herd.
Over the years the Wests bought-up adjoining properties and expanded the farm, while Harry’s son Fred and his wife, Eunice, eventually took over the farm operations.
A new six-a-side herringbone milking shed was built in 1959.
In 2005, when Nestle closed its milk collection from the Tongala factory (which had inherited the Girgarre suppliers), the Wests returned to supplying the Stanhope factory.
Today, Leighton and his son, Sam, are milking in an 18-a-side dairy on 150ha.
Sam and Leighton West on the Stanhope farm that supplies the Fonterra factory.
The West family with the old milking parlour in the 1940s.
The third generation of Wests on the Stanhope farm in the mid-1960s: David West (left) and Leighton West (right). Leighton now runs the farm.
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