GREG English's great-grandfather, James English, shipped a bull, 14 cows and six working bullocks from northern NSW north to Malanda to establish the first dairy herd on the Atherton Tableland in 1908.
James English came to the Atherton Tableland from northern NSW searching for new land for himself and his family.
The Englishes were the first European settlers in the Malanda area.
Their cattle were brought up from Goonengerry in NSW, after which they were loaded onto a boat and sent to the Atherton Tableland by sea.
Now 104 years later, Greg English with his wife Bronwyn and their children, who are fifth-generation dairy farmers, are still carrying on the tradition strongly today.
In 1922, JK English, Greg's grandfather, took over the dairy herd and named both the property and the stud dairy herd Eachamvale.
In 1966, Greg's father Kevin and his uncle James took over the farm and the herd.
Kevin and James were on the original home farm until 1980.
Greg's parents moved to the present farm in 1983.
In 2001, Greg English and his wife Bronwyn took over the farm.
Their children are fifth-generation dairy farmers and are second generation on their farm.
The dairying pioneers had a great deal to contend with during the early establishment phases of the dairy industry on the Atherton Tableland.
Greg commented on the ingenuity of the early pioneers and recalls how his grandfather was having trouble with a particularly cunning dingo who was coming onto his farm by crossing a fallen tree across a creek.
Greg's grandfather mixed strychnine with honey and smeared it onto the fallen tree. After crossing it, the dingo was forced to lick its feet because of the stickiness of the honey and bingo - one dead dingo!
In the early days of dairying on the Atherton Tableland, all dairy farmers had pigs because only cream was sold, and the pigs were fed the remaining skim milk after the cream had been separated.
Nowadays pigs are no longer needed on dairy farms for this purpose.
No diversification has occurred on the Englishes' farm, it is still exclusively dairying.
Greg's great-grandfather, grandfather and father all milked cows by hand. His father saw the introduction of electricity, milking machines, tractors, bulk refrigerated milk vats, artificial insemination and chainsaws.
The herd itself, though, has tripled in size, with per-cow production having most definitely increased over the years.
The marriage of Greg English to Bronwyn Daley on October 23, 1999, saw the merging of two pioneering dairying families in the region.
Prior to her marriage to Greg, Bronwyn owned her own Holstein dairy cattle (formerly known as Friesians). After the marriage, the cows were incorporated into the Eachamvale herd.
The dairy farm now has modern infrastructure a modern dairy and concrete laneways all of which enable cows to be milked more quickly and efficiently than in the past.
The English family has always been synonymous with high-quality Illawarra dairy cattle.
Greg's great-grandfather showed his Illawarra dairy cattle at the first ever Malanda Show in 1916.
Eachamvale dairy cattle have been shown at every single Malanda and Millaa Millaa Show, the last of which was held in 1970.
This year marked the 96th Malanda Show and the 96th year that Eachamvale Illawarra dairy cattle have been shown there.
By far the biggest change that Greg has seen has been the deregulation of the dairy industry on July 1, 2000, and the exiting of producers from the industry on the Atherton Tableland.
Before deregulation came into effect, there were about 220 suppliers.
Currently this number has been dramatically reduced to 55 suppliers, which also includes six producers who supply milk to a small, privately owned factory.
The general manager of the Millaa Millaa Central Tableland Co-operative Butter Association Ltd, Ash Hanley, can recall that in 1936 there were 1159 dairy farmers on the Atherton Tableland.
For this number to be reduced from 1159 to only 55 in the course of 76 years is staggering and beyond belief.
Greg English said dairying has been a very good industry for the Atherton Tableland, as it has been for much of regional Australia.
"We hope it will continue to be a successful industry into the future, with milk being produced and processed in Malanda for many, many years to come," he said.
Pictures courtesy Greg and Bronwyn English.
