KONGWAK CO-OPERATIVE BUTTER & CHEESE FACTORY (FORMER)

The former Kongwak Co-operative Butter & Cheese Factory complex, constructed in four stages between 1896 and 1941, at 1486 Korumburra-Wonthaggi Road, Kongwak. The Korumburra Co-operative Butter & Cheese Factory was constructed in about four stages between 1896 and 1941 with the earlier stages situated closer to the creek. There doesn't appear to be any surviving fabric of the first timber factory and what is presumed to be the earliest surviving building, which probably dates from 1925, is a single gable structure parallel to the road with the delivery bays to the west on higher land and the production floor lower and closer to the adjacent creek. It is a simple piered brick structure with a clear storey vent at the floor level transition and square window openings between the piers. 
The cheese factory, constructed in 1941, is a large wide span low pitched gable structure with a corrugated asbestos cement roof carried on steel trusses. The front section is raised to meet the delivery bay level and the balance is depressed to accommodate the manufacturing process. The front section is wrapped in a rendered brick parapet wall with horizontally proportioned window and loading bay openings. This wall is designed in Art Deco/Moderne style with horizontal end grooves, raised sections at either side, louvred paired vents in the raised pylons and half height pilasters between openings.

The former Kongwak Co-operative Butter & Cheese Factory complex is of local historical, aesthetic and architectural significance to South Gippsland Shire.

Historically, the complex demonstrates the importance of the dairying industry to the development of the Kongwak township and district, and is important for its ability to illustrate in one location the key phases of growth that occurred from the Federation to postwar periods. It includes the 1941 cheese factory, which illustrates the change to cheese production that occurred as a result of World War 2 and is believed to be the only surviving example of its type in the Shire. (AHC criteria - A.4, B.2 and D.2) 
Aesthetically and architecturally, the 1941 cheese factory designed by TC McCullough is a locally rare example of the art deco/moderne style, which is expressed in a spare, but powerful way. It is the superior interwar factory in the Shire, and the use of such a progressive commercial styling demonstrates the importance of the dairying industry at that time. (AHC criterion - E.1)