Shepparton. The SPC cannery. The cooperative was formed in 1918. This Art Deco style factory and lettering would have been built around 1930. The largest cannery in Australia.
Image by denisbin
Population of Greater Shepparton 50,000.
Tallygaroopna pastoral run was taken out in 1841 and in 1843 it was owed by Sherbourne Sheppard. A crossing place of the Goulburn River near the confluence with Broken River was eventually named Shepparton. The run was resumed in 1869. From 1853 a government outpost with a government animal pound was located here too. Around 1871 Shepparton had a population of 33 people but this rose dramatically as the pastoral runs were resumed and subdivided for small farms following the Nicholson Act of 1869 which opened the whole state to farm selection. The Goulburn Valley here was ideal orchard and wheat country. By 1881 the town had 1,000 residents and was a prominent town with a flourmill, John Furphy’s foundry making windmills and water tanks (1873), its own local council from 1879, a school (1872) in Mooroopna and early churches including Anglican (1875), Presbyterian (1878), followed by Baptist and Catholic Churches( 1878). A Foresters Hall was built in 1872 near Gregory’s Bridge Hotel which opened in 1865. A grand Italian style towered Post Office opened in 1881 but was demolished. The fortunes of Shepparton expanded when the railway from Melbourne reached it in 1880 opening. The 1880 railway station burnt down and was replaced in 1910. In 1882 the Shepparton Waterworks Trust was established to promote irrigation. Their work resulted in the Goulburn River being dammed in 1891 for irrigation. A few years later around 5,000 acres were irrigated for fodder, orchards and vines. But private, rather than government irrigation had begun earlier at Ardmona near Shepparton in 1886 making it the first irrigation scheme in Victoria pre dating the Chaffey brothers at Mildura. The five farmers in the syndicate irrigated vines and sold their dried fruit in Melbourne. The Ardmona group began bottling and preserving their fruit. As irrigation schemes expanded after 1900 the region became a major producer of vines, fruit, and dairy produce. The Shepparton Cooperative Butter and Cheese Factory was established in 1894. The wine industry took off with the Dookie Vineyard Company operating from 1885. Others followed in the mid-20th century.
One industrial enterprise is worthy of note. The Furphy Foundry established in 1873 specialised in iron camp ovens, windmills and water tanks on wheels. The tanks were designed to be pulled by one horse when the tank was full. By 1888 the business employed 38 males. Expansion led to a new premises in 1909. But it was during World War One that John Furphy water tanks became known throughout the Australia. They were used by the Australian Imperial Force to take water to soldiers at Gallipoli and to the horrendous trenches of France. The cart drivers were reputed to be gossips who told fanciful stories hence the use of the word Furphy to mean a con or falsehood. The business was taken over by John Furphy’s sons and continues to this day but it now specialises in stainless steel tanks for the dairy, brewing, wine, gas and oil industries. The other important Shepparton industrial enterprise is the SPC – the Shepparton Preserving Company. It was formed as a cooperative in 1918 because the Goulburn Valley was producing too much fruit for Victorian consumption. By the 1930s SPC was producing over 10 million cans of preserved fruit a year. The Ardmona factory which began preserving canned fruit at Mooroopna in the 1920s was absorbed by SPC in 2002 making it the largest canning works in Australia. SPC still operates and has a factory outlet store. Another major industrial operation in Shepparton using Goulbourn Valley produce is Campbell’s Soup. It was established in 1962 using locally grown tomatoes and other vegetables. A giant can of tomato soup adorns the factory. It is now owned by Arnotts and produces soup stocks and British Fray Bentos tinned pies as well as soups. The city’s industrial base also includes Pentax cleaning products which are probably in your home – various brands of toothpaste, White King bleach, dishwashing liquids etc.
