1970
14 August 1970
Pop Corn Processing Plant
A pop corn processing plant, the only one of its kind in Australia is being installed in a receival and sorting depot in Mudgee.
The plant, worth several thousand dollars, is being installed in a new storage shed on four acres of ground purchased by the Australian Pop Corn Company from Burrundulla Pty. Ltd.
The Managing Director of the Company (Mr. Grahame Patrick) was busy this week working to have the processor in operation for this year’s corn harvest, which is almost finished.
“We have been negotiating for six months with this venture,” Mr. Patrick said at the site, about two miles from Mudgee on the Mullamuddy Road, yesterday.
“We expect to be completed within the next month, in time to begin processing of this year’s harvest.”
The Mudgee depot, which will eventually employ several people in seasonal work, will be used for both storage and processing.
The corn will be cleaned and graded here, but will be sent to Sydney for “popping”.
This is the process which determines the quality of the specially grown corn.
It is hoped that the processing plant, which has come from America, will be used to complete with the American markets for pop corn, Mr. Patrick said.
“Potential for export is the main aim of this venture,” he said.
“Already we export pop corn to the East, the Pacific Islands and other overseas areas.
“Our quality has to be improved to compete in the American markets, however,” he said.
On a special “pop” measuring machine, being used at the depot, Australian corn only jumps at about half the rate of the American corn.
To gain more overseas markets, Australian growers will have to improve the grade, which largely depends on moisture content.
“With our depot here we expect to improve farming methods as we progress, and so grow a better grain of corn,” Mr. Patrick said.
He said, Mudgee was the ideal area for pop corn growing, and was pleased with the grade of corn which had already been produced by Mudgee growers.
Also Mudgee is in a good position for the processed corn to be road transported to Sydney direct to the wharves for export.
All transport to Sydney of the corn will be done by road transport.
Mr. Patrick said he was very pleased for the co-operation he had received from the people of Mudgee.
“The local Councils have been very helpful, and the farmers have shown enthusiasm and given their time to the new development.”
He said about fifteen to twenty farmers would be under contract to grow (Continued on Page 2)
Encouraging Signs
The establishment of a pop corn processing and a wholesale food distributing depot at Mudgee, announced in today’s Guardian are heartening indications of further progress for the town and district.
Although not in themselves projects of major dimensions, they provide very welcome additions to the job opportunities available in the town, and because they are closely related to primary production, a further avenue of stability.
The reasons which attracted these two new industries to Mudgee are likely to bring other industries in the future.
Two major factors which will surely result in continuing development for the town are its ideal location as a regional centre covering a very wide area; and of course its productivity so far as primary industry is concerned.
The second of these two factors will be further enhanced with the completion of the Windamere Dam on the Cudgegong River.
Another very encouraging feature about the two new projects is that they are of a type that could quite well expand into major industries.
Both are closely tied to the type of primary production for which Mudgee is ideally equipped.
So far as Colless Pty. Ltd. is concerned, it is yet another example of how the Department of Decentralisation is able to help with the assistance of our local Municipal Council.
The investment being made in Mudgee is an indication that the winds of progress in this region will continue stronger and steadily in the future1
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