{"id":683852,"date":"2026-05-20T22:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683852\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:03:14","slug":"strathmerton-fears-it-will-become-ghost-town-as-bega-cheese-factory-closure-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683852\/","title":{"rendered":"Strathmerton fears it will become ‘ghost town’ as Bega Cheese factory closure nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a mixture of concern and optimism in the northern Victorian community of Strathmerton as the town’s biggest business prepares to shut its doors.<\/p>\n

By June 30, Bega Cheese will close its factory on the edge of town, laying off more than 300 workers in the process.<\/p>\n

It’s been a year since the company announced it would close the factory<\/a> and in a town of barely 1,000 people, the future seems uncertain.<\/p>\n

Strathmerton RSL sub-branch secretary Joanne Donelan has lived in the town all her life and said she was concerned for the town’s future if a new company did not replace Bega Cheese.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joanne Donelan is concerned her community may become a “ghost town”. (ABC News: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

“It will become a bit of a ghost town, but it’s a small community. We all rally in together,” Ms Donelan said.<\/p>\n

“So hopefully everyone will support what is in town, because that’s the only way people survive, if the locals support the locals.”<\/p>\n

Bakery owner Van Bui said she was concerned about the flow-on effects for local business and that it was a “very sad” result.<\/p>\n

She said if workers could not find a way to stay in the community, there was an uncertain future ahead.<\/p>\n

“If they left and it [becomes] very quiet \u2026 it will be very slow,” she said.<\/p>\n

Life after Bega<\/p>\n

Not everyone is worried about life after Bega Cheese.<\/p>\n

Shannon Edgar recently purchased the town’s local pub and said he was optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shannon Edgar has bought the Strathmerton hotel. (ABC News: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

Only a portion of the Bega Cheese workers live in the Strathmerton community, so Mr Edgar said he did not expect to lose much trade from the factory’s closure.<\/p>\n

“From the hotel point of view, they’re working during the day and night shifts and things and early morning, so they’re not really coming in here [to the pub],” he said.<\/p>\n

United Workers Union representative Neil Smith has been negotiating with Bega Cheese over the past year in efforts to get the company to reverse its decision \u2014 to no avail.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Neil Smith says some workers have been able to find employment nearby. (ABC News: Charmaine Manuel)<\/p>\n

He said Bega Cheese’s phased closure had now seen a large portion of workers laid off, however some would remain employed at the facility until the closure at the end of June.<\/p>\n

Mr Smith said the nearby Saputo dairy factory at Cobram has been looking for more employees, providing a fresh opportunity for Bega Cheese workers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Strathmerton factory is set to close at the end of June. (ABC News: Andrew Mangelsdorf)<\/p>\n

He said Bega Cheese initially planned to close in mid-June, but had now pushed back its closure until June 30, causing headaches for some workers who had already secured new employment.<\/p>\n

“Some people have gone and done interviews, got jobs, and they thought they were going to be starting [those], but because it’s [been] pushed back another couple of weeks that’s sort of stuffed up the new employer because they were hoping to have these people come work for them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Support needed<\/p>\n

Moira Shire Council CEO Matthew Morgan said about 40 Bega Cheese employees lived in the Strathmerton community, while the rest travelled from the Cobram, Numurkah, Nathalia and Katunga areas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matthew Morgan says Moira Shire Council is helping workers find new employment. (Supplied: Moira Shire Council)<\/p>\n

He said the council had also been helping workers find new employment and ran a jobs and careers expo in February as part of these efforts.<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan said the council was also running an anonymous survey for Bega Cheese employees.<\/p>\n

“[This] will enable us to assess where things are at and what level of support is going to be needed in our community over the next six to 12 months,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Dairy and food giant Bega Cheese will close its Strathmerton site at the end of June.\u00a0 (ABC South East NSW: Chris Sheedy)<\/p>\n

He said the survey would give him an indication of how many employees wanted to remain in the area who were not retiring and were still looking for employment.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Mr Morgan said he was “really keen” to start conversations with Bega Cheese at the right time about its plans for the Strathmerton site.<\/p>\n

“It would seem a shame to see it [the factory] sitting there when it has potential to be used to create jobs in our community,” Mr Morgan said.<\/p>\n

In a statement about the factory’s impending closure, Bega Group CEO Peter Findlay said the company was progressing its “phased closure” of the site, which was on track to occur on June 30.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Peter Findlay says the “phased closure” of the Bega factory is progressing. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

He said there had been ongoing consultation during the closure, including a particular focus on the “wellbeing” of workers.<\/p>\n

He said many employees wanted to stay in the area and Bega Cheese had made this a “core focus” of its “transition”.<\/p>\n

According to the latest United Workers Union data, 79 of its members had left the Strathmerton site since mid-April, with a further 136 remaining at the factory until its closure next month.<\/p>\n

Last year, Bega Cheese said it would consolidate its Strathmerton processing and packaging operations into its premises in the Bega Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s a mixture of concern and optimism in the northern Victorian community of Strathmerton as the town’s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,329621,94063,99,17471,43036,329624,180,60007,329623,329622,52405],"class_list":["post-683852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bega-cheese","tag-bega-group","tag-business","tag-dairy","tag-factory","tag-factory-closure","tag-jobs","tag-local-businesses","tag-moira-shire","tag-strathmerton","tag-united-workers-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}