From yarns to yeast

Geelong's wool trade of the 19th and 20th centuries was intimately connected to the Barwon River with first tanneries and wool scours and then woollen mills popping up from Breakwater to Newtown from the 1840s onwards. A late-comer to the scene was the Valley Worsted mill which opened in 1925 to capitalise on Geelong's role at the centre of Australia's wool trade.
In March, 2012, I posted about the future of the mill which, after 50 years in operation, ceased production in the 1970s. In 2011, the entire mill complex was sold to the Little Creatures Brewery - a Fremantle-based company - who developed the site as an east coast base for their brewing operations. For months we have seen the comings and goings as the works have taken place. On some occasions we even watched as picket lines blocked the front gates.


Little Creatures Brewery, cnr Fyans and Swanston Sts, South Geelong 

But finally, on 10th December, 2013 the doors were opened and Little Creatures' was ready to serve the people of Geelong. In addition to their brewing operations, the new brewery houses a large canteen on the premises which serves their own beers and ciders in addition to a selection of locally-produced wines and a light menu for those wishing to have a bite to eat with their beverage of choice.

Strolling from the gateway through the old mill complex

Please queue through the shipping container to the right...

And the local citizens it seems, were very keen to be served - myself included. At the invitation of friends, I headed down for a look and a beer just before Christmas. Within an hour of our arriving, the place was full to overflowing and there was a queue waiting for admission, all controlled by a clearly visible security detail.


More like a street party than your average canteen

My observations at this point only extend to the public area, however I believe tours of the site are held daily. My first impression upon arriving at the "canteen" was of a busy street market, with people milling everywhere, tables, seats and umbrellas interspersed with fruit trees in large planter boxes and a bustling waiting staff taking orders back and forth.
On this occasion we sat outside facing a herb-oriented wall garden as the waiters came and went, chasing the brightly-coloured, sparkly hats which are used to identify order numbers.

The vertical garden with recycled planters

The weather on this occasion was perfect for sitting outdoors, however, had this not been the case, the indoor seating surrounding the bar is almost cavernous in its extent. Just inside the door as you enter is a table inviting you to sample the brewing process by smelling the dried hops and tasting the malted barley.

Hops, malt and water

Kids (or little creatures as they call them) are catered for with a kids' menu and two large sandpits, one inside and one out.


The view indoors

Another cute decorative touch is a substantial amount of yarn-bombing which appears on poles and posts both inside and out. Orders are made at the bar and food delivered to your table. At this stage I can personally recommend the prawn tortillas and the lamb spareribs, however I will definitely be back to sample some more.
So now those who are out there enjoying the surrounds of the Barwon, can break their ride, run, walk with a 300m detour up Swanston Street for a refreshing ale and a bite to eat.

"...they'll make little creatures..."

In recent months there have been signs that a new type of creature will soon be found in close proximity to the banks of the Barwon. It is a unicellular, eukaryotic micro-organism, which in its wild form can be found almost anywhere. In fact, I have even cultivated my own strain. I am speaking of course, of yeast - specifically brewers' yeast.
In a post some time ago I mentioned that the Valley Worsted Mill - built in 1925 to cater for Geelong's expanding woollen trade - had been purchased by the brewing company Little World Beverages as an east coast brewing base for their subsidiary company Little Creatures Pty Ltd. The estimated purchase price for the 11 hectare site was a cool $6.4 million.

Little Creatures Pty Ltd

Since then, progress has been made and the site is now undergoing the renovations required to convert the facility into a brewery which is tipped to open in early 2013. In recent weeks, I have seen a parade of contractors coming and going through the main gates of the complex including demolition experts, electricians and concrete cutters then, while I was snapping photos, a truck arrived with a large container of undisclosed contents.

Renovations at Valley Worsted Mill aka Little Creatures Brewery

 Just inside the gate is a mysterious collection of large, plastic-wrapped items, the tops of which can be seen poking over the top of he fence and a bobcat is busily clearing away who-knows-what from the yard.