In the early 20th century Shepparton grew apace and this was quickened after World War One with the soldier settlement scheme. The Victorian government purchased large estates for subdivisions into fruit blocks and irrigation farms for returning soldiers. They received an extra benefits from the Victorian government to buy stock and equipment. Increased water for irrigation after 1910 helped the soldier settlers but many still left the land. Apple and pear farms grew at this stage leading to the establishment of SPC in 1918. Another boost to the town was
the opening of the local abattoirs in 1935 which was replaced with a bigger new abattoirs in 1966. The Second World War had even greater impact on the growing city. Seven prisoner of war camps were built in the district with the Murchison camp housing 4,000, the Tatura camp housing over 12,000 Germans and Italians mainly captured from North Africa. The camps also held some Australian residents – men, women and children who were interned. Many of the Italian prisoners were employed on fruit blocks in the community and some returned to Victoria after their repatriation back to Italy. Then in 1949 Cleckheaton woollen textile mills of Yorkshire moved their plant, employees and equipment to Shepparton to start anew becoming another major industrial employer in the town. By the early 1950s immigrants from Italy, Albania, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic countries all settled in the city in large numbers. Its first Mosque opened in 1960. The abattoirs, market gardens, orchards, and associated canning works provided plentiful employment. In the 1990s and beyond Turks, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians and Filipino migrants settled here. Today Shepparton has the largest regional population of non-Christians with Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs predominating. The city has five mosques, several Sikh temples, a Jain temple, etc. Around 6% of the population speak Middle Eastern languages and 2% speak Italian. As settlements grew Shepparton began to absorb surrounding towns and villages including Mooroopna (8,000 people) across the Goulburn river, Kialla (7,000 people), Ardmona, Dookie, Murchison (1,000 people), Tatura (5,000 people), Lemnos a WW1 Soldier settlement town etc.
One of the unique features of Shepparton was the establishment of the International Village project conceived in 1974 but not opened until 1982. Apart from spaces for immigrant groups space was also assigned to the Yorta Yorta, Bangerang and some other Aboriginal people. The number of Bangerang from Echuca to Shepparton were estimated at 1,200 people in 1841. With financial assistance from the state government, Shepparton City, the Australian Council etc money was obtained to have an architect designed an octagonal cultural centre. It was sited at the entrance to the International Village which closed in 1996. Now it has become the Bangerang Cultural Centre, the first Aboriginal managed museum in Victoria. The Aboriginal residents of Shepparton were for decades confined to a shanty Aboriginal Mission village on the banks of the Goulburn River between Shepparton and Mooroopna called Cummerangunja. After years of flooding and poor conditions the Yorta Yorta people walked off the village site in 1939 in protest about the conditions and their treatment. 200 people walked to the River Murray and crossed into NSW. Most ended up settling at Echuca or returning to Shepparton. A new village called Rumbalara with improved living conditions was built by the Victorian government in 1958. It is now owned and operated by the local Aboriginal community and it includes a medical centre and welfare services for the 6,000 residents who identify as Aboriginal. In Queens Park there is a bronze statue of Yorta Yorta man William Cooper who founded NAIDOC week and the Australian Aborigines league. There is also an Aboriginal Street Art project in Fryers Street between Maude and Corio Streets. The murals were painted by well-known artist Adnate and they depict the late William Cooper( mentioned above), the late Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls who was the first and so far only Aboriginal governor of an Australian state- South Australia and local elders Aunty Margaret Tucker, and Nora Charles. Elsewhere in Shepparton at 67 Welsford Street is a mural painted by Adnate of Aunty Briggs and Aunty Morgan.
Shepparton has a vibrant arts community and the “Moooving Art” display has been a feature of recent years. Dairying in still one of the major industries of the district and so the city has a trail of colourful and artistic cow statues. The main herd of “girls” is behind the Civic Centre and former Shepparton Art Museum. The cows are in the park near the small Chinese Garden. A pathway from Welsford Street (number 132) to the park takes you past the bronze statue of Joseph Furphy who wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins beneath this old native Wilga tree. This novel, one of the great 19th century novels of Australia, was hand written after he finished his day’s work in his brother’s foundry in 1897. Published 1903. A ceramic pathway by Fiona Murphy leads to the entrance of the old SAM (Shepparton Art Museum) which has one of Australia’s most significant historic and contemporary ceramic collections. The historic collection includes works from Bendigo Pottery, Lithgow Pottery, Hoffman Brick Company and Premier Pottery. The gallery was established in 1936. A new gallery museum opened elsewhere in the city in November 2021.
