Once upon a town, Jamberoo was known as the place where we control the action.
These days, it may need a new tagline.
Come to Jamberoo where Stuff happens.
Come to Jamberoo the home of Stuff.
Jamberoo where Stuff was invented.
Geoff Boxsell in the laboratory at Jamberoo Dairy Factory in the 1970’s. Geoff with his “partner in crime” Kevin Richardson invented spreadable butter. At that time the NSW Department of Agriculture declared it an illegal activity. They weren’t allowed to call it butter so they called it Stuff
Or perhaps something even better, because the story now sweeping across the country is turning our quiet valley into the unlikely star of Australian dairy innovation.
Geoff Boxsell pictured here with his daughter Kate was presented with the 2025 Dairy Research Foundation Dairy Science Award
Geoff Boxsell’s award win has set off a media chain reaction that feels part documentary, part folklore, and entirely Jamberoo. Reporters are calling, film crews are circling, and everyone wants to know how a little factory on the edge of the village managed to stir up the national industry long before spreadable butter became a supermarket staple.
Geoff and Kevin Richardson on ABC Illawarra talking to Mel James
And of course, the answer is simple.
This is Jamberoo.
Things happen here that no one expects but everyone remembers.
Stuff was created in a shed where people used their brains, their hands and a dash of cheek. The regulators tried to shut it down, the locals kept making it, and the valley quietly perfected a formula that would one day become part of everyday Australia. Not bad for a place better known for cows, cricket, football and committee meetings. You can read the backstory here
Geoff always gives full credit to his team of innovators. People like Kevin Richardson (top left ) Ron Oke and Ron Parker ( bottom L to R )
That’s why the sudden media fascination feels oddly fitting. Geoff’s story has always been bigger than the boundaries of the valley. It’s the tale of a kid who grew up near the factory gates, learnt from his father, outsmarted a few bureaucrats along the way, and ended up shaping the dairy sector with equal parts intelligence and mischief.
So if Jamberoo wants to ride this wave and reclaim its rightful place on the map, I say embrace it.
Paint it on a sign.
Put it on a tea towel.
Give the tourists something to chuckle about as they pass the fig trees and the paddocks.
Come to Jamberoo where Stuff happens.
It has a certain truth to it. In this valley, it always has.
Tune into WIN News to see Geoff tell the story
Geoff Boxsell is also a well known ditty writer so we had this one written for him
They say a valley keeps its heroes
in places most folk overlook,
in a churn, in a lab, in a quiet man’s hands,
not in speeches or in books.
They say a scholar crossed the Tasman,
came home with a scientist’s eye,
turned sugar, cream and culture
into butter you couldn’t deny.
He stirred up the Jamberoo factory,
no fuss, no chase for applause,
proved science lives in a dairy
as much as in lecture halls.
Fifteen years of “Choicest” butter,
not once did the graders frown,
and one bright year that champion box
made the whole valley proud.
He tinkered with spreads before their time,
(sent samples to ministers too),
got told to “pull his head in”
but kept thinking the way thinkers do.
So raise a glass for the scientist
whose footprints shaped this land,
for the butter he made, the people he taught,
and the work done by his hand.
The valley keeps its legends,
some sung and some held in trust
and if you ask who earned their place,
Jamberoo answers: “Geoff Boxsell.
Honourable. Clever. Just.”
Photos in this story have been sourced from Jamberoo Factory archives and the contributors to the Remembering Jamberoo History Facebook page
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