Factory blooms in Toora
Green thumbs: Rob Lewis, Sharon Jones and Martin Jacobson are keen to get the gardens looking good around the ViPlus Dairy factory in Toora.
RENOVATIONS at the Toora Milk Factory are well underway with the delivery of the machinery needed for stage one expected in the next week.
Part of ViPlus Dairy’s vision for the new factory is working with the community to develop the gardens in the grounds, including an organic vegetable garden.
Jennie Deane has been appointed as a consultant for the company and said the relationship between the community and the company was important.
“We see it as a partnership. The company is committed to involving the community in the development of the site,” she said.
The equipment, arriving from China in the next week, will allow ViPlus to begin stage one operations at the factory by May.
This will involve the purchase of milk powder, which will be blended into infant formula, canned and labelled on site.
“Once the infant formula is canned, it will be exported to China. We are already working towards stage two, which we hope to achieve around September,” Ms Deane said.
Stage one of production should see around 20 jobs created at the factory, which will be filled with local people where possible.
ViPlus is currently working on the planning permit application that will need to go before council for stage two.
Ms Deane said many of the existing buildings will not be needed.
“ViPlus is committed to restoring and retaining as many of the original buildings as possible,” she said.
“The iconic chimney stack will stay and some of the spare buildings may be made available for community use.
“We have already started to look at what the community needs and what the buildings may be useful for.”
Sharon Jones from Toora said the garden project has attracted community interest.
“We have at least 20 volunteers on board and more that are interested in getting involved,” she said.
“Initially, people will be able to bring plants down from their own gardens and when it is established, people will be able to take cuttings, or excess bulbs back to their own gardens.
“So far we have cut back some trees and ripped a lot of weeds out. We had someone come and dig up the front garden with an excavator to get things started for us.”
Initially, the community group was just to have the garden in front of the factory, but have now been given access to more land for a vegetable patch.
“Even though the gardens will be primarily managed by the community, ViPlus will help out with little things like water for the plants,” Ms Jones said.
A meeting will be held in early April to discuss the finer points of the community garden scheme and to form a committee to manage the project.
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