From the football paddock to the boardroom – How two cousins helped shape their communities and Australia’s dairy industry

I’ve been researching the history of the South Coast dairy cooperatives, and the stories emerging are extraordinary. These factories developed innovations, produced nationally recognised dairy products, nurtured talented people and played an influential role in their communities. This is the story of two cousins, Geoff Boxsell and Russell Fredericks, whose achievements in sport, business and community leadership show what can happen when people recognise one another’s abilities and give them opportunities to develop. Their story has given me enormous hope about what we can achieve in our communities today.

This is a chapter from The dairy cooperatives that built our communities.

Growing up beside the dairy factory

In a paddock beside the Jamberoo dairy factory, a group of boys spent their childhood playing football, kicking towards makeshift goalposts attached to a telegraph pole. Among them were cousins Geoff Boxsell and Russell Fredericks, born exactly one year apart, on 4 July 1939 and 4 July 1940.

Geoff’s father Wallace (Wally) managed the Jamberoo Co-operative Dairy Society, while Russell grew up on the nearby Fredericks family dairy farm, Burnside. Their families lived within a short distance of one another, and the factory was part of their everyday lives. The boys played alongside Geoff’s brother Bruce and Russell’s brothers, including Lance, Alan and Neville.

Geoff recalls that every one of those boys eventually played first-grade football. He and Russell would go on to have distinguished sporting careers, manage dairy factories while still remarkably young and help shape the future of Australia’s dairy industry.

They grew up in communities where farming, sport, business and voluntary organisations were closely connected. People knew one another’s families, understood the demands of farming and frequently worked together in several different capacities.

Russell learned to drive the family’s Farmall tractor when he was eight or nine. Like other children growing up on dairy farms, he understood that cows needed milking twice a day, machinery needed maintaining and everyone had responsibilities. Geoff learned to milk cows on his grandfather’s farm and spent much of his childhood around the dairy factory his father managed.

Both boys attended Jamberoo Public School before boarding at Hurlstone Agricultural High School. Russell excelled academically, particularly in mathematics, and represented Combined High Schools in rugby union. Geoff continued to Hawkesbury Agricultural College, graduating in 1958 with a Diploma in Dairy Technology. He was dux and best practical student and earned sporting Blues in athletics and cricket.

Russell had the academic ability to pursue further study, although family circumstances influenced his immediate future. His father Milton was living with multiple sclerosis, and Russell understood the importance of remaining close enough to Jamberoo to help his parents and the family farm when necessary.

He had considered employment with Elders in the Northern Territory, although the prospect of moving so far from home was difficult for his parents. Instead, he accepted a position with Kiama Supply Company, beginning work in December 1957, aged seventeen.

That decision would eventually lead him into dairy factory management, although the opportunity arrived in a rather unexpected way.

Wally Boxsell recognises Russell’s potential

Russell worked as an accounts clerk at Kiama Supply Company, which operated a grocery ordering and delivery service. Customers placed their orders, staff assembled and delivered the groceries, and accounts were settled periodically.

When the business changed to a self-service model, with customers paying at the counter, the ordering and delivery operation was closed. Seven employees were retrenched, including Russell, who returned to helping on the family farm while considering his next move.

At seventeen, Russell had embarked on a promising career in accounting. The career had other ideas.

Then his uncle Wally Boxsell, manager of the Jamberoo dairy factory, approached him with a proposition. Would Russell like to try working at the factory?

Russell accepted, and his first job involved unloading milk cans from trucks. The cans weighed approximately 60 kilograms when full and had to be lifted onto the receiving platform, tested for quality and moved along the conveyor system to be emptied into milk vats. At the height of the season, Jamberoo could receive as many as 1,000 cans from nearly 100 farms over the morning and afternoon deliveries.

It was a very physical introduction to management training.

