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The Other Side of the Bay - a History (continued)
With the growth of the pig industry on the north coast, a small goods section was added to the Co-op's commercial operation. This was highly successful and its bacon and canned processed meats became famous.
By 1939 4,000 dairy shareholders from the Richmond to the Tweed supplied Norco at the Bay. The processing plant employed 350 people in the district and ships took products to the world.
It was the port facilities at the Bay which gave it the edge when a meat works was to be built. Named the Byron Bay Co-op Canning and Freezing Co Ltd, it was formed in 1912, the plant was built along the sea shore near Belongil. It began operations in 1913, and had a fitful life until it closed down in 1920.
It was not until Mr A W Anderson came along, with his chain of butcher shops, that the works became viable. He took over in 1930, depression days.
The works became modern and efficient and after the second world war, exported to America. Anderson sold his works to F J Walker & Co, who in turn sold it to Elders IXL.
The late 1930's saw the beginning of sand mining which extracted zircon, rutile, and other minerals from the rich deposits in the beaches between Ballina and Brunswick Heads. The company, Zircon Rutile Ltd returned in the 1960's to re-work the sand with more refined extraction techniques. The plant was in Jonson Street where the Plaza shopping centre now stands.
The whaling industry in Byron Bay had a short life. In July 1954, the first whale was taken for Mr Anderson's Byron Bay Whaling Co. The whaling station was built next to his meat works, handy to the railway line. His quota was for 120 humpback whales. This was increased to 150 in 1959, but the yield was lower than at first, and it continued to decline. By 1962 another of the Bay's industries had gone.
For most of its history Byron Bay has been a working man's town. It's only since the factories have closed, and the many social and economic changes of our nation have created the time and the money to spare, that Byron Bay has become a playground.
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