Work continues on the renovations for Little Creatures Brewery

So who - or what - is Little Creatures and where did it come from?
Little Creatures is a micro-brewing company established in Fremantle, Western Australia in 2000 which took its name from a song in the Talking Heads album Little Creatures. The creatures in question are of course the yeast cells which are fundamental to any fermentation process - including beer.
A description of the company and their products can be found on their website, but in short, they produce four beers including a pale ale, a pilsener, an amber ale and a golden ale and are tapping into the rapidly growing cider market with an apple cider they have called Pipsqueak.
Another aspect of the Little Creatures experience is food. Along with their various beverages, Little Creatures provide a culinary experience designed to complement their beers. At their original brewery in Fremantle, you can eat your meal whilst watching the brewing process taking place around you. In Melbourne they have the Little Creatures Dining Hall, located in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy and it is my understanding from various media reports that a dining hall is also in the works for the Geelong brewery.
For those of us who ride/walk/run or otherwise perambulate up and down the Barwon this is good news. I have previously bemoaned the lack of eateries in close proximity to the river, so having a new restaurant a mere 200m or so from the river should be a definite bonus.
My only question for the moment is whether anyone has asked the several dozen resident pigeons what they think of the change of proprietors...

Value adding

From a single fellmongery and tannery business on the banks of the Barwon in 1841, these and the related trades of scouring and boiling down had grown considerably by the 1860s to become the mainstay of Geelong's wool industry. This was despite their reputation for pollution and noxious odours which had seen them contained to the area below the breakwater. Naturally therefore, when Geelong's industrial base began to move beyond primary production, the milling of wool was one of the earliest trades to develop.

Godfrey Hirst Carpets, site of the Victorian Woollen Mill and
the Barwon Woollen Mill, later Excelsior Mills No1 and No2.

The first woollen mill in Geelong, established with the aid of a government grant was up and running by 1867 under the name of the Victorian Woollen and Cloth Manufacturing Co. on what is today the site of Godfrey Hirst Carpets at the corner of Swanston Street and Barwon Terrace near the Barwon River.
By 1870 a second woollen mill the "Albion" was up and running upstream of the Moorabool Street Bridge and by 1874 a third - the Barwon Woollen Mill, located to the rear of the Victorian Woollen Mill next to the river - was under construction. The successful tender for the latter building was that of Tippett and Barker of Ballarat, which may yet again prove to have connections to my family history as my paternal grandmother is descended from the same family as many of the Ballarat Tippetts.
By 1892 the Barwon Woollen Mill was in financial trouble and was sold to Godfrey Hirst who renamed it the Excelsior Woollen Mill No1. Likewise, and suffering from a decline in sales as a result of cheap imported fabric and inferior immitations, the Victorian Woollen and Cloth Manufacturing Co. was put up for sale. This too was purchased by Hirst and named Excelsior No2. The two ran jointly until 1912 when Excelsior 1 was destroyed by fire. It was later rebuilt as a single storey, brick structure.

Valley Worsted Mill with Godfrey Hirst in the background.

A relative latecomer, by 1925, the last and largest of the woollen mills to be built in South Geelong was under construction at the corner of Swanston Street and on the opposite side of Barwon Terrace to Godfrey Hirst. This was the Valley Worsted Mill which in its day was the largest and most modern mill in the country.

These early companies were the forerunners of a thriving textile industry which developed in Geelong and which eventually took over from the tanneries, scours and fellmongeries as the major business of the town.

Despite some periods of revival - for instance during the First World War - the latter would never again attain the same level of productivity as they did prior to the 1890s. It was now cheaper to export the raw skins than to have them processed here.
Likewise, the textile industry continued to suffer as we have already seen from international competition, this time in the form of cheap artificial fibres developed in Britain and Germany. However, inspite of this, productivity continued to increase and by 1935 eight mills were processing wool in Geelong which also became a centre for research and training in the industry.
In addition to the wool school at the Gordon Institute, a Wool College was established in 1943 offering diploma courses in textiles and textile chemistry whilst Geelong was chosen as the site for CSIRO's textile research division in 1946. Victorian wool was renowned for being the best in the Commonwealth and Geelong was seen as the headquarters of the Victorian wool industry.

Clock at Valley Worsted Mill.

Of the mills which lined the Barwon and were so important in their day, the Excelsior Mills remain in operation today as Godfrey Hirst Carpet, producing quality products for the domestic and international markets as they have done since the 1960s when they ceased production of a variety of other textiles to concentrate on carpet-making.

Valley Worsted operated for 50 years before merging with the company of John Foster and Son (Aust) Pty Ltd to become John Foster Valley Ltd. Such was the secrecy surrounding the merger negotiations that the mill became known as "The Mill of Secrecy" and a book with this title, outlining the history of the mill was published in 2009.
Most recently, the entire site has been put up either for lease or sale and at last report had been conditionally purchased for $6.4 million by a microbrewing company - Little World Beverages - from Fremantle who intend to make the site the base for their east coast brewing enterprise.