QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Counting chickens on Mount Cotton

More modern equipment has been installed to bring the plant rate to an industry-standard 12,000 birds per hour. The poultry meat industry in Australia comprises two major national and five regional producers, all family-owned. Of these, Darwalla is the only producer on the east coast between Newcastle and Cape York. Its operation is spread across more than 100 company-owned sheds at 20 different sites. It is supplied by many contract growers, some local and others in locations such as Allora and Clifton on the Darling Downs, and in northern New South Wales. Breeder farms and hatcheries at Beerwah and near Clifton produce fertile eggs for hatching into meat chickens, which supply broiler farms at Gatton, Mount Cotton, Logan and northern NSW. Every week 500,000 day-old chicks are supplied for meat production, with Golden Cockerel processesing almost 600,000 birds per week. The feeding program is supplied by the milling plants of Darwalla Milling at Mount Cotton and the mill owned by the Elks family at Beerwah. With scientific breeding programs it has become possible to produce a hybrid bird with excellent meat production and minimum fat; remarkable improvements have been made. Whereas formerly it took 24-26 weeks to bring a bird to maturity at 2kg, today the process takes less than 40 days, and produces increased meat yield and very low fat. Dolph Benfer’s contribution to the poultry industry and the community was recognised in 1977 with the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He would be proud of what has become of his fledgling poultry enterprise which had such a shaky beginning, and Philipp would probably be bemused at how far the fortunes of his immigrant family have moved from the intensive farming he introduced to the fertile slopes of Mount Cotton. The man behind this transformation into a modern scientifically based organisation is Dolph’s son Albert, running the company’s diverse elements while playing a major role in the local Redlands community. He served three terms from 1978 to 1987 as Shire Councillor, and his interests include Rotary, with a focus on disabled people and the plight of those in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, who are cared for by a group of nuns. In the late 1950s Albert worked with many young people to build Luther Heights Youth Camp at Coolum, transporting much of the building material from Brisbane. His generous philanthropy to many causes includes Lutheran schools. His contribution to the community was recognised in 2010 by the award of the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). goldencockerel.com.au

The 1940s saw expansion of the family business in several areas across Brisbane. Darwalla was supplying chickens to plants at Rocklea and West End. When another at Lota proved unprofitable Dolph, who was supplying it with chickens, bought the business and operated it successfully until 1953, then established a new plant on the present South Bank site. Soon afterwards he bought another plant nearby on Mater Hill (where the new Mater Children’s Hospital is located), and the two operated in conjunction.

The business prospered and grew, the family company Darwalla re-formed as Darwalla Pty Ltd in 1960, and began supplying live birds to Golden Cockerel at Labrador on the Gold Coast. In 1962 Darwalla bought Golden Cockerel outright and developed it into a major meat processing business. The Mater Hill plant closed and the South Brisbane and Labrador plants

operated together for five years before the latter was closed the a new modern plant installed at Mount Cotton. Deciding to specialise in production, Darwalla took in another family operation as joint owners of the Golden Cockerel plant at Mount Cotton in 1972, finally abandoning commercial egg production in the mid-1970s, producing eggs only to breed meat birds. In 1976 the Mount Cotton plant was fully automated, using Dutch equipment which had been developed in 1972.

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