Long-time milkman delivers his final bottle

GERRY Everard has unpacked his last milk crate after more than five decades.

Following his factory job at the Wallace Dairy factory, Mr Everard delivered milk to shops and businesses throughout Ballarat for over 40 years.

He said the thing he’ll miss the most is the interactions with his customers.

“I made a lot of lifelong friends in the dairy game, and I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said.

“It was never a good job for the social life, getting up at 2am most days, so it’s kind of been wrapped around it.

“If I didn’t have something cheeky or smart to say to the customers, they’d ask if I was alright. I guess I’ve built up a bit of a reputation.”

Wallace born and bred, Mr Everard’s decades-long devotion to the dairy industry began when he started working as a 16-year-old at the former Wallace and Millbrook Butter Factory across the road from his family home.

His father and brother worked there as well, and the factory was also where Mr Everard met his wife, Jenny.

After working at the factory for much of the 1970s, Mr Everard went from packing milk to delivering it, starting with West End Dairy in 1978, then moving onto Nunn’s Dairy, and finally Sungold.

“I just about missed the glass bottles and horse vintage when I first started,” Mr Everard said.

At his peak, he’d deliver up to 45,000 litres of milk a day to 50 shops between Wendouree to Delacombe.

Now that he’s retired, Mr Everard said he’ll be spending his free time with his family, going on bush and silo tours and scorekeeping at Springbank’s home games at Wallace Rec Reserve.

He said he has a backlog of appointments with his former customers to keep the banter alive.

“I’ll be going out to dinner with a lot of the customers to celebrate. Plenty of coffee dates booked up, that’s for sure,” he said.

“I met a lot of different people in my life, that many you couldn’t put a finger on it so I’ll certainly miss the company and the friendships,” he said.