Russell also washed equipment, cleaned floors and worked in the produce store. Wally then gave him opportunities to learn the other sections of the factory, including the laboratory, where he tested milk and cream, and the milk room, where he operated cooling equipment. He learned milk grading, worked alongside chief butter maker Steve Dare and eventually gained his milk grading qualifications and Butter Maker’s Certificate.

By the time Russell left Jamberoo, he understood milk receival, laboratory testing, butter manufacturing, refrigeration and factory operations. He also understood how the work performed in one section affected everything that followed.

One day, while Russell was working in the laboratory, Wally mentioned that Gerringong Co-operative Dairy Society was looking for a manager and encouraged him to apply.

Wally helped prepare Russell for the interview, taking him through the operation of the boiler, refrigeration plant and other equipment, and explaining the administrative responsibilities associated with running a dairy factory.

Russell faced a demanding interview with Gerringong’s board of directors and was offered the position in 1965, when he was twenty-four, turning twenty-five that July.

The young man who had lost his job as an accounts clerk was now responsible for managing a dairy cooperative.

Wally Boxsell recognised Russell’s potential, brought him into the factory and gave him opportunities to learn the business from the ground up. A few years later, Russell was managing a cooperative of his own.

Five grand finals and five premierships

Russell’s sporting career was developing alongside his work. In 1958, aged seventeen, he was selected for Jamberoo’s first-grade rugby league team, playing alongside men who spent their working weeks milking cows and performing physically demanding jobs on dairy farms.

Jamberoo defeated Berry 18–8 to win the premiership that year, and Russell collected his second premiership with Jamberoo in 1961 when the team defeated Nowra 7–2.

He later played for Dapto, winning the Illawarra first-grade premiership against Collegians in 1966. By then he was managing Gerringong dairy factory, and late in 1967 Gerringong Rugby League Football Club invited him to become its first-grade player-coach.

Russell had never coached a football team, but he knew what it took to be part of a premiership winning team and he took on the challenge.

Triumph for the crocks

Gerringong finished the 1968 regular season as minor premiers. The side included outstanding players such as Roy Stewart and the Brown brothers, Terry and Ken. Russell regarded Stewart as one of the finest footballers he had played alongside, admiring his speed, judgement and ability to create opportunities.

The difficulty was the size of the playing squad. Gerringong had only seventeen players available, leaving almost no capacity to accommodate injuries in a physically demanding sport. As the season progressed, the injuries accumulated, and Russell had to make increasingly difficult decisions about who could take the field.

Shellharbour defeated Gerringong 15–0 in the major semi-final, leaving the team needing to beat Albion Park in the preliminary final for another opportunity to play for the premiership. Gerringong won that match 11–9 and faced Shellharbour again on 21 September 1968.

This time Gerringong won 15–9.

Three days later, The Kiama Independent celebrated the victory with a headline that captured the condition of the winning side. TRIUMPH FOR THE CROCKS

The newspaper suggested Gerringong Football Club could now hold a bargain sale of bandages, strappings and harnesses. Its report praised Russell’s tackling, tactical kicking, ability to direct play and leadership under pressure. An accompanying photograph showed him receiving the premiership cup from Group Six president Harvey Middleton.

Russell had now played in four premiership-winning first-grade teams, twice with Jamberoo, once with Dapto and once with Gerringong.

The factory needed his attention throughout the week, from staff and production to finances and the farmers who supplied the milk. On weekends, Russell had seventeen footballers to manage, and an injury list that kept growing.

Russell was managing a dairy cooperative and coaching a first-grade football team with only seventeen players. Both responsibilities demanded judgement, trust and an ability to bring out the best in people.

By 1970, Russell was managing the Gerringong dairy factory, playing first-grade rugby league, studying accounting and, with his wife Coral, raising two young children. One wonders when he found time to sleep.

I have some questions for Russell when we next speak. How did he manage the injuries? How did he restore the players’ confidence after the 15–0 defeat? How did he persuade men who were tired, injured and working physically demanding jobs to give everything they had?

