Eudunda Farmers’ co-op Store, East Terrace, Loxton, about 1912.

Eudunda Farmers is a Co-op established in 1896 by a number of farmers of German origin whose income depended on their hard work supplying mallee stumps to Adelaide. This was during the depression and drought in the 1890s. They had become frustrated with local storekeepers who, as middlemen, were charging high interest and refusing to pay cash. At a meeting in the Eudunda Hotel, on 26 December 1895, 100 farmers, supported by the hotel owner EA Mann and wood merchant Thomas Roberts, formed the Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative Society and began trade directly with wood merchants in Adelaide. Subsequently, the co-op opened stores across South Australia. They opened the Loxton branch in 1911. It was the co-op’s 14th. In March that year, Mr AR Phillips, of Eudunda, was appointed first manager and, with an assistant ‘got busy stocking the capacious new stone store erected (by the co-op)’. The store included departments for menswear, manchester, ladieswear, hardware and furniture. In 1923, The Murray Pioneer reported that under manager Mr AC Hameister, Loxton’s Eudunda business ‘was flourishing’. It became one of the largest of 62 in the chain and one of Loxton’s longest-established businesses.

WORDS: Vicki Williams. PHOTO: LHC