Dover & Sons

Samuel Dover arrived in Cooktown in 1888, and his first son was born at Port Douglas in late 1889. After a failed enterprise to grow bananas up the Daintree River and set up a dried banana industry he eventually arrived in Boonah to set up and manage a creamery at Coulson in 1891, moving the creamery to Boonah where he later built the Fassifern Valley’s first butter factory for Howes Bros in Church St. and managed it. During this time in Boonah he set up business as Farmers’ Exchange utilising a small shop in High Street, opposite the now Cultural Centre, as an agency for Howes Bros (produce agents of Brisbane) and agencies for agricultural implements, cream separators and refrigeration plants. Reference is made by J.R. Dover of an office conveniently adjacent to the railway station in Park St. This was assumedly prompted because of its proximity to the railway station and the fact that son James became active in the business. Maize was the popular grain in those days and it is recorde