And did he apply anything he learned coaching Gerringong to managing people in the dairy industry?

Recognising young talent

Russell continued coaching Gerringong in 1969, although several experienced players retired and he had to develop a younger team. Among the emerging footballers was Michael Cronin, who would become one of Australia’s most celebrated rugby league players.

Russell recognised Cronin’s goal-kicking ability and gradually gave him greater responsibility. Gerringong missed the finals that year, although the younger players were gaining experience that would prove important the following season.

Russell had also enrolled in management accounting at Wollongong Technical College, attending classes two or three evenings each week while managing the dairy cooperative. In 1970, he decided to relinquish the coaching position so he could concentrate on his studies.

Ron Hopper took over as coach, and Russell continued playing. Gerringong reached the grand final against Shellharbour, trailing 13–2 during the second half before staging an extraordinary recovery. Russell scored a late try that helped bring the scores level, and Michael Cronin’s kicking eventually secured a 17–15 victory in extra time.

It was Russell’s fifth first-grade grand final, and he had won all five. Two with Jamberoo, one with Dapto and two with Gerringong.

Russell completed his management accounting studies with honours and later took up a role managing a poultry farm in South Australia.

Geoff’s sporting achievements

Geoff Boxsell was also an accomplished rugby footballer, playing rugby league for Jamberoo before becoming a foundation member of Kiama Rugby Union Club in 1961. He represented Illawarra at Country Week for four years and was named Illawarra Rugby Player of the Year in 1963.

He played alongside Russell’s younger brother Neville Fredericks, whom Geoff remembers as an outstanding breakaway.

One of Geoff’s favourite rugby memories concerns a penalty kick in 1966, when his captain, Peter Fyfe, asked whether he wanted to kick for goal. Geoff thought he was about forty metres from the posts, so he accepted and sent the ball between the uprights.

Only when he turned around did he realise he had kicked from the halfway line. Neville later confirmed how far the ball had travelled.

Geoff’s rugby career ended in 1967 when he broke his arm, although by then cricket had become an increasingly important part of his life.

He had scored 201 runs in a representative match for Southern New South Wales against Northern New South Wales, attracting attention from people involved in Sydney grade cricket. He joined Waverley and went straight into first grade, spending the next eleven years opening the batting for the Sydney club.

Geoff finished with the highest aggregate runs in the Sydney competition in both 1970 and 1971 and spent two years in the New South Wales state squad.

When Waverley celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2020, Geoff was included among fifty players considered for the club’s historical best team. The left-handed opening batsman’s position eventually went to David Warner.

The manager who drove to Sydney every Saturday

In 1970, Wally Boxsell retired, and Geoff became manager of the Jamberoo Co-operative Dairy Society, aged thirty. He was responsible for a substantial local business serving scores of dairy farmers, employing factory workers and manufacturing products sold well beyond the district.

Throughout the cricket season, he continued travelling from Jamberoo to Sydney to open the batting for Waverley.

Geoff was also studying. Although he held a Diploma in Dairy Technology, he wanted a stronger understanding of accounting and management, so he undertook accounting and cost accounting studies at technical college before continuing with commerce accounting at the University of Wollongong.

On Friday evenings, Geoff attended classes in Wollongong. His wife Viv would bring their young children to meet him afterwards, and the family would continue to Sydney for the weekend for Saturday cricket matches.

By the mid-1970s, Geoff was reconsidering the time he was spending travelling to Sydney. Tony Greig had arrived at Waverley around the time Geoff left, reportedly receiving $25,000 while the established players received nothing.

One Saturday in 1975, while driving north towards Sydney for preseason cricket practice, Geoff passed the University of Wollongong and noticed the cricket nets were up. He stopped to investigate.

He was already studying at the university. Why was he travelling all the way to Sydney every weekend when he could play cricket at Wollongong?

