 Introduction
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Flour was a staple food of the European settlers in Australia. However,
flour by nature is a bulky item to transport and is vulnerable to spoiling
on long journeys. Transport costs for wheat restricted the local ability
to import what it needed. English prices can be used as a comparison,
where there was a 15% increase in the cost for every eighty kilometres
it was transported overland (Braudel, 1981:428). For the early settlers
it was necessary to produce their own wheat and flour (Godwin 1983). Farmers
used small-scale horse or wind driven mills, but as populations increased
the individual stations could not meet the demands (Godwin 1983). Storekeepers
built more efficient mills, which replaced the mills on farms. These mills,
with the arrival of the railway, were eventually closed down due to the
ability of other areas to produce better quality, less expensive flour
that could be imported.
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McLean's Mill 1860s
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