Pics from the past | Swallow’s Mill

By Geoff Allemand

Nov 3, 2023

Flour power: Swallow & Sons in Shepparton, circa 1876. Source: Lost Shepparton Photo by Contributed

The first flour mill was built in Shepparton in 1873 by Mr Archer. It was burnt down, and the property was bought by W. F. Ford, who built a home on the back of the site on Edward St. The old mill had stood in Fryers St, where Friar’s Cafe now stands.

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This photo depicts Swallow’s Mill and store in Fryers St, circa 1876. The current building on this site is Cartridge Universe. The following article is from the book History of Shepparton 1838-1938 by W. S. James:

Messrs Thomas Swallow and Co built a new mill in 1876 on the corner of Welsford and Fryers Streets. The site of the mill is on the first block of land ever sold in Shepparton. In 1877, Thomas Swallow retired from the partnership with his son William Swallow and Edward Lightfoot.

In 1884, this mill was purchased by Mr W. F. Ford, J.P., and for twenty years, he conducted it with other members of his family. It may be said of Mr Ford that he was an expert stone dresser, which meant a lot to a miller in those days in the success of his business. Milling was done by stones at that period, but with the advent of the modern system of rollers, this system was discarded.

Mr Ford originally came from the Eltham district, where he was in the flour-milling business. His first business in the Shepparton district was at Mooroopna in the early eighties, when he had leased the Mooroopna mill from Mr Ralph for a short period. However, he came to Shepparton and acquired Swallow’s mill.

Mr J. Bryant acquired the mill a few years ago and subsequently sold it to Mr W. Macdermott, who has held it up to the present time. This mill has gristed thousands of bags per year, and in 1880, no less than 12,000 bags were processed. To the early settlers, this mill was a great boon, and the business now reaches confines remote from Shepparton.”

Australia’s first biscuit company was founded in 1854 by Thomas Swallow. Within five years, he had taken in a partner, T. H. Ariell. After Ariell died in 1875, F. T. Derham was appointed partner and managing director in 1877, a position held by several generations of his descendants.

By the early 1880s, the Port Melbourne factory extended to 3 acres (1.2 ha), and the company owned flour mills and sugar plantations in the Goulburn Valley and Northern Queensland. With no equal outside Great Britain, Swallow and Ariell was the fifth-largest biscuit company in the world, manufacturing over 100 varieties, including the common ship biscuit (an original product) and meat biscuits (apparently taken by Burke and Wills on their ill-fated expedition).

The company also boasted popular sideline products, including cakes, plum puddings, ice-cream and dried fruit. Renowned for its patriotic fundraising campaigns during both world wars, it diverted most of its biscuits and plum puddings to the Australian and US services in World War II. (The first hundred years, 1854-1954: Swallow and Ariell Ltd.)