He never returned to Waverley. It had taken him eleven years of Sydney grade cricket to discover the advantages of playing closer to home.

Geoff joined Wollongong University Cricket Club and continued playing until 1999, when he was fifty-nine. He received a cricket Blue and life membership and represented Australian Universities on a tour of New Zealand in 1976. In 1980, he graduated from the University of Wollongong with his commerce accounting qualification.

A factory where knowledge was shared

Everyone had something to learn and something to teach

Geoff and Russell had both learned the dairy business from the factory floor, an experience that influenced their understanding of how the different parts of a manufacturing operation worked together.

Russell had started by unloading milk cans and progressed through the laboratory, milk room, butter room and other sections of the Jamberoo factory. When Geoff became manager, he continued encouraging employees to learn different jobs so they could cover absences, assist colleagues and understand how their own responsibilities affected other parts of the operation.

Milk receival, laboratory testing, refrigeration, manufacturing and packaging all depended on one another. A problem in one section could quickly affect production elsewhere, and an employee who understood several parts of the factory was better equipped to recognise difficulties and help solve them.

Geoff also enjoyed working alongside his employees. When a truck needed unloading or returned milk cans needed washing, he was prepared to put white overalls over his office clothes and help.

His directors occasionally reminded him that managing the factory was his job. Geoff maintained that knowing the operation included being prepared to wash the milk cans.

Employees were encouraged to acquire skills beyond their immediate jobs, giving the factory greater flexibility when someone was absent and allowing people to develop a broader understanding of the business.

At Jamberoo, employees were encouraged to learn every part of the operation. The factory gained a workforce capable of helping wherever needed, and its people gained skills they could carry into new responsibilities.

Learning another job meant someone could step in when a colleague was absent. It also gave employees a better understanding of the people, machinery and decisions on which their own work depended.

Quality, quality, quality

The Jamberoo dairy factory developed an exceptional reputation for making butter, achieving the Department of Agriculture’s highest butter grade for fifteen consecutive years. In 1976, Jamberoo butter was named Supreme Champion Dairy Product of Australia.

Geoff worked closely with laboratory specialist Kevin Richardson on product development, including an early form of spreadable butter. They blended cultured butter with vegetable oils to create a product that families around the world can spread straight from their fridge onto their toast at breakfast.

Making spreadable butter was one challenge. Selling it was another. The Pure Food Act prevented them from marketing it as butter, so they called it STUFF. The name left plenty of room for interpretation.

The experiments demonstrated the factory’s willingness to explore new products, challenge established practices and apply its technical knowledge to opportunities emerging in the marketplace.

At Nowra, Russell was overseeing similar achievements.

A 1983 newspaper article headed Top Awards to Dairy Co-Op reported Nowra’s most successful year in dairy product competitions. The cooperative had won awards at the Australian Dairy Institute’s national and state championships and the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Its products included award-winning cream and yoghurt, with the factory also developing yoghurt without artificial additives or preservatives.

Russell attributed the success to four factors: the quality of milk supplied by farmers, the combined skills and experience of the workforce, rigorous manufacturing methods and strict quality control before products left the factory.

The newspaper identified employees including Geoff Jarrett, Keith Rosskelly and Peter Condon among those contributing to the achievements. Keith has his own chapter in this history, and his recollections will add another perspective to the people and practices behind the factory’s success.

Jamberoo and Nowra were producing nationally recognised dairy products through the combined efforts of farmers, laboratory staff, production workers, technical specialists and managers.

Both factories had developed reputations for manufacturing quality, and both managers recognised the contribution of the people responsible.

The trophy that belonged to everyone

When Jamberoo’s butter was named Supreme Champion Dairy Product of Australia in 1976, the prestigious Nightingale Trophy came back with Geoff Boxsell’s name engraved on it.

Almost fifty years later, Geoff still questions that decision.

