Pics from the Past | SPC and Ardmona — working the lines

By Geoff Allemand

Mar 22, 2024

Working hard: Ardmona Cannery ladies ‘on the tools’ in 1971.

When the Shepparton Preserving Company opened in 1918 and the Ardmona Cannery (Mooroopna) in 1925, a large seasonal labour workforce was required to get the fruit into cans. Many of the workers recruited to ‘work the lines’ were ladies. In the early years they had to sort the fruit by hand, and others were given various shaped tools to prepare the fruit for canning. In the later years, the main work with the fruit on the lines was to remove the blemished fruit so the rest could proceed along the lines and into the cans.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

History shows that there were 20-plus fruit canning companies operating throughout Australia. Today SPC is the only Australian-owned fruit canning company left. In 2008 Kraft Heinz bought Golden Circle and recently consolidated much of its manufacturing in New Zealand.

Lost Shepparton Facebook comments:

Jennifer Hamilton

My mother and her sister worked at SPC for a short time around 1934, 1935 or 1936. She was saving to go nursing. There was picker hut accommodation on site. It was very hot weather, in the 40s (degrees). They were processing pears and the ladies had strips of calico wrapped around their fingers to protect themselves against cuts. The pears were peeled with sharp vegetable knives (plenty of cuts). My aunt hated it and insisted on returning home, much to my mum’s disgust.

Anna Fasano

I did a few ‘seasons’ at Ardmona. It was fun times.

Helen Herrin

Did day and night shift at SPC 1965-66 with my mum. Was hard work but good money!

Su Cam

I don’t remember wearing gloves specking peaches there or on the tomatoes mid ’70s.

Leasa Stephens

I worked at the Ardmona cannery on the tomato line ... have never eaten tinned tomatoes since, LOL.

Lynette Martin

I did that for a season in ’74 — couldn’t eat apricots for a few years afterwards.

Darilyn Les Goldsmith

Worked in school holidays, NOT just for “things”. Standing for 10 hours. The foreladies would inspect the reject buckets and pick out brown or mouldy ones and say “that’ll go in the pie pack”. Then later, I worked on the quality control, where we checked a sample of tins, weighed and emptied them. We found a large moth in one, and a nail in another. Caveat emptor. And I’ll never buy a pie pack after that.

Bob Ferris

My wife did night shift in the ’70s, which helped us give the kids a good holiday.

Rosemary Trevor Wallace

I worked here doing night shift when our kids were little with split sleep hours.

This was my first job there. When our son grew up he worked night shift for a few years and learnt every aspect of all the lines. Fabulous experience.

Past: SPC ladies on the lines. Photo: GSCC

Bev Penney

I did one season at SPC and that was enough for me. I only went because my cousin really wanted to earn some extra money. She didn’t even see through the first night. She watched the belt instead of the fruit and passed out. I slogged it out and made some much-needed extra dollars. That would have been 1971-72.

Merle Forster

In 1969, I worked on the peach stones removal; nearly took my hand off coz I was flirting with a guy above me.

Marilyn Morrissey

The line ladies worked extremely hard — 10 minutes morning tea on the dot, toilet breaks watched like a hawk! I was lucky, I got to work in the laboratory, analysing. My husband worked on a forklift. A wonderful experience.

Jennie Patterson

I worked at SPC after high school for each season to help support myself while at university. Put little cans on the line manually, measured cherries into fruit salad. Tried working on fruit lines, but the movement and heat made me faint! Great friendships forged there.

Mara Sortino

Mum put in over 30 years at SPC! Was able to bring home a handful of peaches or apricots at times!

Alan Barnes

Family and friends worked the season to save for their house deposits and would always bring lots of people to the town for work.

Roy Price

My father left school at Year 6 in primary and thus was a minimal wage earner all his life. My parents had five kids — the first born in 1931, the last born (me) in 1951. Consequently, our family would have had enough to pay rent and put food on the table but would not have been able to save for luxuries like a washing machine, a refrigerator, a TV or a car without my mother’s seasonal income from the cannery and her grim determination for our family to “get ahead”.

Jacqui Symonds

I did a season on the pear line after I finished high school — almost 40 years later and the smell of over-ripe pears still makes me gag!

Lorraine Dickson

Those days were just the very best. That’s what our fruit seasons were like a long time ago. Wonderful times for locals to make extra money. Great memories I have of my seasons there.

Billee Bertoli

SPC was massive in our family, with my father-in-law and mother-in-law permanent and myself seasonal, all working there 40-plus years each. I can remember one particular year, we worked four weekends in a row. It wouldn’t be allowed now. My youngest son left school at 16 had two years there and bought a car and boat for cash. It was unbelievable money for young people.