AYRDALE ESTATE

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There were four major rural ‘estates’ in the South Coast area in the 19th and early 20th centuries – Alexander Berry's Coolangatta Estate, the Mort Estate at Bodalla, and the Kameruka and Ayrdale Estates near Candelo and Wolumla.

While Kameruka Estate was bigger than Ayrdale, Ayrdale was widely praised as a ‘model’ dairy and its owner, John Marshall Black, was both a producer of cheese and a reliable supplier of cheese-making materials to other cheese-making factories.

John Marshall Black was born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia as a teenager with his family in 1860. By 1864, J.M.’s father, William, owned 160 acres of land that had previously been owned by the Twofold Bay Pastoral Association and J.M. had (or ostensibly had) purchased about 305 acres.

Unfortunately, William was died accidentally in 1867 leaving the 22-year old John to support his 28-year old stepmother, Mary Ann, and her four children under the age of 8. He had some difficulty in obtaining his inheritance and subsequently had to buy the family land back at auction in 1868.

J.M. had been a storekeeper on the Kiandra goldfields, and in 1867 started dealing in wattle-bark (used in the tanning process). In July 1868 he opened the Ayrdale General Stores ‘selling at Sydney prices for cash: saddles, boots, calicos, Crimean shirts, and other varieties of goods of very superior quality’ (Bega Gazette, 8th Aug 1868). The ‘other varieties of goods’ soon diversified to include cheese-making equipment: cheese hoops, bleached bandage cloth, calico, rennet (an enzyme that separates milk into the solid curds used in cheesemaking and liquid whey; rennet is traditionally produced from the stomach linings of young calves) and annatto (a yellow food-colouring).

He used the profits from these ventures to continually extend the Ayrdale estate. In 1885 he had 937 acres at Ayrdale and 981 acres elsewhere. By 1903 he was reported to have 1,272 acres at Ayrdale, 620 acres in the same area, seven miles away, and another operation of 2,500 acres at Tiptree, near Bibbenluke on the Monaro.

John does not seem to have had any farming experience. However, perhaps after seeing the success being enjoyed by more affluent neighbours in the area like the Kameruka Estate, he embraced the potential that his land had for grazing dairy cattle.

He opened his first dairy in 1869, making cheese for local consumption. By 1878, Ayrdale was selling cheese in Sydney and J. M. Black was importing machinery for cheese-making. By 1880 the estate was producing 24 tons of cheese annually.

J.M. also became a major supplier of rennet to other local cheesemakers.

In the early days much of the heavy work at Ayrdale was carried out by Chinese men, who lived on a nearby reserve or, later, on the Ayrdale property itself.

John Marshall Black’s family, however, did most of the work: his stepmother, Mary Anne, is credited for stocking the Ayrdale General Store and therefore for much of its financial success; by 1880, his family included seven children, with four girls of working age and two boys, the older boy, Edward George, having been sent off to manage Tiptree farm (children usually began to help in the milking yard when about 9 years old; they bailed up cows, gathered in the calves, and did other light jobs. Milking, separating, washing milk cans and feeding the calves was usually the work of women, while men and boys undertook heavier work such as churning the cream into butter); and, as the Sydney Mail and NSW South Wales Advertiser noted ‘Mr. Black and his son Charles are born mechanics, the latter having charge of the machinery and blacksmith’s department, where all the latest and best tools are to be found.’

J.M. employed others as required. For example, in 1887 (when up to 180 cows were being milked at Ayrdale), he hired the Macdonald family with ‘5 milkers’ for £140 a year which was paid to them on a quarterly basis.

And, when necessary, he purchased the most up-to-date equipment. In December 1915 (at a time when many local men had gone to war and, of his family, only 43-year old Charles and 34-year old Millicent remained at home), he invested the huge amount of £286 in a Ganes milking machine, which was capable of milking six cows at a time.

