Boonah Butter Factory

The Boonah Butter Factory is a heritage-listed former butter factory in Boonah, Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. Constructed in 1916, it is a prominent landmark at the intersection of Boonah-Rathdowney Road and Railway Street on the northern entry to Boonah. During the first part of the twentieth century, it was one of the most modern butter factories in the Commonwealth, the largest butter factory in the Southern Hemisphere, had the second highest output of butter in Queensland and was a major supplier of dairy products to Brisbane. The former Boonah Butter Factory office, which is currently the premises of Flavours Cafe, is on the Local Heritage Register of the Scenic Rim Regional Council in acknowledgement of the site's historic, aesthetic and cultural significance.The Boonah Butter Factory is the sole surviving cream factory or butter factory in Boonah and is one of the most historic buildings in the region. It has served as a studio and gallery space for local and international artists for over twenty years and has been identified by the Scenic Rim Regional Council as a developed attraction in the region. The former loading platform for the factory is a fruit and vegetable store.The factory was an essential industry in the region. It was a gauge for the progress of the district, responsible for the generation and supply of electrical power to Boonah and responsible for pumping water to tanks throughout the township to assist in fighting fires.It is the first of two dairy factories known to have been designed, in part, by Thomas Ramsay Hall of the architectural firm T.R. Hall and Phillips and is the only one to remain in situ. The second factory designed by T.R. Hall was constructed in 1936 for the South Coast Co-Operative Dairy Association in Southport and was demolished in 1972 to make way for the Australia Fair Shopping Centre. The Boonah Butter Factory is one of the four original factories managed by the Queensland Farmers Co-Operative Association, including those located at Grantham, Laidley and Booval.