30/08/2026
Recently, a picture of the Lockyer Valley Farmer's Co-operative Building appeared on Memory of Gatton and District Facebook. Following is the interesting story about this building.
Queensland Times Sat 21 Jan 1928
LOCKYER VALLEYS.
MA MA CREEK SETTLEMENT DISTRICT CO-OPERATION TRADITIONS
A PRACTICAL SOCIALIST'S GIFT.
FARMERS' ORGANISATION.
Until recently, when the Local Producers' Association has been allowed to decline greatly, the farmers of the Ma Ma Creek area have been fairly well organised. Fairly early in the history of the settlement, they had a magnificent opportunity for helping themselves by co-operative enterprise, but, through faulty management, they failed. The circumstances which gave them the chance for their co-operative store were probably unique. Forty years ago, Mr. Robert Cutlhbertson came to the creek with his wife and three infant sons, in a ram shackled cart, pulled by two horses. He hawked drapery and collected eggs about the district for a time, living in a humpy at Deep Gully near Mr. Joseph Collins' property. He prospered, and, having leased a block of ground from Mr. Robert Po***ck, opposite Ridley's blacksmith's shop, built a small shop with a lean-to for a dwelling. The store was kept by his wife, while he continued the hawking. Dairying was beginning in the district, and he started the first cream separator, a 50-gallons per hour plant which he set up in a corner of the Church of Christ paddock (then Tryhorn's), beside the roads from Ma Ma and Blackfellows' Creeks. The farmers along these creeks and from Grantham Scrub brought their cream there to be separated, and the cream was sent to the proprietary factories about Brisbane. Mr. R. A. Thomas, of Gatton, then a youth, was in charge of this creamery. Later, Mr. Cuthbertson opened two other creameries, one at Lower Tent Hill. and the other at Mount Sylvia. At the three places, he was handling most of the cream supply of the district. After a few years, he sold out his creamery interests to a man named Cardew. Then, he bought between 50 and 60 acres of land opposite his first shop, and built on it a fine double-storey store and dwelling. The small shop had been started about 1896, and he carried on the business in the new store until about 1901. The business had grown enormously, and was bringing in big profits when Mr. Cuthbertson, acting on socialistic principles, gave the whole property building and land, to the farmers of the district, on the condition that it should be run as a co-operative store. They paid only for his stock.
AN EVENT IN HISTORY.
The function at which the property was handed over was a great event in the history of the district. It was the first time that professional singers had been engaged for any function at the creek. A crowd of several hundreds gathered at the store, and all the upstairs rooms were packed with people. So great was the crowd on the upper floor that the building could be felt swaying a little under the strain, and the storekeeper asked the crowd to refrain from clapping lest the movement should be too much for the joists. Having handed over the store to the settlers whose business had enabled him to build it, Mr. Cuthbertson started farming himself, on the property now occupied by Mr. Thomas Chappell. At first, the store, with its produce trading department was highly successful under co-operative control, but it was never as well managed as by its builder, and the business went to pieces. It had three managers in turn, Messrs. J. Atcheson (now a produce merchant in Harrisville), Joseph Walker, and S. French. About 1908, it was bought by Mr. French, and was run by him for a year or two, when the building and land were sold to Mr. Joseph Scholl, who pulled down the store and rebuilt it as a house. All that remains of the co-operative trading concern is a Farmers' Union of 32 members which exists primarily for the bulk purchase of all kinds of farm and home requirements, from ploughs to lingerie, to obtain the benefit of wholesale rates and discounts. It has Mr. F. Kajewski as Chairman and Mr. W. J. H**e as Secretary. Various other farmers' organisations have been started and have run well for a time, but at present the main organisation, the Local Producers' Association, is at least sleeping.
Ma Ma Creek has a fine co-operative tradition to maintain. Two of its early citizens particularly were fine enthusiasts and pioneers in co-operative causes. Mr. Peter Larsen. one of the earliest settlers, was the originator of the movement which resulted in the formation of the Queensland Farmers' Co-operative Company, and, with Mr. Cuthbertson; he arranged the original meeting of farmers at Ma Ma Creek to work for co-operative factory. Both of these men were prominently associated with Mr. M. O'Keefe in the pioneer work of forming the company, and Mr. Cuthbertson, went with Mr. O'Keefe to New South Wales to inspect big factories there, and to advise the first directors regarding the construction of the first Booval factory.