The Ayrdale estate attracted much admiration and publicity, typified by these reports in the Sydney Mail and NSW South Wales Advertiser:

‘Mr. Black is an example of what may be done by energy and intelligence rightly directed. He began life at Ayrdale, poor and heavily in debt, and was embarrassed by many circumstances of an adverse nature. By dint of patient industry and application he has succeeded in establishing himself, and his future prosperity is now certain. Nearly all the erections and appliances upon his farm are the work of his own hands, and he is a staunch believer in punctuality and systematic management to ensure success in cheesemaking.’ (25th March 1882)

‘The property of John Marshall Black is one of the best and most profitably worked dairying estates on the coast and a fine example of what can be done with good land and cattle managed on business principles. Mr. Black has everything on his estate in the pink of order. On the top bar of the road gate is a nice brass plate bearing “J. M. Black, Ayrdale,” and the gate opens to a well-kept road, with its cuttings and bridges, making a drive equal to the best macadamized roads in the State. On either side are undulating ridges well-timbered with red gum, box, and appletree which add greatly to the appearance of the country and also to the comfort of the fat cattle basking in the shade. On arrival at Ayrdale homestead a mile or so from the entrance gate, I found Mr Black in his office. After discussing the prospects we looked through the extensive premises. Milking was in full swing, and Mr. Black led the way to the yards. Passing through the exquisitely kept cheese rooms we came to the lads and lassies at work, some bailing up the cows, others milking, and some carrying buckets to and fro. The taps and dishes in the milking yard attracted my attention at once. The smallest boy on the job had just finished his cow and he stepped to the nearest dish, where he turned on the tap, and out rushed the clear water on to his hands. I soon saw that cleanliness is the watchword of this establishment. The milk is poured into a large vessel with a strainer as each bucket is filled, and flows thence in a nice stream that reminds one of a miniature brook, on to the large vat for cheese-making. Here again the milk passes through a special strainer, the sieve being on the side, so that any sediment falls to the bottom and does not interfere with the strainer. At the time of my visit all the milk is being used for cheese, by the very latest appliances imported direct from America, and some of Mr. Blacks’ own improvements added. Mr. Black and his son Charles are born mechanics, the latter having charge of the machinery and blacksmith’s department, where all the latest and best tools are to be found. If a tire comes off, or a mowing machine breaks down, it can be righted on the premises, and save a trip to town for that purpose. On this estate everything has its place, and there is a place for everything. All vessels in the factory are cleaned with condensed hot water, and the cheese when made is put into calico bags of fine quality, which avoids any possibility of contamination by handling. Each cheese weighs exactly 18lb., and they are branded “J.M. Black, Ayrdale” with a bull’s head stamped. The cheese is all shipped at Merimbula port to…Sydney.’ (21st January 1903)

On John Marshall Black’s death in 1917 the property passed equally to his only unmarried daughter, Millicent, and son, Charles. Despite the farm having demonstrated that it was a good investment, Charles (who was more interested in breeding horses for show jumping) closed the dairy almost immediately.

In 1923 Millicent transferred her share of the property to Charles, but re-inherited it on his death in 1938. She and her husband moved back to Ayrdale shortly thereafter, and she lived there until she died in 1956.

In many respects the property remained a 19th- and early 20th-century ‘time capsule’- until a clearing sale was held at the property in August 2010.

In 2006 a heritage assessment of Ayrdale was undertaken. It concluded ‘Ayrdale is important in the course of NSW’s rural history: it was created by an emigrant Scottish family who built up a large property from small parcels of land, through entrepreneurship and hard work’ and it noted that ‘three generations of the family have scrupulously maintained their heritage, both physical and documentary’ and that ‘nothing has been removed or even substantially displaced within the property’.

Included on the property were ‘a completely preserved set of buildings and implements from 70 years of farming by the one family, with most equipment still in situ’. It, therefore, provided ‘a textbook example of a well-run 19th – 20th century dairy farm__’ and, because ‘_significant items of industrial equipment (steam and petrol engines, cheese-presses, vehicles etc.), all still within their working context…it demonstrates the workings of the 19th – 20th century cheese-making industry in an historically important centre of food production.’

It would have been interesting to have seen the property in that condition…and it is to our, and to future generations, detriment that it was then not preserved.

What has survived, though, is a full set of family papers covering the creation and maintenance of the property from the 1860s through to the 1920s. These papers were described in the heritage assessment as being especially important because ‘the personal and commercial records throw light on the emigrant experience, on opening new industries and on contributing to the growth of settlements. A particularly important record is the set of accounts dealing with payments to and from named Chinese workers.' These are now in the Bega Valley Genealogical Society’s documents collection.

Apart from these farm and family records, the most accessible relics from this historically important Ayrdale estate are currently to be found in the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre. Two wagons and a buggy (‘the farm ute’), alongside assorted other objects from the Ayrdale estate, are the main pieces in the Centre’s dairying display.

Image: Ayrdale Estate in 1912