The Golden North Journey

For 95 years, Golden North have made ice cream in Laura, South Australia. 

In Laura, 1 in 8 people work for Golden North. “The staff here are all locals,” says marketing and export director Trevor Pomery. “And we run it like a family business.”

The Bowker family founded Golden North when they moved to Laura in 1880. “They started by just milking their cows and selling some fresh veggies that they were growing,” says Trevor. When electricity came to Laura, the company started making ice to keep the milk cold.

In 1923, Golden North started making ice cream. And they’ve made ice cream ever since, sticking to one key philosophy: “the best ice cream is made with the freshest ingredients,” says Trevor. “By bringing the milk straight from the farm to us, you can’t get any fresher – unless you had a cow sitting next to me!”

“That’s the way we’ve approached it, and it’s the way we always will.”

Trevor credits Golden North’s success to the passion that South Australians have for local products and retailers. “Without that, we’d all be in trouble,” he says.

“Here in South Australia, the local consumers want to support local manufacturers. They understand how important it is to have food manufacturing here in this state,” explains Trevor, who has worked with Drakes for 25 years. “Drakes are also proudly South Australian, they honestly do support South Australian manufacturers. We appreciate that relationship, and look forward to it continuing long into the future.”