Why was his name on the trophy when the achievement belonged to the cooperative? The farmers who supplied the milk, the laboratory staff, the butter makers and everyone else involved in producing that butter had contributed to its success. Geoff believed the trophy should have carried the cooperative’s name.

Russell expressed a similar view in 1983 when he attributed Nowra’s awards to the farmers who supplied quality milk and the employees whose knowledge and care produced the finished products.

Geoff still looks at that trophy and thinks about the people whose names were missing from the recognition.

Almost fifty years after receiving the Nightingale Trophy, Geoff still asks why his name was engraved on it. He believes the award belonged to everyone who helped produce the winning butter.

The cooperatives that shaped their communities

The dairy factories at Jamberoo, Gerringong and Nowra were major businesses in their communities. They employed local people, purchased milk from surrounding farms, supported transport operators, invested in machinery and generated business for local suppliers.

Owned by farmers and governed by boards elected from their membership, the cooperatives gave producers opportunities to participate in decisions affecting milk supply, manufacturing, investment and the future of their businesses.

The wider dairy industry also exercised considerable influence with government. Producer organisations, dairy committees and annual conferences brought farmers, cooperative representatives and industry leaders together to debate the issues affecting their livelihoods. Milk prices, quotas, marketing arrangements, transport, processing regulations and industry investment all required engagement with government, and dairy leaders had established relationships through which they could advocate for producers.

These organisations also gave people experience in governance, finance, negotiation and collective decision-making, often while they continued running their own farms or businesses.

Their products were part of everyday Australian life. Milk, butter, cream and other dairy foods produced in these regional factories travelled far beyond the farms where they originated, finding their way onto breakfast tables, into school lunches, family meals, cafés and commercial kitchens. Thousands of families who had never heard of Jamberoo or Nowra consumed products made possible by the work of their farmers and factory employees.

The cooperatives helped shape the social and cultural life of their districts. Farming families and factory employees were involved in sporting clubs, service organisations, schools, churches and community events. Relationships developed through dairying carried into these other activities, creating networks of people who knew one another, shared resources and worked together to get things done.

Their collective influence extended into government and industry policy. Through farmer organisations, cooperative boards and dairy industry conferences, people from small rural communities could participate in decisions affecting agricultural production, manufacturing, food supply and the economic future of their regions.

The cooperatives also provided opportunities that could change the course of someone’s life. Geoff Boxsell and Russell Fredericks grew up surrounded by people who shared their knowledge, recognised potential and encouraged others to take on new responsibilities. Both men carried that approach into their careers, giving others opportunities to develop skills and discover abilities they might never otherwise have had the chance to use.

Choosing the right people

By the early 1980s, the dairy industry was changing rapidly. Smaller factories faced ageing equipment, increasing costs and pressure to invest in more sophisticated manufacturing facilities.

Plans developed for a regional consolidation of dairy processing, although several potential partners withdrew, leaving Jamberoo and Nowra to proceed with the formation of the Shoalhaven Dairy Co-operative.

The merger meant Jamberoo’s factory would eventually close, a particularly significant decision for Geoff. It was the factory where he had grown up, where his father had been manager and where he had spent much of his working life.

When the merged cooperative needed a general manager, Geoff recommended Russell.

He believed Russell had the experience and abilities required to lead the new organisation, while Geoff would take the deputy role, contributing his technical knowledge and manufacturing experience.

The cousins who had played football together beside Factory Lane were now working together on the future of dairy processing across a much larger region.

Russell brought extensive experience in cooperative management, financial administration and organisational leadership. Geoff brought specialised knowledge of manufacturing, product development and factory operations.

The proposed new Shoalhaven factory at Bomaderry required major investment and technical expertise, so Geoff brought in Peter Delaney, a former Hawkesbury Agricultural College colleague whose experience he respected, to help oversee the project.

The new factory became a significant development in the region’s dairy industry, and in 1989 Shoalhaven, Hunter Valley and Dairy Farmers combined to form Australian Co-operative Foods.

