The announcement of the upcoming closure of King Island dairy has sent shockwaves through the isolated Bass Strait community. But locals have become accustomed to sudden change, and they remain hopeful that a new buyer can be found for the iconic brand.
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00:00John Smith has seen a lot of changes on King Island over his three decades as a publican.
00:09He knows just how hard next year's closure of the King Island Dairy will hit the isolated
00:14community.
00:15With this another major factory closing down it's going to cause a lot of ripples in the
00:20community, a lot of ripples.
00:22The closure of the island's abattoirs a decade ago was a major blow before golf tourism offered
00:28a lifeline.
00:29In fact it wasn't until the golf courses started that morale started picking up so there's
00:33just been another kick in the rear really.
00:36The decision of the dairy's owner, Canada-based multinational Saputo, will leave about 60
00:42workers out of a job.
00:44That will have flow-on effects through the community.
00:46We'll lose school teachers, we'll lose truck drivers, we'll lose people out of businesses
00:51and so it won't be just the people who lose their jobs at the dairy.
00:57Saputo says it's spent 10 months looking for a buyer but the ABC understands it had
01:03no offers.
01:05The company described its King Island brand as nostalgic but said it hadn't stayed competitive.
01:11This hasn't convinced locals.
01:13I see that Saputo said that the brand was old and used by date and all that sort of
01:20thing which is a load of rubbish.
01:22Over the years the island's farms have increasingly converted from dairies to raising beef cattle.
01:27If the price comes off here with beef, like I said, there's no alternative, well what's
01:32the island going to do?
01:34It can't be just completely all golf.
01:37No matter the answer, locals just want certainty for the future.
01:41We just got off a high with the local grand final last week.
01:44There's a netball finals happening this week so there's still a little bit of vibrance
01:47around the island and that sort of thing but this certainly put a big damper on a lot of
01:51the moving forward.