Day 127: Whitton Malthouse
A Nice Sunrise
The marquees in the foreground are function centres. The one on the right is dedicated bar.
A, the one on the right lot of money has been spent landscaping around the lake and providing features like this bridge out to a little island picnic area.
In keeping with their desire to support the local community where possible, all of the garden mulch used through the site is all walnut shells, presumably from the processing plant in nearby Leeton.
There is also a foot bridge back across the lake to the Malthouse
Aqua golf facilities comprise a number of tees, targets out on the water and a coin operated machine to dispense golf balls. A small selection of clubs are also provided.
Having circumnavigated the lake I went to have a closer look at the Voyager Malting operation which was producing. Unfortunately there is no tour or way of seeing inside, but it is a substantial operation supplying a number of well known craft distilleries (including Archie Rose) and craft breweries and bakers.
An organised tour of the Cotton Gin is available and we have signed up to be there at 11 am, for the 1 hr tour.
The processing season is over, so the gin is not running at the moment, but we were given a good look around and a lot of information. Shipments were still going out and will continue for some time from huge warehousing operations there.
Before being shown a video on the growing and processing of cotton, we first got to see a series of samples of cotton art various stages and qualities.
In the blue trays, on the far left was raw harvested cotton, still containing sticks and seed etc. The next one was 1st grade cotton after processing in the gin, the 3rd being lower grade attracting a lower price. It was less brightly coloured and a bit more matted in texture. The 4th tray was cotton seed that had been extracted from the raw cotton to be sold to other processors mostly for stock feed supplements.
This clever poster below gives some perspective on what can be produced from a 227 kg bale of cotton.
All of the cotton from this gin goes to export, mainly to China and India.
The tour then moves out into the factory and a step by step description of the ginning process is below. At the time of commissioning this gin in 2012 the capital cost to build it was $26 million, and it was built and commissioned in 12 months.
The plant was undergoing annual maintenance, which like in the sugar industry, involves a major replacement of many wearing parts
Cleaning machines that strip the rubbish and separate the seed from the raw cotton
Baling Machine
Another clever poster provides some insight into the inputs into producing a pair of jeans.
It would have been great to see the machinery operating, as the volume it pumps out is impressive. We are a bit over a month too late to see this.
Nevertheless it was an interesting tour, and story as to the the families of some local farmers achieved setting all of this up without support from banks who thought it too risky, and cotton merchants also declined to back them. Apparently since the establishment of Southern Cotton, a couple of other gins have been build supported financially by both the banks and merchants.
We were also given a bit of an insight into further growth planned for the agri tourism part of the business with substantial growth in the on site accommodation and caravan park planned. Despite everything being pretty quiet here yesterday, we were told it is often booked out.
The outside temperature has been steadily rising and is 35 C by early afternoon. The air conditioning in the van is getting a bit of a workout.
Tomorrow we are heading to Jugiong, and the following day home to Sydney.
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