Friday, November 5, 2010

End of Whale's Dairy



Back in 2001 when I was putting together Heart of the Whau, I took a photo of the 1920s dairy on St Georges Road here in Avondale. (I'm still looking for the colour original photo -- it was taken with a Kodak instamatic, my first ever camera.) The dairy's been through a number of name changes. From the book:
Originally built 1926-27 as the Whales Dairy, it became the Grosvenor c.1954 when the cinema also changed its name.It was known as O‘Brien‘s for a period during the 1980s and is now the Eftpos Dairy, after the “electronic-fund-transfer-at-point-of-sale” system of direct bankcard payment in the late 20th century to present.
Actually, it was known as both the Eftpos Dairy and Grosvenor Dairy (both names on the signs) right up until now. Now, of course, it no longer exists. These photos are from today.




Glad my mum isn't alive anymore. Her first job here in this country, arriving here as a woman looking after her mum and two sons on her own, was in that dairy in 1958. Then again, mum might just have put it down to changing times. That's what I'm doing. At the moment, I don't know what they're putting up in its place.

1 comment:

  1. Oh bother! What a shame to see our old favourite dairy go after all these years. It just won't be the same somehow.

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