Selling Hinterland Dreams
COOROYRAG Community NEWSPAPER
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September 2020
March 25, 2020
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Local milk mooves into town
BY ALEX PURCELL FOR five generations, the Cochrane family has had “milk in their veins”, helping pioneer and represent the Queensland dairy industry for over 100 years. Starting with the family farm in Kin Kin, 200 acres of rolling green pastures purchased by Harry Cochrane in 1919. “My grandfather came home from the war and bought the farm in Kin Kin,” grandson and owner of Kenilworth Dairies, John Cochrane told the Cooroy Rag.
“They built butter factories in Kin Kin, Cooroy and Gympie and Harry went on that board so consequently, he was chairman of the Cooroy Butter Factory.” Harry was on the board of the Wide Bay Dairy Cooperative until he passed away in 1971. “When he passed on, my dad Alan, who had left school in 1942 and was born on the farm in Kin Kin, took my grandfather’s place on the board at the Gympie Butter Factory.” Alan remained on the board until 1986 while working the family farm in Kin Kin, producing Jersey milk, raising pigs and growing small crops and beans.
“Mum and Dad bought the farm from my grandfather when he passed and worked it until my father died. He actually passed away on the farm he was born on and I had the pleasure of carrying him off. He now rests in Pomona cemetery,” John said. John was also born on the Kin Kin property and lived there while he went to school at Wahpunga, Pomona and Cooroy. “When I left school I became a butcher and my wife, Margaret and I had two butcher shops in Gympie.” But dairying was calling them. Continued Page 2