Bega Valley - Portrait of a Dairy Family - Laurie McArthur

Bega Valley - Portrait of a Dairy Family is a portraiture project and more, revealing the life, personality and circumstances of the farmers of a three generation, Bega Valley, dairy farm

Bega Valley - Portrait of a Dairy Family

This photographic website, with it's portraiture, photo stories, dairy farm and family history and of course, the images of cow's faces, came about as an extension of a project of the same name, initiated by the Sapphire Coast Camera Club.

Given my numerous photography sites, it follows that these images and stories should be published on the web.

It's with the hope that the images and information will bring to my site visitors an understanding of the life of this and other dairy families.

Send me an e-mail if you wish.

Regards,
Laurie.

The town of Bega is the administrative centre of the Bega Valley Shire, the local government authority for the district.

Giving it's name to the whole district, the Bega Valley comprises the fertile dairy country in the north, with it's river flats and rolling hills.

Among the tourist industry, the Bega Valley is better known as the Sapphire Coast and is part of a wider area known as the Far South Coast, since it is to the south of Sydney and at the southern extremity of the New South Wales South coast.

The Bega Co-operative Society receives all of the Bega Valley's dairy produce and manufactures a range of dairy products, distributing to the local and international markets.

Local Government

• Bega Valley Shire Council

Bega Co-operative Society

• Bega Cheese The Great Australian Cheese Company

Bega Valley - Portrait of a Dairy Family - Laurie McArthur

Portrait of a Jersey cow. Scott runs a herd of 60% Friesians and 40% Jerseys.

A photographic project centreing around family portraiture, rural landscapes, historical narrative and historical photos, which reveal the life, personality and circumstances of Scott and Virginia Alcock, a long established, Bega Valley, dairy family.

Photography and narration by Laurie McArthur.

Background to the Portraiture Project

As a young couple, my wife Lesley and I set off on our great Australian travel adventure and arrived in the Bega Valley in the winter of 1973. I was employed by a bridge builder at the time and we came in the wake of the flood of 1971.

Scott and Virginia Alcock, in the early morning light, working together in the bails.

The infamous seventy one flood had destroyed 48 bridges and culverts in the area now known as Bega Valley Shire. While there was plenty of employment, we still needed somewhere to live.

As fortune would have it, Melton Alcock, the owner of a dairy farm named Boorrawa, at Mogilla via Bemboka, generously took us in.

With our caravan parked beside the old farm house, there was power and water. In time, it became appropriate to move into the house which became home to us for a total of five and a half years.

Bemboka is a small village about half an hour's drive from Bega, and Mogilla is one of numerous farming and pastoral districts surrounding this quaint, little village.

In those days, as a relatively young man, Melton ran the farm. His wife Beryl, filled a typical roll as a farm wife and mother to their two children, Scott and Sharron, both in their teens.

The home of Scott and Virginia on Boorrawa.

Since then, Scott has grown up, married, raised a family of two sons, and taken over the running of the farm in the footsteps of his dad.

Scott and Virginia live in that same farm house that we occupied. This rambling old weatherboard dwelling has remained substantially unchanged over the years.

Scott cleaning up in the milk room at the end of milking.

Melton's ability to assist in the dairy farming has diminished over the past few years. He now lives alone, Beryl having died in mid 2006.

Scott's wife, Virginia, has full time employment with the Bega Co-op Society, the recipient of all of the Bega Valley's dairy produce, and the manufacturer of the world renowned Bega Cheese. Virginia also helps out in the dairy and with other farm work from time to time. She grew up on a dairy farm at Brogo, not so far away.

So it's with great pleasure that I've revisited Melton Alcock's place, 33 years after first arriving, and present "Bega Valley - Portrait of a Dairy Family."