Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory, Heritage-listed dairy factory in Short Street, Gladstone, Australia
The Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory is an industrial complex with buildings constructed between 1929 and 1949 on Short Street in Gladstone. The site includes a main production building, cold storage areas, and office spaces designed for dairy processing operations.
A public meeting at Gladstone Town Hall in November 1903 led to the Port Curtis Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd being registered in Brisbane in September 1904, with its office in Gladstone. Bundaberg architect Frederic Herbert Faircloth called tenders in June 1905, and the first timber factory began butter production in April 1906. By the 1920s the PCD was one of Queensland's largest dairy co-operatives, and the present factory buildings date from 1929 to 1949.
The factory was a major employer for decades and shaped the local community through its dairy operations. It showed how farming and industry developed together in this region.
Access to the building is limited today since it is a heritage site that can be viewed from outside. Walking around the perimeter allows visitors to see the industrial architecture and understand its layout.
The site retains an ice shed and store room erected during the Second World War, alongside a 1938 re-tinning shed and sections of a 1914 railway siding extended by 70 feet in 1923. These structures show how the complex grew in stages around the 1929–1930 factory building.
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