Geoff subsequently held senior manufacturing and corporate positions, retiring in 2001 after forty-two years in the dairy industry. Russell’s career also extended into broader leadership responsibilities, including substantial service in community organisations and financial institutions.

Both had moved a long way from the village factories where their careers began.

The connections beyond dairying

The Fredericks family’s contribution extended beyond Russell’s career. His younger brother Neville became an accomplished rugby union player and later served two terms as Mayor of Kiama.

Another brother, Alan, spent more than twenty years as president of the Alpine Club of Kiama, an organisation with origins in relationships formed through the dairy industry’s recruitment of overseas-trained veterinarians.

The club brought together farmers, professionals and businesspeople who pooled resources to establish a ski lodge at Thredbo.

The connections between dairying, sport, volunteering and community leadership appear repeatedly throughout these families’ histories. People developed friendships and professional relationships through farming, carried them into sporting and community organisations, and used their knowledge and contacts to help new ventures succeed.

What made these communities successful?

Russell Fredericks won five first-grade rugby league premierships, including the remarkable 1968 victory as Gerringong’s captain-coach. Geoff Boxsell played first-grade cricket for Waverley for eleven years while managing a dairy factory and pursuing further education.

Both became influential figures in an industry undergoing major structural change, while continuing to contribute to the communities where they had built their lives.

Their sporting records and management careers are impressive. The more revealing stories are about the opportunities they created for other people.

Wally Boxsell recognised Russell’s potential and gave him opportunities to learn the dairy business from the factory floor upwards. Russell later recognised the abilities of young footballers and helped them develop.

Geoff encouraged employees to learn different jobs and was prepared to work alongside them. He recognised Russell’s suitability to lead the merged cooperative and Peter Delaney’s technical abilities during the construction of the Bomaderry factory.

Both men publicly acknowledged the farmers and employees responsible for their factories’ award-winning products.

The factories and football clubs gave people room to learn, make mistakes, take responsibility and surprise themselves. Their communities benefited from everything they learned along the way.

The dairy cooperatives provided a structure through which individual farmers could achieve things collectively that would have been difficult to accomplish independently. Their factories brought together people with different skills, from milk production and testing to engineering, manufacturing, finance and management.

Sporting clubs created other opportunities to develop skills, accept responsibility and work alongside people from different backgrounds. The relationships between these organisations helped strengthen the communities they served.

The dairy cooperatives brought together people with different knowledge and abilities. Their strength came from what those people could achieve together.

What could we learn from them today?

As organisations have become larger and more specialised, the work people do has often become more narrowly defined. Employees may develop considerable expertise in their own responsibilities while having limited opportunities to understand the work of colleagues elsewhere.

Knowledge can become siloed, confined to individual departments, organisations or professional groups. People may make decisions without fully understanding how those decisions affect others.

At Jamberoo, employees learned to work across the factory, gaining experience of the manufacturing process and the responsibilities of their colleagues. Russell benefited from that approach early in his career, developing an understanding of dairy manufacturing that later supported his work as a manager.

Both men went on to lead organisations in which product quality depended on people bringing different skills together. Their factories’ awards were evidence of what those teams achieved.

The dairy cooperatives also gave farmers opportunities to pool resources, develop relationships, exchange knowledge and influence decisions affecting their industry. The benefits reached beyond the individual businesses to the wider communities in which they operated.

Geoff and Russell began as boys playing football beside a dairy factory. Their careers took them far beyond that paddock, and throughout they kept making room for other people to learn, contribute and lead.

Geoff and Russell grew up in that environment. Throughout their careers, they recognised the abilities of others and understood the value of bringing those people and their abilities together.

What have we lost as our organisations have become more specialised, our knowledge more compartmentalised and our opportunities to learn from one another more limited? And how much more could we achieve if we rediscovered what these dairy communities understood about sharing knowledge, recognising strengths and giving people opportunities to contribute?