Dairy cows arrived in Victoria’s Western District with the early colonists in the 1830s and ’40s. The rich soils favoured the development of lush pastures and dairying became a significant enterprise in the area. Initially, cheese and butter were produced on farm but the quality was variable. By the end of the 19th century, cooperative enterprises such as the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company had replaced on-farm operations, resulting in more consistent products.

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company is based in Allansford, a little over 10km east of Warrnambool itself. The town was the site of the area’s first cheese factory, opened in 1869. Butter continued to be made on individual farms until the arrival of the cream separator in the 1880s.

In 1888, a group of producers from the Warrnambool area met to discuss the formation of a cooperative cheese and butter factory. Among the reasons advanced for the proposal was the need for quality control.

…there are numbers of small dairymen in the district who are not over particular in manufacturing their produce, and the result is that inferior butter is often sent to the market by them. The merchant to whom it is sold may place this with other butter of prime sample, and send the whole lot to Melbourne where the inferior article causes the whole consignment to be condemned and perhaps realise 1d to 2d per lb.

At the meeting, attendees were told of the success of other factory operations at Cobden, Bacchus Marsh and Bridgewater and assured that factory butter and cheese were attracting higher prices in the market than privately-made products. It was resolved to proceed with the venture and a factory was constructed at Allansford. Within two years, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company was commanding the highest prices in colonial markets and successfully exporting its products to England. A second factory was later opened at Garvoc.

The original factory was destroyed by fire in 1913 with new premises opened the following year. At this time, the company entered into a contract to supply milk to Nestlé (or Nestle’s, as Australians then knew it). The new factory was also burned to the ground in 1929 and again rebuilt. In 1934, the Kraft-Walker Cheese Company leased the cheese factory premises. Among the brands manufactured in the Warrnambool plant was “Red Coon”, the predecessor of COON cheese (now known as CHEER).

By the 1990s, around half the cheese produced by the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company was sold under its own brands while the remainder was marketed under the Kraft name. In 1997, Kraft sold the COON, Mil Lel and Fred Walker cheese brands to Dairy Farmers but the Warrnambool company continued to supply the COON product. In 2004, the company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. This made it attractive to major dairy producers including the Canadian Saputo, Bega Cheese and Murray Goulburn. In 2013, a bidding war between the three would-be owners ended with Saputo having a controlling interest and in 2017 the Canadian company acquired the remaining shareholding. The company was delisted.

Today,  the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company’s products include cheese, butter and butter blends, milk, cream and other dairy ingredients. Their well-known brands include Sungold, Cracker Barrel, Mil Lel and Great Ocean Road Dairy. In 2021, their  COON brand was changed to CHEER because of the cultural sensitivities of the original name. The company is the oldest continually operating cheese company in Australia.